Oil consumption issues....some education.

SC2150

Member
Here are pictures of what I found today on this new motor, a LS6 all forged motor from a big engine supplier:

alexta2.jpg

The combustion chamber on #2 cyl shows an awful lot of build-up for only 1500 miles....Also, the lack of carbon in the burn area shows leaking coolant.

AlexTA.jpg


Piston top is "steamed clean" compared to #4....but notice each show some coolant leakage into the cyl (where the piston top is clean).

alexta3.jpg


Effects of the reversion pulse that carried the coolant steam up into the intake port & further into the intake manifold. The coolant was only leaking into the cylinder, but the reversion pulse carries some back into the intake (and can with oil as well).

alexta4.jpg


And the intake port for #4 right next to it shows oil build-up and very little steam reversion.

Only #2 was leaking real bad, but all 8 show signs of some seepage.

I also found that the piston to cyl bore clearance is excessive a .0055 when .0035 is the max I like to see so it allowed the rings to flutter and #2 top ring was stuck in the groove and allowed the oil consumption.

Other than these issues, it was a forged build with top quality parts and the rod & main journals & bearings show very little wear so I would attribute this to a "production" builder that puts out qty to be price competitive since the time it takes to check & double check tolerances, and then to order an oversize piston/ring set when the machining was done more than expected does not allow a builder to compete price wise with the other volume builders.

This is NOT real common, but is seen far more than it should be and NO, I will not post the name of the builder as I see some great builds come from them.....and rarely see this.

This is seen more with the low-priced bargin advertised engines & short blocks from the big-name volume builders or the shops that have regular techs attempt to do the engine building.

This post is only to show an example of what can cause some of the issues this thread is dealing with. This engine shows clearly the reversion pulses you here me talk about and leave some thinking...what???
 
thanks for posting that,and the pictures
btw its really common on the TPI intake equipped engines with a longer than stock duration cams that have been installed to find the runners and plenum coated with lack oily soot, that's also partly the result of reversion in those intakes resulting from a cam timing that they were not designed to work with, and while it looks bad its not a huge problem
 
Update on the motor I posted pics of:


Bore measures 3.95-3.96 with several areas in the cylinders measuring as much as 3.975 so that is the sealing issue. Out of round sleeves. Also, the oil rings are for a stock 3.90 bore so almost NO tension.

We don't go over .005 over size on stock LS1's so the block is junk and that explains the oil consumption issues.
 
Out of round or tapered bores resulting from less than careful hone techniques , during a re-ring and bearing job to refresh an older engine are far more common than most guys will admit.
I bought a 1974 Vega from a car lot,with a rebuilt Vega 4 cylinder that smoked slightly for years, when we finally rebuilt it after driving it for over 67k, miles it was rather obvious looking at the bore wear patterns
 
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