Cylinder wall question

[951mat]

I just took my pan off to replace it w/ a Canton road race pan. I saw the casing numbers and didn't find anything too exciting. Looks like a 63 block, cast crank. No sleeves in the cylinders. It does have Ross XL 425 pistons, not sure if that means anything. I really don't know much about the internals of the engine since I didn't build it.
My question is that I can still see all the crosshatching on the cylinder walls. Is this good or normal? The car has 6500 miles and I believe it was a newly assembled engine at that point.

Mat

[Mike Bartlett]

Mine had about 3K on it when I tore it down. I could see the cross hatching also. I think it just indicates you have a fairly fresh motor and probably moly type rings which are bit softer or easier on the cylinder walls. Does it burn oil?

[speed220mph]

Mat: You should be able to see crosshatching at the bottom of the cylinders even if the engine has 100,000 miles on it. What counts is wear at the top of the cylinders at the upper limit of ring travel. This is where the "ridge" forms and bore "taper" is measured, or the difference in bore diameter at the top less bore diameter at the bottom where there's assumed to be no bore wear.

[951mat]

I would say yes it does burn oil, but haven't documented it well. I'd guess I add a quart every 200 miles??? Of course I rarely drive it more than 20-30 miles at a time on a cruise around town. I'm concered that it was "broke in" w/ synthetic oil, which I've heard can be bad. I doubt I'd do anything about it, since I've had no problems in the 3000 miles I've driven it.

[lovehamr]

Mat,

1 quart for every 200 miles is excessive for an engine with 6500 miles on it. It should have been broken in long ago. Are you seeing evidence of oil fouling on the spark plugs? If so, I'd think that running the engine on synthetic with your ring and bore-hone set up was incorrect. Though some engines are fine this way most are not. I'm a big proponent of synthetics but have never had an engine that was built to tolerate them during break-in. This is something that you may want to discus with the engine's builder.

Steve

[lineslinger]

951mat,
lovehamr is right.
If you are adding a case of oil every 2400 miles something is wrong. You aren't showing any blue smoke on startup and you are not seeing any smoke while driving? That oil has to be going somewhere, it doesn't just dissisipate, sooner or later that kind of consumption will catch up with you. If you are running a high end (cost) oil that has to be getting expensive. My wifes car eats a quart a month via blowby and has 96,000 on it and she averages 1100 miles a month piddling around town.
You might want to take a hard look at that engine and see if you cannot figure out where all that oil is going.