new motor smoke?

jdcarnathan

New Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2007
Location
Charleston
my buddy just rebuilt his 3.slow and it has maybe 30 minutes of running on it, and it still smokes, is this normal. when he did the rings he dipped the whole piston in oil and slid them in to make it easier and seal a bit better, is it still just that oil burning off or what do yall think
 
Well, lots of unknowns by me and others who will comment on this thread.
If it was burning oil really bad before the overhaul, the muffler and cat will have oil in them and it will take a little time to burn it off. However, if he put chrome faced rings back in a used block, they will likely never seal. I always use iron Hastings rings when rebuilding street motors. They adapt well to crappy cylinder walls and usually seat within 30 minutes of hot driving. Heavy loads, i.e. pulling hills, helps seat the rings. I suggest he go pull some hills for 30 minutes with 10-30 oil in the engine. If they don't seat, they probably never will.
1) Did he cut the ridge in the top of each cylinder?
2)Did he hone the walls with a good cross hatch?
3)Did he not use chrome rings?
4)Did he have the heads done at a shop so that the valve seals are new?

Tell us more about what he did during the overhaul so we can better speculate. I hope he realizes that there are 3 left and 3 right pistons in that 3.0?
 
the block was honed by a machine shop, head work was done at machine shop, did notice the pistons were left and right, and the rings are whatever engnbldr always uses, runs great just smokes when you start it up but once it finally warms up, it quits, any ideas, it down the highway for about 10 miles, will that allow the rings to seat or not
 
has it been broken in/rings seated properly yet?

doesnt really sound like it from last post.

if not broke in then yeah its normal
 
just drove it some more prolly another 15 miles, do you think that should have seated the rings or not, i dont have any hills around here to try and pull, anyother ideas if not, thanks in advance
 
when i rebuild motors i run ND30 oil for 1500 miles to help seat the rings, some smoke at start up is normal until it warms up, if it runs good, who cares if your not running ND oil yet i would drain it and run it for a 1k or so miles, if it doesn't stop smoking who cares are you going to rip it back out and rebuild again, probably not so just let it ride, its a 3.0 anyway, were the rod bores reconditioned if not it will probaly sling a rod soon anyway.
 
all of the rods were actually replaced, its just very weird, on start up nothing and then as its warming up it smokes and once its normal operating temp nothing at all. I am just thinking its the rings.
 
Appears the rings are starting to seat indicated by the motor warming up and the smoke going away. I'm not sure what Enginebuilder supplies as his standard. Where the ring gaps checked and staggered during installation? On used motors, I typically buy 0.010 oversize rings and file to fit. Otherwise, standard rings in a worn standard bore will result in lower compression and some minor oil consumption. I suggest keep driving it and watch the oil level daily. It may take quite a bit of driving to seat the rings but I think they are responding and having a shop hone the block and look things over was a good move.

My $0.02
 
i checked the ring gaps on all of them and staggered them of course. so just continue driving it like normal or drive it hard to try and get them to seat better, just looking for some more advice, all i have done are race motors with some moly rings that seal dang near instantly
 
everything was vatted and cleaned that way so there shouldnt be any old oil, and all that happened was the hg was blown and i ended up just rebuilding everything
 
I think it just need to be driven more. The rings will eventually seat. Do you happen to know if the builder used chromoly rings? If so the could take a couple thousand miles to seat.
 
It took me most of the way from raleigh to goldsboro and back for the rings to seat fully on my stroker build, I broke it in on 10-40 rotella. it would smoke a little on startup, just a puff or so, for the first month or so, but after my first oil change at 500 miles it stopped. run it for a few more weeks before you start to worry too much
 
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