These are out of a stock 352. Valves and guides done 1,000 miles ago. Plugs have 1,000 miles on them as well. Autolite 2100 and dual plane intake. Could the intake be leaking and ****ing oil into the right bank? The engine runs very well, I just pulled the plugs to see how things have been going. The porcelain is spanking clean all the way to the bottom on the entire left bank. Right bank #2,3,and4 all have heavy carbon deposits, #1 is the cleanest but still very dark. Running regular E10 87 octane with a 9:1 compression and engine runs at 190-200 tops. Manifolds, and gl*** packs, no crossover. Timing is at 18 initial and 28 all in with an additional 12 with the vacuum can...if I remember all the numbers correctly. Lazy stock distributor. What would you do??? I don't want to burn this thing down! Is the whole thing lean, but the oil is making one bank look rich?
If my memory is right , you can install the rocker shaft upside down on FE motors and it will flood the valve with oil. Usually they will smoke a lot.
Like TaDad said, the rocket shaft oiling holes should face down. If they are facing up, it will over oil that side. If that's not the problem, it could be ****ing oil past the intake gasket. Those heavy intakes can be a beast to seal, especially if the heads have been milled. If the heads are cut, then don't use the cork end seals, just use RTV.
There is the possibility the exhaust on that side is stopped up or if you have a heat riser it could be stuck shut. But that would not account for the oil contamination.
The heads and intake were not milled, just cleaned up and were within 0.002 so the machinist and I decided not to mill them. I did use silicone only on the China walls when setting the intake. I never liked cork Gaskets there. I'll check the rocker shaft out, I hope that is my problem! The dual exhaust was put on last summer. Both mufflers were new, and could see straight through them. I removed the ****erfly in the exhaust, but the heat crossover is open in the intake. I just cleaned everything up. The bottom end of this engine was rebuilt in the late 80s and other than a rod installed backwards and good cleaning of the infamous FE oil p***ages I measured and put everything back together. The heads were original, and I had the machinist replace all the guides, exhaust valves, and put in hardened exhaust seats. The intake seats were just regrouped and the valves were all good according to him so he reused them.
With that additional info, upside down rocker shaft or restricted oil return p***age on that side would be my two top guesses . I once had a customer come in with a Ford van with a 460 he had just purchased. It was really nice looking and ran good except when he turned right. It would then belch smoke, spit, and sputter for several seconds. A piece of VC gasket was blocking the oil return on one side, causing the guides to flood with oil when he turned and the van rolled to the side.
I had a few that looked like that on a Ford and it was valve seals. Not familiar with every intake but I thought a dual plane cross fed…not just one side. With the rocker covers off look between the springs at the seals. Most shops today machine the tops of the guides for them. I bought the tool and did them myself. Took about 15 minutes per head and the seals were $20.00.
[QUOTE="Fabulous50's, post: 14577283, member: 309914" Autolite 2100 and dual plane intake. #1 Could the intake be leaking and ****ing oil into the right bank? # 2 The engine runs very well, I just pulled the plugs to see how things have been going. What would you do??? =QUOTE] #1 If you reinstalled the tin splash pan in the Valley as you should I doubt seriously there's enough oil there to **** into the runners. At least not evenly. Yes the intake could be ****ing but on the other side making a very lean burn that equal the New looking plugs. #2 I have a strong feeling your idea and mine of a "Runs very Well" motor are going to be two totally different ideas. #3 Start with hooking up a Vacc gauge on the intake and see what you have. Once you find out it's for Beans remove the intake and do some homework. I would also do a visual of the guide seals by removing the springs, it's the only real way to be sure. Springs can be removed without pulling the Heads. Wouldn't be the first time I've seen guide seals in place but wrong size for valve stems.
I have an in dash vac gauge. It idles at 25" and deceleration is 26". Never any needle fluctuations. When I floor it in 1:1 it'll pull about 1" with the 2bbl and 2500 RPM. It just has the umbrella oil "seals" that came with the felpro kit. No real positive seal to speak of. The engine never had the tin valley pan. How important is it? This has a draught tube, no PCV. Don't know if that makes a difference. I'm going to pull that valve cover and have a look. I hope it's just a rocker shaft upside down. It runs about 40 psi at 2000 of oil pressure on Amsoil Z-Rod 10-30 with standard output melting oil pump. I replaced all bearings including cam bearings. Opened up the key oil p***ages for FEs, but didn't restrict the top end as this is a low RPM stock build.
I guess my idea of "runs very well" is it starts with less than 3 cranks hot or cold, pulls decent and doesn't ever miss or stutter under heavy load. Idles smooth and has a lame 270/270 cam from what I could tell. Is it a power house? Absolutely not! But has good torque and sets you back in the seat at 70mph when you give it the beans.
As memory goes 25" of vacc is pretty good. A steady needle is a plus for sure. I have a sweetheart of a 352 in my 59. I'll stick a gauge on it soon for ya just to see what a seasoned motor reads. Do you know what shape the heads were in prior to rebuild? If the umbrella seals were a cracked and falling off good chance those rubber frags plugged up the oil drain back holes in the block. I kind of remember that being a problem years back.
I always put the Tin valley pan back in. There have always been several theories as to what and why they were put in to begin with. I always thought they don't hurt anything, and the Factory engineers were smarter than me so why create a problem for myself I don't need. I always thought it was to keep Oil from hitting the underside of the Exhaust crossover of the intake and burning to a crust and falling off but what do I know? I think that came from the first cast manifold I removed without one and seeing the large amount of Oil Crust burned on it and falling off into the lifter galley. That stuff is hard and brittle, can't be any good for the Oil Pump.
Surprisingly the underside of the intake didn't have much of any caked up carbon on it. The valley was spanking clean, surprisingly clean. But no tin pan, and I did see one in the 59 service manual, so I know these early FEs had it. I wonder if newer oils are better at resisting the baked on carbon. It did have a functional ****erfly bolted up to the p*** exhaust manifold. That went away!
The Jalopy Journal
