Oil and piston problem on built motor...

[Enraged78]

I've had quite a few difficulties with this car since I built my motor up, and you guys have helped me on all of them. I'm hoping that this will be the case again.

I have a 2G seven bolt block built with Ross 8.5 to 1 pistons .020 over, Eagle rods, and a zero balanced rotating assembly. Two months ago, I found that I had a crack in my ported 2G head. I replaced it with a 1G head. Everything went very well, and the car was running nearly perfect. I have a decent case of boost creep since replacing my high flow cat with a higher flowing cat, and the car has seen 24PSI of boost for a split seconds a few times. I do have water/methanol injection to help quell knock, which usually isn't an issue. I also had a crankcase pressure problem, which I helped alleviate by boring out my PCV and venting it, and venting my breather. There are no filters on either line, and the lines run to the ground.

Anyway, here's my issue. I started noticing that the car was consuming a considerable amount of oil. It started out as a quart every 2000 miles, then a quart every 1000, and finally, a quart ever 400. The car burns no coolant at all. The car runs VERY well aside from the oil loss. I get about 22MPG with it, mostly city driving. There are a few spots where oil will show up on the outside of the oil pan and the oil filter housing, but never a large amount. The car will not leak oil on the driveway when parked. In order to solve this, I put the car on jackstands and cleaned the motor with brake cleaner. I then wiped everything down and started the car. After running for 1/2 hour, there were no leaks to be found anywhere. To help find them, I activated the car's studderbox to build boost and checked for leaks again. I found none, but noticed that I was actually burning oil, and saw a lot of black soot from the tailpipe. I went to shut the car down, and found that my alarm had locked the doors with my key in the ignition.

I don't know if this next part is important or not: I then had to kill the engine, so I pulled all four spark plug wires in succession, from #4 to #1. I stalled the car, jimmied in, and removed the key. I pluged the wires back in, rolled down the window, and started the car again. Still no oil leaks.

To see what was going on, I pulled my spark plugs and checked the tops of the cylinders. I found that #3 and #4 had a lot of oil in them. Enough that you could see that the tops of the pistons were wet and black. #2 looked perfect. #1 gave me a bigger surprise. There is a small gouge in the top of the piston, shaped like a plug electrode, however, the electrode did not appear to make contact with the piston. All four plugs look perfect.

Now, I have to figure out what the hell is going on. Any ideas? The oil on top of the pistons might be caused by a few bad valves seals or maybe rings. A crack in the head or block is also possible, but unlikely.

As far as the gouge in #1, I have no idea. The gouge was fresh metal, so it happened while I was working on it, but the engine sounded fine and didn't seem to injest anything. Could pulling the spark plug wires off one by one have had something to do with this? Could I have caused a pre-ignition condition?

I plan on running a compression test on the engine as soon as I feel like looking at the car again. Also, with the crankcase pressure problems I've had, I think that I will build a pressure tester to attatch to the dipstick. This way I can see what my actual crank pressure is. If anyone has any other ideas, I'd like to hear them.

Sorry for the book, but I wanted to provide as much detail as possible.

Thanks,
Matt.

 

[lasertim]

I am assuming you resurfaced the head and block when being built? Also resurfaced the 1g head when you put it on? What type of head gasket and did you re-torque after a few miles of driving?

I would do a leak down test and see where you are having problems. As far as the mark in the top of the piston, I am really not sure. If the plugs look good it obviously wouldnt be a impact from the plug. Could a ringland have broke off or something?

 

[TSIfreek]

If your getting black smoke out your exhaust thats a fuel rich condition and not good for the rings or the cylinder walls. Do what you can to avoid the black smoke but it maybe to late since you may have washed down the cylinder walls with all that excessive fuel in the cylinders. My be a possibility since the problem has gotten worse.
I use some oil on my motor but I have no color smoke at all coming out my exhaust so I dont know it may be using some when its cold and the pistons are a little loose? Also it is normal to use some oil under WOT a little is ok but you will know when you have a problem.
I dont like to hear that you have some piston tops wet and some dry you want them all dry. You may have to pull that motor out and re hone it with new rings. Its not going to get any better at this point.

 

[Enraged78]

I am assuming you resurfaced the head and block when being built? Also resurfaced the 1g head when you put it on? What type of head gasket and did you re-torque after a few miles of driving?

Head and block were both resurfaced when built. Head has better than 80RA, as does the block. I used an OEM Mitsu composite gasket, and I did retorque it.

I would do a leak down test and see where you are having problems. As far as the mark in the top of the piston, I am really not sure. If the plugs look good it obviously wouldnt be a impact from the plug. Could a ringland have broke off or something?

Yeah, I should also do a leakdown test. I did one with the old head I had, and got 2% across the board. I'll have to see what it's doing now. As far as the mark, I'm really at a loss. I hope to hell it's not a ring land, especially considering that would probably put my block and pistons out of commision.

Thanks,
Matt.

 

[Enraged78]

If your getting black smoke out your exhaust thats a fuel rich condition and not good for the rings or the cylinder walls. Do what you can to avoid the black smoke but it maybe to late since you may have washed down the cylinder walls with all that excessive fuel in the cylinders. My be a possibility since the problem has gotten worse.
I use some oil on my motor but I have no color smoke at all coming out my exhaust so I dont know it may be using some when its cold and the pistons are a little loose? Also it is normal to use some oil under WOT a little is ok but you will know when you have a problem.
I dont like to hear that you have some piston tops wet and some dry you want them all dry. You may have to pull that motor out and re hone it with new rings. Its not going to get any better at this point.

Studderbox pulls timing to below TDC and sets the rev limit at 4,750RPM, so rich under studderbox is quite normal. It's what allows the turbo to spool while the engine is not under load. As far as washing down the cylinders, that's not something I've thought of. I'll have to pull the head and check the cylinder walls. It's looking more and more like I'm going to have to do that, which sucks, but at least it's getting to the point where I can pull a 4G63T head in my sleep.

Thanks for the input,
Matt.

 

[InvaderGSX]

I've been through a lot of motors or shortblocks in my 2G. The #1 thing that would cause oil to burn is bad rings or old head. I've owned 3 built motors. Two 7 bolts and one 6 bolt. One 7 bolt was a stroker and the other a standard 2.0. After the rebuild of the lower end what type of oil did you use? I'm hoping you used standard non synthetic so that the rings could seat. If not then there's your problem. Most people saying run regular oil for 3000 miles or so. I've always gone around 8000+ before going to synthetic. When getting the bottom end rebuilt did you replace the oil pump/front case with a new one? After the first time I was stupid enough to reuse the old oil pump I learned my lesson to always replace it. And when you put the 1G head on did you get it freshed up? And lastly check your turbo. Bad turbo definitely burns a crap load of oil.

 

[bryanwheat]

I've been through a lot of motors or shortblocks in my 2G. The #1 thing that would cause oil to burn is bad rings or old head. I've owned 3 built motors. Two 7 bolts and one 6 bolt. One 7 bolt was a stroker and the other a standard 2.0. After the rebuild of the lower end what type of oil did you use? I'm hoping you used standard non synthetic so that the rings could seat. If not then there's your problem. Most people saying run regular oil for 3000 miles or so. I've always gone around 8000+ before going to synthetic. When getting the bottom end rebuilt did you replace the oil pump/front case with a new one? After the first time I was stupid enough to reuse the old oil pump I learned my lesson to always replace it. And when you put the 1G head on did you get it freshed up? And lastly check your turbo. Bad turbo definitely burns a crap load of oil.

the not using synthetic on breakin is a f-in myth, i use synthetic on every motor that i break in, and never have a problem with it. Why would a oil pump eat up the oil yeah, it could leak it out, but this car isn't leaking it out. So the oil pump is not the culprit. The synthetic oil is not either, there is no proof behine this theory that synthetic does not make the rings break in, if the cylinder walls are honed properly, than there is really no way for the rings to not break in. IT if better for your motor to run synthetic from the start, than to run shitty ass conventional oil at first, than running synthetic. You give nonhelpfull information.

I would reccoment pulling the plugs, and looking at them to see what color thay are, next to a compression test, this should give you all the information that you need to determine where your oil is going.

 

[Maglin]

Well the problem is most likely in your head. Your cars head that is. You will not have wet oil on your piston tops if it was comeing from bad rings. It would just burn it and when you shut it off what little bit could get in their unbruned isn't really going to be that noticable. Now cracked valve guides can do this very thing. You should have someone follow you and do some boosted driving. Like only 10 PSI is really needed. If you get no blue smoke under boost but as soon as you close the throttle and then get on it again you see a big bellow of blue smoke come out. That would be valve guides. Under boost the guide is pressurized on the intake port and the exhaust is also pressurized but not as much. As soon as you let off the intake goes to vacuum and sucks out the oil from the cracks and also loose valve guide.

You might also see some oil on the bottom of your plugs when you pull them. Not always but it can happen. Very good indication. It won't be on the electrode just on the bottom of the plug.

So it would be best to pull the head and have it inspected at a shop. I have a bad head on my car ATM. I'm getting ready to pull it all apart again. It really sucks when you can build everything at the same time. Ends up costing so much more in the end.

 

[InvaderGSX]

the not using synthetic on breakin is a f-in myth, i use synthetic on every motor that i break in, and never have a problem with it. Why would a oil pump eat up the oil yeah, it could leak it out, but this car isn't leaking it out. So the oil pump is not the culprit. The synthetic oil is not either, there is no proof behine this theory that synthetic does not make the rings break in, if the cylinder walls are honed properly, than there is really no way for the rings to not break in. IT if better for your motor to run synthetic from the start, than to run shitty ass conventional oil at first, than running synthetic. You give nonhelpfull information.

I would reccoment pulling the plugs, and looking at them to see what color thay are, next to a compression test, this should give you all the information that you need to determine where your oil is going.

Thanks ####....... Your the very first person who has ever said that using synthetic oil during break in causing the rings not to seat is a myth. It's funny how you sit there and say all my info is nonhelpful info, but you leave out the fact that I had other information such as the head and the turbo. Those are the two main things that would cause oil to burn. I bet that info was nonhelpful information. The oil pump causing the oil to burn was kind of a stupid thing to say as a bad oil pump would cause a turbo to go out and cause bearing failure in the block. Everybody has their own theories on oil, so don't sit there and say that what I am saying is not true. Do a search on this forum and other forums and the majority of the people say the same thing.

 

[Enraged78]

I've been through a lot of motors or shortblocks in my 2G. The #1 thing that would cause oil to burn is bad rings or old head. I've owned 3 built motors. Two 7 bolts and one 6 bolt. One 7 bolt was a stroker and the other a standard 2.0. After the rebuild of the lower end what type of oil did you use? I'm hoping you used standard non synthetic so that the rings could seat. If not then there's your problem. Most people saying run regular oil for 3000 miles or so. I've always gone around 8000+ before going to synthetic. When getting the bottom end rebuilt did you replace the oil pump/front case with a new one? After the first time I was stupid enough to reuse the old oil pump I learned my lesson to always replace it. And when you put the 1G head on did you get it freshed up? And lastly check your turbo. Bad turbo definitely burns a crap load of oil.

The motor was built 10,000 miles ago by a very reputable engine builder, and I was with him every step of the way. NON-Synthetic engine oil was used for break in, and was changed at 100, 250, 500, and 1000 miles. I swithced to synthetic at 3,000 miles. No thermostat was used for the first 100 miles to keep the engine cold under break in.

After 5,000 miles, the engine was torn apart and every component was checked. Bearing wear was outstanding. Crosshatch pattern on the cylinder walls was also perfect. Ring wear was perfect, and all ring ends were not shiny, indicating that ring flutter had not occured. Ring gap was perfect. The front case I used was a Mitsu OEM and was brand new, as was everythinglelse from the motor. The head I used for the first build was a freshly rebuilt, ported 2G head. It was replaced 2,000 miles ago with a freshly built 1G head, due to a crack in the exhaust runner of #3. The new 1G head was built by the best DSM machininst in the state. New valves, guides, and seals were installed, and a valve job was performed. I swapped over my 1G revision "C" and "D" cams into the head. I had valve runout checked on the head by a seperate shop when I got it, and it was found to be perfect. The turbo is a brand new MHI Evo III 16G with no shaft play.

I've already gone through everything you've mentioned. Now you can see why this is driving me so friggin crazy. Compression, leakdown, and crankcase pressure tests are all next. I really was hoping that I've forgotten something, but unfortunately, it doesn't look like I have.

Thanks for the input,
Matt.

 

[InvaderGSX]

With Synthetic how long does it take for the oil to get dark? Is it burning before the oil changes color? My synthetic looks new until around 2500 miles then it starts to get darker.

 

[Enraged78]

the not using synthetic on breakin is a f-in myth, i use synthetic on every motor that i break in, and never have a problem with it. Why would a oil pump eat up the oil yeah, it could leak it out, but this car isn't leaking it out. So the oil pump is not the culprit. The synthetic oil is not either, there is no proof behine this theory that synthetic does not make the rings break in, if the cylinder walls are honed properly, than there is really no way for the rings to not break in. IT if better for your motor to run synthetic from the start, than to run shitty ass conventional oil at first, than running synthetic. You give nonhelpfull information.

I would reccoment pulling the plugs, and looking at them to see what color thay are, next to a compression test, this should give you all the information that you need to determine where your oil is going.

I did not use synthetic on my break in, because I was told not to, and because changing synthetic at 100, 250, 500, and 1000 miles would have cost me a large chunk of change.

I pulled the plugs when I looked at the car two weeks ago, and they all looked perfect. Light tan in color, no signs of detonation, and the color indicated that the air fuel ratio, while slightly rich, was very close to being where I wanted it. With water/alch injection, I have my WOT A/F ratio set to 11:1 using DSMLink. My Aeromotive AFPR is set to 42.5PSI base with the hose off, and 38 with it on.

The piston tops of the two dry pistons had no carbon deposits, and had a nice light tan color to them. The color was uniform througout the piston, indicating no hot spots or signs of detonation. This makes the wierd gouge in #1 all the more confusing.

Matt.

 

[Enraged78]

Well the problem is most likely in your head. Your cars head that is. You will not have wet oil on your piston tops if it was comeing from bad rings. It would just burn it and when you shut it off what little bit could get in their unbruned isn't really going to be that noticable. Now cracked valve guides can do this very thing. You should have someone follow you and do some boosted driving. Like only 10 PSI is really needed. If you get no blue smoke under boost but as soon as you close the throttle and then get on it again you see a big bellow of blue smoke come out. That would be valve guides. Under boost the guide is pressurized on the intake port and the exhaust is also pressurized but not as much. As soon as you let off the intake goes to vacuum and sucks out the oil from the cracks and also loose valve guide.

You might also see some oil on the bottom of your plugs when you pull them. Not always but it can happen. Very good indication. It won't be on the electrode just on the bottom of the plug.

So it would be best to pull the head and have it inspected at a shop. I have a bad head on my car ATM. I'm getting ready to pull it all apart again. It really sucks when you can build everything at the same time. Ends up costing so much more in the end.

Hmm. I didn't think about cracked guides. It would explain a lot. The head was just done by a good machinist, so if I find that this is the issue, I'll pull the head and have it gone over. To be honest, a bad head is one of my better things to deal with at this point. I'd rather have it be that than the bottom end.

I had no oil on my plugs, they looked perfect. See my previous post for plug color and a/f ratio.

Sorry to hear about your head. It could be worse though, you could have gouged a piston.

Thanks,
Matt.

 

[Enraged78]

With Synthetic how long does it take for the oil to get dark? Is it burning before the oil changes color? My synthetic looks new until around 2500 miles then it starts to get darker.

It gets dark pretty quick. Around 1500 miles is all it takes. Compound that with the fact that I'm adding oil every time I get gas, and it doesn't look very good. This has all been since I put on the new head.

Matt.

 

[Injected]

Hmm. I didn't think about cracked guides. It would explain a lot. The head was just done by a good machinist, so if I find that this is the issue, I'll pull the head and have it gone over. To be honest, a bad head is one of my better things to deal with at this point. I'd rather have it be that than the bottom end.

Any word on the valve-guides?

 

[Enraged78]

Any word on the valve-guides?

Not yet. I've been lazy and haven't worked on the car at all in the last two weeks. Decided to drink, play golf, and spend time with the GF, friends and family instead. I won't see any of those things for a while once I start wrenching on the car again....

Matt.

 

[Enraged78]

Update:

I brought the car down to a friend of mine's shop and ran some tests on it to see what the real problem is here. I pulled the plugs to find that the gouge in #2 is no longer visible. It's possible what I was seeing was just a chip off the carbon on top of the piston, but I won't know the real story until I rip the head off. The piston top of #4 was not wet this time, but #3 was. I had my engine builder go through all four and he mentioned that they all looked "damp". Not wet per se, but damp. The spark plugs looked great, and there was no oil on them. No signs of detonation, but they looked a little rich, as every DSM does.

Anyway, I ran some more tests on it to narrow down the issue. First, I ran a compression test. Here are the results:

#1: 175 PSI
#2: 175 PSI
#3: 172 PSI
#4: 175 PSI

Then, I ran a leakdown test. I got 6% leakdown at 40PSI, and less than 1% at 100PSI.

After this, I created a 'crankcase pressure tester' using a boost gauge, two lengths of fuel line, and a filter to keep the oil out of the gauge. I then put the whole assembly on the dipstick tube, and engaged my studderbox at 5,000RPM, which pushed out about 16PSI of boost. The car blew oil out the exhaust once I let off studderbox, and everything stank like burning oil and rotten eggs, which is great since I have a brand new hiflow cat on there. There was no measurable pressure in the crankcase, as the gauge read less than 1PSI of boost. This indicates that my two vents are letting out all the crankcase pressure before it gets backed up the oil drain tube. I also pulled my intercooler piping to check for oil. The pipes were bone dry. This indicates that the turbo isn't blowing oil out of it's seals on the intake side.

So, it looks that Maglin was pretty dead on on this one. The two things we've narrowed it down to are either bad valve guides, or seals, or both. The shop that I bought the head from wants me to take the car over to them so they can look at it before I rip the head off. In the event that the head is bad, the shop that built it is willing to stand behid their work and fix it.

I'll post again when I know more. Thanks for the help, guys.

Matt.

 

[tsunari]

I actually have the SAME problem . . . if you care to compare notes/tests, feel free to PM me. I'm anxious to hear your results as I totally hate putting in 1qt of oil every 400 miles or so.

 

[Maglin]

That is great to hear about your builders standing behind their work. You don't see that to much these days. I have my car in the garage on stands. Still haven't gotten around to yanking the motor and trans yet. I have started doing some experimental porting on a head I had sitting around.

Man your bottem end sounds like it's perfect almost. Perfect compression and vertually no compression leaking. Right where a new broken in bottom end should be. It nice to know it's good. It's pretty easy to yank the head and have it fixed insead of pulling the whole motor. Good luck.

 

[Enraged78]

That is great to hear about your builders standing behind their work. You don't see that to much these days. I have my car in the garage on stands. Still haven't gotten around to yanking the motor and trans yet. I have started doing some experimental porting on a head I had sitting around.

Man your bottem end sounds like it's perfect almost. Perfect compression and vertually no compression leaking. Right where a new broken in bottom end should be. It nice to know it's good. It's pretty easy to yank the head and have it fixed insead of pulling the whole motor. Good luck.

Well, I have one more snag to add to the equation. I went to the shop that sold me the head for some more testing last night. We took the car for a ride with one of the technicians riding shotgun so he could see how much smoke was being produced under boost. There was some, but not enough to explain where a quart of oil went in 400 miles, or how I've burned 3.5 quarts since my last oil change.

The shop seems to think that this has something to do with an oil control ring not seating properly. I'm still a little skeptical. They were very emphatic about standing behind the head if that was the issue though. Either way, the solution is the same.

I'm going to pull the head this weekend and have it brought in and tested. I'm also going to examine the bottom end, and if need be, pull the pistons to examine the rings. With the head off, it's really just a matter of yanking the oil pan and unbolting the rods from the crank, so it's really not that bad.

I'll let you all know what happens.

Thanks for all the input,
Matt.

 

[Enraged78]

I actually have the SAME problem . . . if you care to compare notes/tests, feel free to PM me. I'm anxious to hear your results as I totally hate putting in 1qt of oil every 400 miles or so.

I tell you what, I'd really like the group to benefit from anything that we might find from this. If you can, please post your situation in this thread as well, or start a new thread. I'd hate for us to find the solutions to both our problems only to have the group not know what happened.

Thanks,
Matt.

 

[tsunari]

I tell you what, I'd really like the group to benefit from anything that we might find from this. If you can, please post your situation in this thread as well, or start a new thread. I'd hate for us to find the solutions to both our problems only to have the group not know what happened.

Thanks,
Matt.

Completely agree . . . just didn't know if you wanted to get together on the side-lines and run some tests on my setup to see if the results are similar and post findings back on here. Anywho- here goes . . .

Aside from cams, I had a built motor by a reputable speed shop fairly close to where I went to school (thanks crank-walk). Broke the motor in doing successively harder pulls on 10W40 Castrol GTX oil for about 30 min, then immediately did an oil change. Followed by oil changes at the 100, 250, 500, 1500, 3000 or so intervals and switched to Mobile1 10W30 after 3000 miles.

That motor was great, except on the first AutoX I took it to, the oil bypass-valve stuck halfway open and destroyed the oil pump along with what was left of my T25. When the motor was being torn-down and re-built afterwords, I went ahead and got the head built as well by the same people.

So now I'm on the new motor with ~ 10k miles (will check my logs), and a new GT30r.
I keep track of pretty much anything that goes on with this car from fill-ups, to oil changes, to upgrades, etc . . . I'm pretty meticulous.

Motor was broke-in in pretty much the same manner as the 1st motor, except I probably only did a half-dozen or so pulls to seat the rings instead of doing that for 20-30 min. I then had an hour drive home on the highway @ cruising speeds which probably isn't best for a brand-new motor, but there was no way around it and I tried to vary my speed/RPM as best I could.

Valve Cover has both ports run to a vented Catch Can with -6AN lines and very little oil vapors are collected (more water from condensation than anything). Compression is very high/nice across the board (~185-190 . . . will update later), but have not done a leak-down test just yet.

There are no external oil leaks that I can find. I have cleaned the underside of the engine/tranny with brake cleaner and after several thousand miles of driving, have yet to find an oily film except for around the vent to the CC.

Suspecting that something may have been wrong with the turbo, I sent it in to PTE a few weeks ago and they informed me that there was absolutely nothing wrong with it, but went ahead and changed out the center cartridge while it was torn apart.

From what I've been told, blue-ish smoke puffs are only seen when I accelerate from a stop or am rolling to a stop ( I have never seen them myself through the rear-view). There is no smoke on first startup after sitting for an extended period of time (overnight), and as far as I know, there is no blue smoke while under boost (will try to validate).

Will update with real numbers this evening/add anything else useful that I can think of.

*****UPDATE*****
Motor has almost 11k on it
Turbo has almost 1500 miles on it (currently boosting 15psi)
Last compression test was (185, 183, 179, 176)
Compression test 1 month before that was (185, 180, 180, 176)

 

[tsunari]

The only things I can think of (based on these symptoms are the following)

Turbo -- in my case, it seems to be ruled out, but perhaps there's something wrong with the return line? I've checked it several times and it seems to be fine . . . no kinks, etc . .

Valve Seals -- I was under the impression that it would smoke at idle and on first startup and go away when driving at speed

Valve Guides -- not sure if they show the same symptoms

Oil rings not seated -- Have no idea how to test for this and would hate for it to be the case

PCV system failure -- now this one is interesting . . . even though we are both venting ours and have twice the ventilation under boost, we lack a vacuum source at idle. I am going to try and get my old VC with a new PCV put on next weekend and see if that does anything. I liked the test you did checking for blow-by, but perhaps we're missing something . . .

Brand of Oil -- there are NUMEROUS accounts of motors burning more oil when switching/using M1 synthetic oils. I'm going to try a different brand of synthetic next oil change and see if that does anything, although I highly doubt it. I've never had this many problems with oil loss in this or any other vehicle.

 

[Enraged78]

The only things I can think of (based on these symptoms are the following)

Turbo -- in my case, it seems to be ruled out, but perhaps there's something wrong with the return line? I've checked it several times and it seems to be fine . . . no kinks, etc . .

Valve Seals -- I was under the impression that it would smoke at idle and on first startup and go away when driving at speed

Valve Guides -- not sure if they show the same symptoms

Oil rings not seated -- Have no idea how to test for this and would hate for it to be the case

PCV system failure -- now this one is interesting . . . even though we are both venting ours and have twice the ventilation under boost, we lack a vacuum source at idle. I am going to try and get my old VC with a new PCV put on next weekend and see if that does anything. I liked the test you did checking for blow-by, but perhaps we're missing something . . .

Brand of Oil -- there are NUMEROUS accounts of motors burning more oil when switching/using M1 synthetic oils. I'm going to try a different brand of synthetic next oil change and see if that does anything, although I highly doubt it. I've never had this many problems with oil loss in this or any other vehicle.

Yeah, our problems sound VERY similar in a lot of aspects, especially considering we've both been in the motor a few times.

Turbo - I had my Evo III GT go out just like your PTE. When I first got my MHI Evo III, I had my PCV and crank vent set up just like you're describing. I found that both lines fed into one catchcan was actually producing too much crankcase pressure. So, I got rid of my catchcan, bored out my PCV, and ran two seperate lines to the ground. No more high crank pressure. Sometimes filters can impede flow enough to cause crancase pressure to rise, and that in turn can cause oil to backflow up the turbo's drain line. This can cause the turbo to blow oil out it's seals. Check your intercooler piping. If it's wet, that's your culprit. Although, I suspect that you may have already done this.

Valve seals/guides: I'm really thinking that this is where my problem lies. I won't know for sure until I pull the head and have it checked. I'm pulling my head this weekend, and I'll be sure to post afterwards.

Oil rings not seated: I've been told the only test is to rule everything else out and then pull the pistons. If the head is already off, this should be fairly simple. I'm really having a hard time with this one, as compression and leakdown are just too good on this motor. I don't plan on ruling it out, however.

Burning more oil: I went from regular to synthetic at 3,000 miles as well. I don't trust dino oil in some of the high stress driving conditions my motor will see, however.

Matt.

 

[tsunari]

Yeah, our problems sound VERY similar in a lot of aspects, especially considering we've both been in the motor a few times. . .

Matt.

Even more eerie is we have the same name

But seriously . . . I've checked my pipes and they're clean, but probably wouln't hurt to pull it again. Will update my 1st post with supporting data in a few hours when I get home.

-Matt #2

****Original post updated****