Excessive oil usage/burning FE

[Bob In Ct]

Rich:
Upon following you and the wife up Route 84 Saturday night I noticed you were sending lots of blue smoke mostly out of the left side of your car. I also noticed my windshield and wings covered with very small oil droplets.

Just though you would want to know.

Bob

[ZOERA-SC7XX]

Seems to be dripping onto two or three (that I know of) plugs from the valve area after removing the plugs. I'm guessing the oil is burning until the plug fouls. After fifty miles on the highway, the engine seems to lose a cylinder. I'm gonna replace the valve seals and see where I'm at. Thanks for the heads-up Bob. Still puts out sixty lbs of oil pressure hot.

[Bob In Ct]

I'm thinking valve seals (exhaust) since some of the oil is leaving the engine without burning.

Bob

[Chaplin]

Originally Posted by ZOERA-SC7XX

Seems to be dripping onto two or three (that I know of) plugs from the valve area after removing the plugs. I'm guessing the oil is burning until the plug fouls. After fifty miles on the highway, the engine seems to lose a cylinder. I'm gonna replace the valve seals and see where I'm at. Thanks for the heads-up Bob. Still puts out sixty lbs of oil pressure hot.

Did you ever figure out what the problem was?

[ZOERA-SC7XX]

I removed the HV oil pump and installed a standard pump, and the problem seemed to abate, but not entirely. I also had a bad carb, where the coating inside the bowls was dissolving and clogging the thing up (intermittedly starving for fuel). Holly replaced the carb. In addition to this, I installed the factory oil return trays under the rocker posts.
After about 2-3k miles (and a new carb), the plugs no longer fouled, and the engine just ran better. Now at about 4k miles, it runs better yet and uses much less oil than before. I think when all is weighed, the honing probably was not done right, and combined with the high oil pressure and the bad carb, just made things intolerable. The car runs great at this time, getting better as I rack up the miles. A joy to drive now. I still want to tweak things, drop the jet size a couple numbers and maybe install new rocker arm assemblies. These cars are works in progress, and I'll continue to try to improve the whole package. Thanks for asking.

[fastmerc]

I vote for the rocker shafts being installed upside down on an excessive oiling FE!

Have seen this a few times! When under pressure from valve springs etc, the rocker arm is pushed up against the shaft, opening the top of the shaft. If your oiling hole is on top, this is just a gap to pour oil out of...and it usually gets sucked up via the PCV valve, not to mention floods the valve covers.....

When the shaft is properly oriented, the oiling hole and corresponding slot is covered by the rocker arm radius, preventing excessive oiling!

I'd pop the rocker shafts , or at least loosen them slide a rocker over (if you can) and verify that there is no hole on the top of the shaft!

Cheers!
Steve

[ZOERA-SC7XX]

Originally Posted by fastmerc

I vote for the rocker shafts being installed upside down on an excessive oiling FE!

Have seen this a few times! When under pressure from valve springs etc, the rocker arm is pushed up against the shaft, opening the top of the shaft. If your oiling hole is on top, this is just a gap to pour oil out of...and it usually gets sucked up via the PCV valve, not to mention floods the valve covers.....

When the shaft is properly oriented, the oiling hole and corresponding slot is covered by the rocker arm radius, preventing excessive oiling!

I'd pop the rocker shafts , or at least loosen them slide a rocker over (if you can) and verify that there is no hole on the top of the shaft!

Cheers!
Steve

That was the first thing I checked, and they are installed correctly. I also checked and confirmed the correct valve seals. Like I said, the problem has abated. I think the engine builder just didn't hone the cylinder walls correctly.