New engine smoking- What?

[Pomorza]

From all the material I've read on engines in the past five months, the consensus in most of them is that you should not use synthetic oils in a new engine until it hits 5000-6000 miles.

I don't know if anyone asked this but what color is the smoke?

Jan

[jmortensen]

I'm going to guess that the rings just aren't sealing yet as well. A friend of mine has a great story about Z car engine rebuilds, goes like this: his friend rebuilds his L28 and fires it up and lets it idle for about an hour. Then he starts driving around and he's really upset because the thing is blowing a James Bond style smoke screen out the exhaust pipe. In desperation he comes to my friend who is the local Z guru and tells him what happened. My friend has an idea, so he takes the car out and just beats the hell out of the motor, revving to redline and decelerating over and over, just beating the wizz out of it. Comes back, no smoke at all. His conclusion was that the cylinders were glazed and he had to break the glaze in order to get the rings to seal. Tells the guy about working the rings on a new engine and how he needs to be constantly accelerating or decelerating on a new engine, no steady state. Regardless of whether his "glazed cylinders" theory is right, it shares a bit of similarity in that it was a new engine that was smoking and the smoke went away after working the rings a bit.

[ZSaint]

It is blue smoke. The rings have seated. Cast iron rings seat very quickly. I drove it around PIR for several laps. The engine was broken in correctly. I do not feel it is a ring problem, guys. I wonder where the oil is getting into the bores. I thought maybe it was pulling oil into the manifold somewhere. No visible oil externally. I have built dozens of these engines over the years. This is the first new engine that I have had blow smoke. I had a boring plate made 30 years ago. I know the engine is bored true and round. (How many Z engines are bored with torqued head bolts? I did this for my racing engines) I was just looking for some other explanation other than the valve seal problem.

[jmortensen]

Usually valve stem seals give you a puff of smoke on startup. Haven't heard of valve stem seals leaking so much oil into the cylinders that it takes 15 minutes to burn off. In fact, having watched ATF literally poured into the carb of a running Honda to clean the chambers, I can tell you that even a large amount of oil in the cylinders burns off in a minute or two.

Based on what you're describing, I think it's rings. Try wringing its neck a bit and see what happens. Worst that happens is you have a good time and burn some gas.

[ZSaint]

I took the Z out on the freeway today. Buzzed her up to 6500 in the gears and them kept her in 4th gear for 15 miles at 4500 rpm's. Not a sign of smoke. Ran clean. Took her back to the shop, put a trickle charger on her and a cover and let her sit. I will see if she starts smoking again when I restart her in a month or two. Jon you made an excellent observation. This engine blew smoke for 10 minutes w/o stopping. Valve guides do not normally react that way. They puff a little when you start an engine but the oil goes away very quickly. The oil rings were chrome. Maybe the thin cast iron #1 & #2 rings seated but how about those chrome oil skimmers? Everett Hatch always took a little tension out of the oil expander to increase torque in his engines. Hatch is now gone but the guys that build engines at Hatch's still use his techniques. I'll give them a call and see what they say. Maybe all I need to do is "drive her hard" once in a while to keep her from pumping oil.

[jmortensen]

Glad to help. Hope it sorts itself out after some more hard driving.

[Bruce Palmer]

Loren,

I'm all over the "let an L motor sit for extended period and the rings'll stick" theory. I'm guessing your engine is fresh enough that a warm up will get 'em free enough to seal.....

This information is worth exactly what you paid for it..... nyuck nyuck

Saturday morning soccer game with the grand son..... in the rain. Bummer.

[Arne]

Yeah, raining down here too. I'm sitting here hoping that Bruce sent my parts by mail, 'cuz that means they'd probably get here today and I'll have something inside the garage to do this weekend.

[Bruce Palmer]

Arne,

Hope is a good thing, however unreliable it proves in this case. Didn't see anything from Pam, who does the shipping so Monday would be my guess.

[Travel'n Man]

Off topic but............I hate to rub it in with you West Coasters but - if you're not on the East coast this weekend your in the wrong place!! Suntastic!! Leaf change is starting at 4000' and not a cloud in the sky and in the mid 70's.............I'll take this as long as I can get it!

[mlc240z]

Yup Mitchell,

I've been driving like a maniac now that the heat finally let up.

This is my favorite time of the year.

[ZSaint]

Didn't we see you guys shoveling 5' of snow 3 or 4 times last winter? It snowed out West but it was gone the next day. It actually snowed 3"!

Bruce, I was at my grand nephews soccer game in PDX last weekend. Weather was great! I paid for his soccer camp last year and now he expects me to go to his games. Jeesh! Just finished playing a tournament at Creekside and it rained on us for 15 holes. Not fun at all.