Technical How to Diagnose Oil Consumption Issue

The PCV is in the PS valve cover, and I ran a hose from it to the carb intake spacer. I have a traditional breather in the DS valve cover.

 

Word of advice, lose the "rr" word, it does not fly well here. Is the 85 lbs a seated pressure? Seems low for a performance build. The cylinder walls look a little glassy to me, is there any evidence of a cross-hatch when the heads were off. The engine looks a little beat up.

 

I don't know if that's a seated pressure. I saw no cross-hatch marks on the cylinder walls.

 

The cylinders that the valves hit the piston has probably smashed the ring land and pinched the rings

 

Sounds reasonable. Based on the plugs, I think my oil problem is roughly equal in all cylinders though. Do you agree?

 

That engine is just plain worn out ! Get or have some one check the bore dia. half way down , bet the cylinders are egg shaped , close up right cyl is badly scored , #3 looks like rust/ pitting damage ....

 

Ding ding we have a winner.

 

The cylinder walls don't appear to have any crosshatch and look very smooth I agree with those who said it is worn out

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Take it apart and all sorts of things might fall off the pistons.

 

That closer of the 2 pictures looks like it has some deep scratches in it. Not good.

 

does your valve cover have a baffle under the pcv valve? if not it will use a bunch of oil, the pics of your short block look like all the cylinders are oily

 

I agree Jr. But there is no way it can use a quart in 40 miles without smoking. You have major problems.

 

Blowing, leaking or burning......
My guess is all three with blowing and burning being the usual suspects.
I don't know why but smoke does not show as much in natural light. If you see some smoke in daylight, other than the factory installed " Chevy Crank Puff", look in your rear view at night. You'll see it.
As much goop is on the engine, it blowing it too.
Blowing and burning....that ain't the heads. That's wore slap out.

I"ll bet that transmission is well greased too from the rear main.

I'd be willing to bet, that truth be known, those S10 racers did not really build that engine. Now, they may have put a cam in it but the classic red neck hot rod is a well used engine freshened up. It's loose. It will run like a striped ass ape until.....it burns a quart every 40 miles. Then it's sell time.

 

Rings... valves... youre burning it up if its not leaking

 

Sounds like the carb is running pig rich at cruise and washing out the rings? Those plugs are real bad but that's not just oil.

 

Hello,
Well, I guess it has come back around since 59 years ago. The Flathead motor that was in my first 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery was supposed to be the original one from the sedan delivery. The former owner took it out and installed a Chevy 348 and 3 speed LaSalle transmission. The Flathead sat in his garage as do all old engines with nowhere else to be placed or used.

When I saw the 348 Chevy motor/sedan delivery chug up the driveway of the local drive-in parking lot, that was going to be the car for my daily driver to school and surf spots all up and down the coast. But, as things would have it, the owner (a friend from my Junior HS & HS days) was asking too much, or more than I could afford. So, weeks went by with me pestering him weekly to lower the price. It was the sedan delivery that was the important purchase. The 348 motor would just be the topping on the cake. It was very fast.

He finally relented as he could recoup his losses and get rid of the Flathead motor from his garage. So, the deal was done and the Flathead powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery’s price was lowered to fit my pocketbook and was finally mine. He told me that while the Flathead was in his sedan delivery, it was rebuilt, but, that he needed more power for the street scene in Bixby Knolls. The 348 gave him all that he needed.

Jnaki

He used the 348 motor that was taken out for another drag racing project. Over the years, he went on to be a great mechanic and builder of an AA/FD team. But, for the 5 years that I owned and drove the daylights out of the sedan delivery, it did not leak oil. It did not have white smoke coming out of the pipes and there were no drops anywhere on the motor. My mom was impressed that she did not have to go clean up the concrete driveway pad with Brillo and Comet to get any drips of oil off of the surfaces. (the original Model A coupe leaked quite often for the short time we owned it and got it running. )

So, 59 years later another mysterious oil consumption/Flathead story pops up with the same questions, similar answers and suggestions. I heard all of those “long time ago” comments from our neighborhood mechanic, my dad’s expert mechanic in Los Angeles, Reath Automotive mechanics, Joe Mailliard’s Shop, and then the guys at Mickey Thompson’s Shop were also stumped. The one and only alternative was to use reclaimed oil by the gallon, as it was at least 10x lower cost than a can of Valvoline.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...started-to-drive.1149856/page-3#post-13080040 reclaimed oil

The guy I sold the 40 Ford Sedan Delivery to in 1965, did not care what the sedan delivery did, it just looked great sitting out in front of his surf shop in Huntington Beach. We overheard him tell his groupie followers that he spent his younger years building that sedan delivery. Ha ha…what a load of….sh$%… The young guy was well known for his expert B.S. and posturing.

The oil mystery lives on in perpetuity…

 

If I read the description right didn’t it state .040 over.
I see 30 stamped on several of the pistons..
The plugs look absolutely like hell,,,, for 6000 miles.
Several cylinders looked like they were pitted,,,,absolutely no cross hatch.
This doesn’t look like a fresh rebuild at all.
Compression numbers are near bottom for a worn out engine.
From the pics,,it looks like the number 5 exhaust,,,and the number 2 intake valves were smashed.