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| Northstar rebuild: Will style (Page 17/119) |
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jstricker
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SEP 12, 12:40 AM
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Will, What occurred to you is exactly right. Just pull the tube off of the air inlet tube (the vent side of the PCV system) and pull the PCV valve out of the valve cover. The way it's smoking you shouldn't have to even drive it like this to be able to tell something. See how much blow by you have, although with your compression readings I can't believe it's much. My gut instinct is that it's not a PCV problem but if it is, you'll clearly see the blow-by coming out the PCV and vent openings when you run it like this. On our 3.4 that had the high oil consumption (and I know you don't want to hear this) it was a valve guide issue on the intake side. I've never seen anything like it before but the valves and guides (which had less than 20,000 miles on them) looked like they had 200,000 miles on them. The exhausts weren't quite so bad. It took new guides and valves to cure the problem. We also went through a valve stem seal replacement and like you, it helped some, but not alot. This sucks, it makes me depressed for you just thinking about it. John Stricker
| quote | | Originally posted by Will: For the PCV, the manifold and corresponding valve cover connection were been capped. I left the other side of the PCV system hooked up. I know I need to do things differently... I'll see what I can rig up for a trap to hook both sides of the PCV system to, so that I can eliminate it as an oil path entirely. It occurs to me that with the cam cover connection capped, blow by from un-seated rings might pressurize the crank case and blow oil out the other cam cover connection and into the throttle body, since that side of the PCV connects to the intake ducting immediately upstream of the TB. |
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sanderson
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SEP 12, 10:58 PM
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| quote | | Originally posted by Will:
It occurs to me that with the cam cover connection capped, blow by from un-seated rings might pressurize the crank case and blow oil out the other cam cover connection and into the throttle body, since that side of the PCV connects to the intake ducting immediately upstream of the TB.
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My last Iron Duke did this. Even with the PCV running there was so much blowby it would blow oil out a similar breather on the valve cover into the air cleaner. There was enough volume to run a good size air tool. On my new Quad 4 when I disconnect the crankcase breather (on the timing chain cover) from the oil separator suction there only a wisp coming from the crankcase. I'd think you could do the same. Plug the PCV and let the other vent go to atmosphere and see what comes out. My bet is there isn't much there given your compression numbers.
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The Punisher
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SEP 12, 11:20 PM
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I am thinking either too much crankcase pressure or the valve seals are still leaking. I say vent the pcv to atnmosphere. See what happens. or take the valve covers back off and you might need to put all new seals in again. SH ------------------
JM / SH
 Pick up the bone phone Fred Flinstone and call George Jetson. Get Cable, DSL, or something....
Opinions are like ‘The Punisher” everyone has one ™
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jstricker
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SEP 13, 05:33 AM
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You can't run a Northstar without valve covers, for all practical purposes. The water pump drive shaft comes out the back of one of them and they seal the openings for the spark plugs, unless I misunderstood your mention of taking the valve covers off. Personally, I'm thinking lose valve guides/valve stems that's taking out the seals, but Will should find out soon enough. John Stricker
| quote | | Originally posted by The Punisher: I am thinking either too much crankcase pressure or the valve seals are still leaking. I say vent the pcv to atnmosphere. See what happens. or take the valve covers back off and you might need to put all new seals in again. SH |
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tstroud
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SEP 13, 07:41 AM
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Sorry if I missed this in the earlier postings but....
Did you put the plastic sleeve over the valve stems when you installed the valve seals? It is used to protect the seals from being cut by the retainer groove in the valve stem.
If you didn't then you may have damaged the seals the second you installed them.
Second, when you had your intake manifold off did you look to see if there was any oil in the ports? If so how far up did it go?
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Kohburn
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SEP 13, 09:10 AM
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only thing i can think is causing it at this point is valve guides..
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Will
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SEP 13, 05:28 PM
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I have to be in Norfolk for 2 weeks for Navy stuff... Fiero's going on hold for a little while. ------------------
Turn the key and feel the engine shake the whole car with its lope; Plant the gas pedal and feel in your chest neither a shriek nor a wail but a bellowing roar; Lift and be pushed into the harness by compression braking that only comes from the biggest cylinders while listening to music of pops and gurgles. Know that you are driving and American V8. There are finer engines made, but none of them are this cool.Luck, Fate and Destiny are words used by those who lack the courage to define their own future
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Will
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SEP 22, 04:49 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Will:
Turning the crank 7 times turns the cams 3.5 times... so the right bank and left bank would have been 180 degrees out from each other. |
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After thinking about it a bit, I realized that because the N* uses waste spark ignition, it probably would have run with one bank 180 degrees out from the other... It just would have run like 4 Harley's behind me all the time. With the banks our of phase like that, it would have been like a collection of 4 V-twins all the time. ------------------
Turn the key and feel the engine shake the whole car with its lope; Plant the gas pedal and feel in your chest neither a shriek nor a wail but a bellowing roar; Lift and be pushed into the harness by compression braking that only comes from the biggest cylinders while listening to music of pops and gurgles. Know that you are driving and American V8. There are finer engines made, but none of them are this cool.Luck, Fate and Destiny are words used by those who lack the courage to define their own future
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Will
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OCT 02, 10:49 AM
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Progress (I think)... When warm the car doesn't smoke on heavy throttle, smokes somewhat on coast down/high vacuum conditions and blows LOTS of smoke at light throttle/tip in from coast down/blipping throttle from idle... Allen Cline thinks that the oil rings are not working correctly. He says that there's enough reversion in the intake port at light throttle to throw oil up into the intake runners where it flows back down and pools on the intake valves after I shut the engine down. This generally jives with what I see... as the times when it's smoking worst are the times when the rings are unloaded, rather than high demand on the valve stem seals. My dad remembers reading an article in a recent car magazine that didn't have much faith in Total Seal oil rings... He's looking for it now. I will also shortly be put in touch with a guy in the Miata community who's done 3 or 4 engine builds with TS rings and they all smoked... I'm going to compare signs and symptoms with him to see what we can decide is up. So if my suspicions are confirmed, I may end up tearing the engine back down, ditching the TS oil rings and replacing them with GM oil rings, while keeping the TS top and 2nd rings... ------------------
Turn the key and feel the engine shake the whole car with its lope; Plant the gas pedal and feel in your chest neither a shriek nor a wail but a bellowing roar; Lift and be pushed into the harness by compression braking that only comes from the biggest cylinders while listening to music of pops and gurgles. Know that you are driving an American V8. There are finer engines made, but none of them are this cool.Luck, Fate and Destiny are words used by those who lack the courage to define their own future
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ryan.hess
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OCT 02, 11:11 AM
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I have only heard bad things about TS/gapless rings... Hope you get it figured out.... 
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