The gnomes ARE known to do this in my neighborhood. But this car belongs to a customer who lives in a gnome free environment. A no-gnome zone in fact
is the intake off now? maybe its warped on the one side and sucking oil in from the lifter valley as it warms up it opens up and it closes when its cool? any signs of exhaust gas leaks in the center cross over? no little chips or dings near the ports to cause a bad seal?
I had a 350 in a (85) GMC pickup that started fouling a plug and burning a quart of oil in only a couple hundred miles...1 quart of oil with every tank of gas. It turned out to be ONE loose intake manifold bolt, I tightened the bolt (after months of pulling my hair out) and problem solved.
man, this has got me stumped. looking at the pic of the intake, the oily side of the plenum floor, to the left...what is that in the intake? it looks like there are peices of ground up aluminum laying in there by the ribs. ...maybe it's part of the casting...maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me ??? what kind of air filter is on this engine ???? hey, maybe some neighborhood kid dumped a couple a quarts of oil in the gas tank....
I don't think you read the exact post you responded to. The gasket's are dead sealed this time around. 1st time, no
I've read all of these posts VERY thoroughly, because I have been trying to solve this very same problem on my SBC for 2 years. Long story short...SBC with a single plane Victor. Uses a lot of oil-this motor is drag raced only and will consume almost quart in about 5 passes. Doesn't foul individual plugs...they all look a little dark but all the same as each other. When I tear it down I find oil up in the ports and on the floor of the intake. The single 4bbl Holley has no vacuum lines going to it, not even a pcv. I use a pan EVAC system to the collectors. No vacuum advance either. I've changed heads and the intake-with no effect. Also tried different means of sealing the intake...thicker gaskets, silicone, no silicone, etc. I have been able to cut down on the oiling with thicker gaskets, leading me to believe that the problem is in the sealing of the intake. The manifold itself was ruled out by changing it with no real effect. I now am leaning towards a possible bad decking job when the motor was built...maybe the angles are off. I'm living with it for now and this Winter the whole deal gets torn down to investigate further. I did not see anyone list the block as a source but I believe it could cause a bad seal if the angles were not milled correctly. -Scott
1. Try another intake 2. Swap the heads side to side and see if you can make the other half of the intake match
Skimmed through most of this...Groucho, how are the plugs looking now? are ANY fouled or fouling? I'm not assuming this is what's happening to you, but I had a bad distributor cap once. It had a real weak fire on one side, once the plug stopped firing the oil and fuel would get sucked out of the cylinder. Some would go into the exhaust, but some ended up in the intake. Can't remember if it was only one side or not. Oh, and just because the heads are new doesn't mean they couldn't have a defect. Aaron
Oh, believe me. I don't think anything's good just because it's new. But, after the 1st time around, i put really good guide seals on it. Even with a bad guide, these seals shouldn't allow that much (or any) oil in the intake
The block's been squared (i always do this on peformance stuff) and the gaskets not sealed the 1st time. Better attention to detail and better gaskets netted me a perfect seal (thinking the prob is now fixed) this time.
Edelbrock said your intake was 'good'??? Did you get it back??? I've got an intake I KNOW is good I could send ya to swap on it.......
I should have it back Monday. They SAY it's good. But........Thanks, i'll let you know what it looks like. Maybe they'll send a NEW one and not admit fault?
wasn't going to post this ...but it sorta goes along with the deal.....my father in law had a oil issue on one of his big block race motors....468 roller motor with world product merlin heads.....the thing would smoke like a freight train on the big end....and the inside of the intake was always oily....it ended up having some porosity under one of the valve springs...a little epoxy fixed it....brandon
Huh...water... hows about when you get that intake back filling up the exhaust crossover with water and throwing it in the oven at 180 for a while? (hell, do ovens even go down to 180?) if it has a crack that opens under temperature, it should show up... or just look in the crossover for oil. the heads do have the crossover blocked, right?
I did not sit and read all the replies, I would start with checking the head angle. If the heads were milled the might be a tad off. Fel-Pro sells a gage it's part #2520. That will let you check the intake angle and head angle. If this was done feel free to call me I will walk you through some things. www.TEMperformance.com Rich
so is it possible that there are other casting flaws that are hidden in the intake runners or on the bottom ??
Thanks, but all that's been covered. I know there's a LOT of posts here. But i'm worn out repeating myself. That WAS a problem on this motor (1st in hundreds of SBC's ever for me) 4 months ago, and NOT this time. This time, very unique factors. See pic on page 4(?)
Yeah, i don't know about Edelbrock's supposed test. When it comes back, i'm gonna stab the shit out of the bottom with an ice pick
i really want to know the cause of this, because i've never seen this happen before. i'm just curious as hell as to what's going on here.
Me too. I haven't seen it all, but i've sure seen a LOT. It's a new one on me for sure. I've lived/breathed SBC's for years. Raced, street raced, micky moused the shit out of them when young and broke. I've assembled blocks that looked like 3 cylinders were in salt water for 20 yrs, dingle ball honed, rering, and hauled ass. I had one that had no cylinder wall down low from busted rods knocking the lower walls out of the block. I sold a guy a SBC and he wanted to hear it run. I stuck an intake on with hand soap for sealer, and ONE bolt on each side. Ran bitchen. Bought an Elky with a burnt valve. Snuck the head off without removing the intake, upper hose, or distributor. Stuck a valve in a had lying around WITHOUT grinding it or the seat, solvent checked the chamber, and impacted it back together in less than an hour. Drove it to lunch that day, towed my race car for 2 yrs, and sold it to a buddy who had it for another couple yrs with no problems. I mean some really sneaky, rank shit. NO PROBLEMS. I've put intakes on where the surfaces were so "off" i had to die grind the bolt holes almost to 1/2 inch to get the fucker bolted on and ran fine. I mean some real criminal shit. I can tell stories forever. Point is, when younger/broke, i found the SBC VERY forgiving. So, if i ramble, i'm sorry. This is NOT a typical issue. I guarantee this. Without sounding like i'm beating my own drum? I'm no idiot and do understand these fuckers pretty well
yeah, i know what you're saying. you can pretty much rape a small block, and still make it run...lol i've done my share of stuff like that to them too, and 9 times out of 10...as long as you have spark, fuel, air and compression.,..you can make em run.
I once drove an sbc around the block...with number 1 and 2 piston sitting in the oil pan, and a hole through the block big enough to fit your arm through. still had pretty good oil pressure, too....
Its allready been said but heres another vote on valve guides. The oil will sit in the bottom of the plenum and its possibly only 1 loose guide or seal. It should be easy to diagnose on a 180* intake. Show pics of the plugs from shared cylinders. Being a new motor with store bought heads its not uncommon to pull oil around. Also with a pcv in one cover make sure theirs a breather in the other.
Has the block been decked or the heads milled? If the block was not decked straight or the heads angled milled, the ports of the intake manifold will not seat square with the head causing suction from the lifter valley. This might explain why the seepage changed cylinders when you changed gaskets. Just a thought.
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