Any updates on this? Did you pull your plugs or test/replace your PCV valve?

 

Bleeder,thought you were selling that thing?Anyway,your rings are still seating.Chrome takes a while.Your converter is burning off the oil without so much as a puff.Plugs should show ash deposits.Better check that level a little more often.10w30 is great all season oil.Not really any difference between that and 5w30.I use rotella 5w40{this week},but that changes with my mood.

 

its funny you should ask this; i was listening to the car doctor show this morning, here in Houston; He is (Skeeter) proly one of the best mechs in the country, and today, he had on THE HEAD engineer of BG products. who by the way answered a lot of questions not only about his products, but about regular oils. I will just say, that according to him, ALL OIL, has synth products in them, usually 2 to 10%, some even more, simply becuase of your state, the E.P.A, the oil companies trying to be environmentally correct, etc. etc.
There is no legally specified amount of synth that has to be in your oil, before you can claim it is synthetic blend.
Also they had a similar few questions about missing oil, he said a lot of it goes through your piston rings, valve seals, and other just normal leakage places.
He warns against using all 100% synth oil, and suggest doing a blend, and going through at least 2 oil changes with blended. The reason HE SAID, is this; the synth oil, is much smaller/thinner than reg oil, and will act as an oil cleaner, on old hydrocarbon thickened or built up oil, and liquify it, and put it back into circulation. So if any of your old hardened stuff, was sealing up small holes, rings, seals, and such, you are now going to remove that stuff, and waa laa, all kinds of leakage can occur, burning or just passing leakage. I think he said most oil companies make their oil at least 40% with synth oil, before they will call it blended.
this is why he recommended at least two oil changes, with blended first, and you taking good notes, of leakage, and any burnage you may find. If you are not getting any, then he says fine, go to a full synth.
On leakage/ passing of oil without necessarily burning, he recommends not only one of his BG products, but another long time product- Rislone oil additive. And also RESTORE.
I don't remember exactly why he said this stuff works, but it is similar to a cleaner, that removes all hydroproduct around seals, and then allows the seal to reform, to it's origional size, as long as it is not missing any material.
Both he and skeeter personally told stories of people they new, who were going trough 1 or 2 quarts of oil, every 3k miles, then started using the Rislone, or RESTORE, and were down to just 1 or no more adding of quarts, per 3 to 5 k of miles traveled. I was impressed a BG dude recommended another product other than theirs. Especially because they are one of the biggest sponsors of the show!!! I am going to try it(RESTORE) for a while in 2 of my vehicles, and see what happens.

By the way; I like Valvoline; excellent wear protection at cold start up, and 10/30 is good for everyone, you want circulation as fast as poss; for both heat and wear protection- 5/30 is thinner and would offer better heat protection and wear at start up , as long as it is still clinging to the moving parts, but I fear wear protection over normal usage and time, more so. so 10/30 is for me...

 

nah, didn't feel like getting out into the cold to do it today, lmao

but I'll porbably pull them tomorrow and look. not that it's going to be any warmer tomorrow, but tomorrow's the last day of my vacation before I go back to work

 

Most 'guests' on shows like that are representatives of one of the show's sponsors and rarely promote a competitor. BG and Rislone have competitive products. Given that, one should take what's said with the proverbial grain of salt.

 

As a possibility for cheap older style break-in oil, though ZDDP level is unknown (or at least I haven't found it yet), I noticed Wal-Mart sells Accel brand SF rated oil labeled for vehicles 1988 and older.

From what I've gathered, rings generally seat relatively quickly or not at all. I'm getting a bit worried hearing about rebuilt Toyota engines guzzling oil for so long. Does this happen fairly often?

Bleeder, did you use rings from Engnbldr or from your local parts store? I don't remember.

 

I am curious; and this is not being smarta@#ssical; why would you wanna use sf rated oil for break in, when any oil made after 1988, is better, with more additives, thickeners and thinners for varying temps, and cleaning agents?
It is just because it may be cheaper?

 

Lack of that stuff and also the older, higher level of ZDDP of the era. I don't know if the Wal-Mart oil has that much ZDDP. The ZDDP consideration is primarily for the cam. I don't know what effect it has on ring break-in.

I've seen recommendations of 1200 ppm for normal use in flat tappet engines, and 2000 ppm or so for the initial run-in. SM grade oil has no ZDDP minimum, only a maximum of 800 ppm.

Freshly honed cylinder walls have some bite. The cross hatching is similar to checkering on a pistol grip. You want those "teeth" to quickly wear down the high spots on the outer edges of the rings so the rings get a good, tight seal against the cylinder walls. If the teeth wear down before the rings seal, you're in trouble.

For seating rings you don't necessarily want the best-lubricating, sludge-fighting, loaded with other additives oil possible. Old school advice is to use straight 30 weight non-detergent oil, but that stems from an earlier era. I don't know what's best or how much the oil used for break-in actually matters for our purposes. I'm trying to learn about this and welcome any opinions.

 

...to Abe, you are right about that! If yo ever hear his show on Sat. morning, you know that BG is their numero uno sponsor!!!! He completely whores himself out for them, and is totally on their jock! Does that mean BG doesn't work, or that I would not use them? No, becuase actually they are about the only product I have heard of, that if you engine/tranny has less than 100k miles, or maybe it is 75k, and you start a switch to their products, they will wrrnty repair your engine/tranny parts for like 100k miles or lifetime, something pretty awesome if you ask me.
And for this head honcho guy from BG, to come onto live radio, and pimp two other products that are not his, even though he just finished talking about a product that BG makes, that does virtually the same thing?
I was pretty darn impressed by that, must be a fairly honest dude...

 

checked the plugs about 30 minutes ago; they show obvious signs of burning oil, but they weren't really all that bad. I'm glad to see that they all look the same, so all of the cylinders are breaking in evenly. But there's no real build up to speak of on them, just a light color coating; they still run fine

checked the PCV valve as well, and it's functioning like it should


I'm just going to keep an eye on the level a little closer

it's due for an oil change in about 400 miles; I'll probably get it done tomorrow after work, and use 15w40 and see if that helps

 

Good luck, how many miles are on it now? I would become concerned if this goes on to long.

 

It may go through oil faster, but a lighter weight might allow the rings to build more friction and seat, say 5/20. When you do the oil change you might also think about a seafoam treatment. Might help to clean the cylinder walls and rings and help seat the rings. I spoke to Tod at engbldr about mine some time ago, he said back when they were racing, they sometimes would have one that would not seat the rings properly, they would pour something like seafoam in the intake, then run it around the track all out and had good luck getting them to seat. I have seafoamed mine a few times now and I am down to burning in just #3. Cant seem to get that one to seat. But I have a block, crank, and rods at the machine shop now so I am done messing with it. Shame though runs like a top. Just some thoughts, hope you get it ironed out. I'm ready to see you move towards a SAS in that thing.

 

well, changed the oil today, put in 15w40, so we'll see how that holds up

the valve train sounds a little quieter with 15w40 it in but I think they're due for their last adjustment

I've got just under 6000 on the motor so far; feels like it's been longer, but I did the rebuild just after 296k miles, and it's just about to roll over 302K now

 

Well hope everything gets seated properly, keep us updated.

 

dude the same exact thing happened to me!! i have put at least 40k on it so far and it has only gotten worse. i have tried all different kinds of oils with no luck. it started knocking only when its cold at like 20k maybe? not very loud but definitely noticeable. its still a mystery. my guess is the valve stem seals are installed wrong. i got the engine re manufactured so i didn't do any of the engine work except throw it in.

i just dealt with it and fed it oil and its never given me the slightest problem. i wish i knew what it was

 

hey but i never need to change my oil

i still do anyways haha

 

lol, I had a friend who did that with an old Mazda 323 he had

through a combination of leaks and burning it, that car used as much oil as it did gas almost so he'd top it off every time he filled up with gas, and every so often he'd change the filter

to my knowledge, he NEVER changed the oil on that car once it's started loosing oil, and he drove it for AT LEAST 4 years like that through high school

 

Superbleeder, or anyone else, check out -(Ferrarichat.com) (Dr. Ali E. Haas), good article on oil, I have gone to a 5-30 syn blend, Valvolnie after reading this. I Will go to a full syn, 2 oil changes from now.

 

Like I said in the first of my post here; the BG guy actually said over live radio, if you have no bad mechanicals, try using rislone or restore for a while, to see if these products help everything sit down, and seal the way they should; he recommended both of these products.

 

pislone aint nothing but solvent,just like seascum.If he has new rings in the motor{and he does,I watched the thread},then a product for freeing stuck rings isnt going to help.Cant believe all the crap they put on the side of the can.I would do a leakdown test.This will tell you if the rings are seating.I have heard back in the 50's Chevrolet made some 283's with chrome rings,and they had seating problems.The factory fix was to pour bon ami down the carb will engine was running,then change the oil.This roughed up the bores enough to seal,but was probably tough on the bearings.Please keep us up to date on this problem.Your pics helped me remember where all those parts I took off went.What kind of rings did you use?I know you bored it .020.I only have about 3k on mine,immediatley went out and checked oil after reading your post.All good.I use rotella 5w40.Started with 15w40,cant tell the difference in either.It doesnt seem to rattle as much on those 15 degree mornings with 5w40,mileage is a little better{steady 21 to 23}.I know you did some rerouting of vacuum lines,could that affect your pcv?Anyway,keep us posted.