Thomas Owen

Hello everyone,

I have a situation I am trying to figure out and hopefully I can get some suggestions here.
I bought a low mileage '91 engine to use in my early car and I decided to do the top end and address the head gasket (which it did not have).

- heads were completely gone through - new exhaust valves, new guides and seals, new springs. Machined for head gasket cylinders.

- Installed new Mahle pistons and cylinders. All rings installed according to factory recommendation.
- Installed a engine mounted Behr oil cooler and thermostat.

- Stock intake and ECU.
- B&B headers

I built a test stand to run the engine on, and fitted it with an oil tank from a '70. 'S' hose from oil tank to engine port (at oil cooler) is level.

-intake breather connected to port on oil tank at cap
-engine breather connection on case is connected to the other breather port on the oil tank.
-New plugs, caps, wires.
-Lucas 30W break-in oil with high zinc and phosphorous. Usually use Brad Penn 20W/50

Engine started right up but smokes A LOT. My gut feeling is that too much oil is in the crankcase, even though I added only 10 quarts.

oil pressure perfect, oil temp perfect.

Smoke clears after running for a few seconds but it is the most smoke I have ever seen in my 30 years of owning these cars. Inspected all plugs and they look the same - slight oil film.

any suggestions on how to isolate the problem here? I hate to put the engine in the car until I know what is causing this.

Thanks,
Thomas

Rocket Rob

How long have you run the engine? Are the rings seated and broken in yet?

-nick

I didn't get much smoke on my first startup with new rings. Could be too much oil- my changes are 10qts with the stock oil system/cooler. You may be sucking in a lot of oil through your intake breather routing too.

Who did your heads? They're trickier than typical, you have to drill the guides out before pressing or else you crack the aluminum around the guides. I'm sure it isn't that though

Edit: if it goes away after running for a bit, then it may just be residual oil that has seeped past the rings while sitting. I'm not sure how high the oil level needs to be in the crankcase for that to happen, but possible if you're overfilled?

porsche mania

Mine smoked like vesuveus after its rebuild but only for a few minutes which as nick above has suggested was residual oil from the assembly.

Rocket Rob

Mine smoked a lot (first 5 minutes?) when I finished my rebuild. I attributed it to the oil inside the cylinders that I had used to ensure the pistons and new rings slipped in easily.

Thomas Owen

I would say the engine has run for at least 30 minutes total - sometimes no smoke at start, other times you would not believe it.

Heads were done by Anchor Atlantic and I am pretty sure they have done a great job.

I think it is something to do with the breather and how I have it set up with this older oil tank.

Thanks for the suggestions,
Thomas

LouZ

You are using an oil tank from an early model car. What is it's volume?

10 quarts is what is needed for an installed engine set-up, and that includes the lines up and back to the front oil cooler.

BTW - I got rid of the mosquitos in half of the county when I started up mine for the first time.... assembly lube will take longer to burn off.