some of you gentlemen may remember this linked thread (BELOW)
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=4067&p=10823&hilit=pontiac+firebird#p10823
one of my freinds recently purchased a 1967 Pontiac fire-bird as a project car,
it looks amazingly similar to this picture I found on the internet
where a friend (who will remain UN-named for reasons too become all too obvious) recently decide to rebuilt his 428 Pontiac engine with a stroker crank , new pistons, rings and bearings and a new cam,
http://www.lunatipower.com/Product.aspx?id=1762
and he chose too use total seal piston rings,in this rebuild, now this was the first time Id heard he was even doing a thing with the engine since he last brought it over and he called ,yesterday evening, and asked if I wanted to come over and watch him break in the new cam, and engine combo, which when he listed the specs , and described the build seemed to be rather well planed.
and when I got over there, he was all ready , and had the car out in the drive way, has a fire extinguisher handy, he had a garden hose running too keep the radiator cool, a timing light hand, all the tools to adjust the valves and carb, etc., it looked like he had things well planed out..he started the engine up, it quickly resembled a mosquito spray truck, the oil smoke filled the front yard and drive way, after several minutes of checking it was obvious that something was wrong,since the heads he used were identical,and basically untouched from the last time he used them, and he has carefully checked all clearances and nothings binding, and there was zero indication the intake on a Pontiac (unlike a chevy) could be sucking oil from the lifter gallery, I suspected at first he had over filled the crank case by several quarts, as all the plugs were oil soaked, indicating a great deal of oil being burnt in the cylinders, or maybe he had forgotten to install the oil rings on the pistons,or used under sized rings or forgotten to check piston to bore clearance or ring end gaps, but after shutting it down and a long session of detailed questions it seems like he installed the total seal second compression ring that has the two piece seal upside down on each piston, hes pulling the engine today to look closely.
we ALL make mistakes and hopefully this one is simple to cure and something we will laugh about in the future., the key here is to learn from those mistakes, inspect carefully, and assume nothing, a set of gaskets and a couple hours is a cheap cost to learning about what you could do wrong and what you can do correctly in the future, hopefully he can simply flip the rings, if not, even buying and installing new rings that might cost along with new gaskets under $200 is not going to be a huge cost, and its a minor set back, something he will remember and is never likely to repeat if as I suspect that is the cause of the horrendous oil smoke from the exhaust !
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=4067&p=10823&hilit=pontiac+firebird#p10823
one of my freinds recently purchased a 1967 Pontiac fire-bird as a project car,
it looks amazingly similar to this picture I found on the internet
where a friend (who will remain UN-named for reasons too become all too obvious) recently decide to rebuilt his 428 Pontiac engine with a stroker crank , new pistons, rings and bearings and a new cam,
http://www.lunatipower.com/Product.aspx?id=1762
and he chose too use total seal piston rings,in this rebuild, now this was the first time Id heard he was even doing a thing with the engine since he last brought it over and he called ,yesterday evening, and asked if I wanted to come over and watch him break in the new cam, and engine combo, which when he listed the specs , and described the build seemed to be rather well planed.
and when I got over there, he was all ready , and had the car out in the drive way, has a fire extinguisher handy, he had a garden hose running too keep the radiator cool, a timing light hand, all the tools to adjust the valves and carb, etc., it looked like he had things well planed out..he started the engine up, it quickly resembled a mosquito spray truck, the oil smoke filled the front yard and drive way, after several minutes of checking it was obvious that something was wrong,since the heads he used were identical,and basically untouched from the last time he used them, and he has carefully checked all clearances and nothings binding, and there was zero indication the intake on a Pontiac (unlike a chevy) could be sucking oil from the lifter gallery, I suspected at first he had over filled the crank case by several quarts, as all the plugs were oil soaked, indicating a great deal of oil being burnt in the cylinders, or maybe he had forgotten to install the oil rings on the pistons,or used under sized rings or forgotten to check piston to bore clearance or ring end gaps, but after shutting it down and a long session of detailed questions it seems like he installed the total seal second compression ring that has the two piece seal upside down on each piston, hes pulling the engine today to look closely.
we ALL make mistakes and hopefully this one is simple to cure and something we will laugh about in the future., the key here is to learn from those mistakes, inspect carefully, and assume nothing, a set of gaskets and a couple hours is a cheap cost to learning about what you could do wrong and what you can do correctly in the future, hopefully he can simply flip the rings, if not, even buying and installing new rings that might cost along with new gaskets under $200 is not going to be a huge cost, and its a minor set back, something he will remember and is never likely to repeat if as I suspect that is the cause of the horrendous oil smoke from the exhaust !