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When you had the guy check over the head, did he do a valve spring check? Sometimes a weak valve spring will give a quirky idle. Check it with a vacuum gauge, if the needle jumps around on a regular basis, that could be an issue, but not 4 quarts worth. what do the plugs look like? If they are all oily, the rings may not yet be seated.
I don't think they checked the springs, or I don't know how they would have. But when I got the engine, the head was pretty clearly rebuilt. It had brand new lifters and there were still paint marks on the springs. I'll check the plugs when I get a chance. Might also be indicative of differences in oil consumption between cylinders.
I agree with Harvey that if no smoke-rules out expensive stuff. To me this sounds like a great time to re-drive the car hard & just stop to check level/top up if needed. I top up my engine after a day of running it hard.
Mike, more specifically about the oil, it is normal to run a "break in oil" right after you start an engine with new rings. And although there are certainly specialty break in oils, in general you don't want to use synthetic for break in, as it is such a good lubricant the rings literally can't get a bite on the cylinder wall and do their microscopic break in thing. So at a minimum you would use a non-synthetic oil for break in. That can and should be dumped after about a 1000 miles and at that point you can go with a full synthetic if you like. If you didn't do any of that, it's not a crisis. I like the Valvoline 20-50 Racing for several reasons. It comes in both non-synthetic and synthetic. More details here: https://newhillgarage.com/2013/06/25...tem-explained/
Regarding springs, if the car revs cleanly to redline, I wouldn't think there is anything wrong with your springs. I've never personally had a spring do anything catastrophic like break but I've watched enough NASCAR to know that the engine will continue to run but it will clearly be unhappy. Fortunately there are 2 springs per valve, so there is some redundancy to get you home.
I agree with whoever mentioned plugs. Great diagnostic tool. If you've got a serious oil through the cylinder problem, the plugs should tell the tale.
Update: Drove it to work and back yesterday with no issues. Went to start it this morning, starter fired, battery had plenty of juice, engine wouldn't turn. Tried rolling out of the garage backwards and popping the clutch, engine still wouldn't turn. Going to drain the oil and cut the filter open this weekend, and go from there. Hoping the damage (if this isn't a separate issue with VERY coincidental timing) is mostly contained to the crank and bearings, worst case. We'll see. I don't mind the learning experience and I know all too well that mistakes can happen, but I will feel bad if I've taken a crank off the road permanently through my own ignorance.
If you drove it yesterday and it was OK when you shut it off than I'll take guess you have a hydro locked cylinder for it to lock up overnight. You could try rocking it backwards while in 5th gear to rotate the engine in the opposite direction to relieve the hydro lock, it should move a bit or pull the plugs and try turning it over with the starter.
Good news: I misdiagnosed the engine being siezed. Was able to turn it just fine with a wrench when I got home .
Bad news: I drained the oil and it's a bit... Shiny. Definitely some gold in there. No visible chunks, and it's impossible to see unless looking under a flashlight, but if I put it under light and stir it, there are definitely "Babbitt trails"
I'll post the best pictures I could take. I'm debating pulling the engine or just adding clean oil and running it. For reference, there are about 3000 miles on the engine now
That's great news on not being seized, the flecks in the oil are probably from break-in since you found no shavings or curls of metal. If no knocks and oil pressure is normal you probably dodged a bullet.
I'd cut the oil filter apart and see how much metal is in it. If the filter goes into bypass and you have a lot of metal floating around things can go very bad, very quickly.
Yeah, I started attempting to get the filter open last night but that thing was much sturdier than expected. tin snips were no match for it. gotta find a better way.
Amazinglyoilfilters,although much maligned, can be pretty tough too cut open . Check out Capital racing.or perhaps Summit. The race car boys do this routinely..
You really need a "pizza cutter" type tool to do it right. Anything like a hacksaw blade might introduce chips on its own and mislead you.
Based on your circumstances, you might just want to wave a strong magnet around in your dumped oil, assuming you still have it, to see if you pick up anything significant. Also, was there any significant debris on the magnetic drain plug?
Cut it open with a grinder. Certainly not the right tool for the job. Regardless there was no metal to be found anywhere in it. Harvey, I swirled a neodymium magnet around in the oil as soon as I drained it. Came up with nothing. The drain plug had some very very fine gunk on it, less than a mil thick, wasn't too concerning for me.
05-16-2018, 05:47 PM
