Need help... Catch can smoking
Are you sure its oil smoke? It seems to dissipate pretty fast. Is it steam from water? Its possible that you have a lot of condensation inside the valve covers which will cause steam. Seams to be coming out with some pressure though, that would concern me.
You could drain the oil and if you have a magnet type drain plug it might give you a clue. Or scope the cylinders and look for damage. Leak down test as well. Have you checked to make sure there's no water in the oil or oil in the radiator? You could have a bad spot on a head gasket. Just trying to give you some options to look at.
Good luck man.
You could drain the oil and if you have a magnet type drain plug it might give you a clue. Or scope the cylinders and look for damage. Leak down test as well. Have you checked to make sure there's no water in the oil or oil in the radiator? You could have a bad spot on a head gasket. Just trying to give you some options to look at.
Good luck man.
Are you sure its oil smoke? It seems to dissipate pretty fast. Is it steam from water? Its possible that you have a lot of condensation inside the valve covers which will cause steam. Seams to be coming out with some pressure though, that would concern me.
You could drain the oil and if you have a magnet type drain plug it might give you a clue. Or scope the cylinders and look for damage. Leak down test as well. Have you checked to make sure there's no water in the oil or oil in the radiator? You could have a bad spot on a head gasket. Just trying to give you some options to look at.
Good luck man.
You could drain the oil and if you have a magnet type drain plug it might give you a clue. Or scope the cylinders and look for damage. Leak down test as well. Have you checked to make sure there's no water in the oil or oil in the radiator? You could have a bad spot on a head gasket. Just trying to give you some options to look at.
Good luck man.
TECH Junkie
Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 3,012
Likes: 48
I would expect steam in the exhaust, not so much out the valve covers. But should you have a headgasket issue.....put some Ls9s on it and forget it. But as others have said, you probably have a hurt piston.......and I'm going to guess it's #7.
If it smells like exhaust then you most likely have damaged rings which is causing excessive blow by. Do a compression test and a leak down test. If all is good then you could pressurize the coolant system and see if that bleeds down. If it does then I would look into head gaskets.
As for the steam, we get it all the time with race engines. They get hot during a pass and when they cool down the valve covers would build condensation bad. I have drained oil that looks like milk and you would think the engine is toast. Fresh oil and go again. It can get pretty bad.
As for the steam, we get it all the time with race engines. They get hot during a pass and when they cool down the valve covers would build condensation bad. I have drained oil that looks like milk and you would think the engine is toast. Fresh oil and go again. It can get pretty bad.
Mine steams a lot on warm up due to humidity and E85.
Thankso to everyone for the input. I will do a compression test today and see how that goes. I forgot to mention that my catch can has no PCV. Not sure if it makes a difference with the amount of smoke.
Getting ready to do the compression test. Does the engine need to be warm or can I do the test cold? I removed all plugs and unplugged the fuel pump. Is there anything else I need to do? I read when cranking to hold your foot down on the gas pedal, is this correct?
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Yea, hold her wide open. One thing that seems to be missing from this thread......how much HP/TQ did it make and did it loose some power on later pulls ?
I feel like your going to find broken ring lands and some chunks in the oil pan. Sadly my old lq4 were the same pistons..7 5 were the worse..1 was starting to get bad and same with 4 and 6.
The block itself is probably fine..might need a quick hone if the cyl walls have some light scoring. Id start shopping for gen 4 rods/pistons on the cheap..or spend a lil more on some pistons/rods and slap it back together. I found a complete lq4 cheaper than getting gen 4 pistons and sold my old block.Just might be time to go a step up if your on sbe.
The block itself is probably fine..might need a quick hone if the cyl walls have some light scoring. Id start shopping for gen 4 rods/pistons on the cheap..or spend a lil more on some pistons/rods and slap it back together. I found a complete lq4 cheaper than getting gen 4 pistons and sold my old block.Just might be time to go a step up if your on sbe.
Would it be better to do new pistons ect on this or build something else. Not looking for tons of power just something fun/ reliable to drive. I've been building this truck for 5 years and didn't even get to enjoy it before this . **** sucks. Here's a picture of it.
Here's is the graph. It seems a little low, I'm sure the low compression in # 7 didn't help.
Last edited by 70c10; Apr 15, 2017 at 06:35 PM. Reason: Spelling
#7 is shot for sure. Hopefully no head or cylinder walk damage and you can throw another piston in. I would be wanting to find out what caused it. What was ring gap? Timing? AFR? Need to get to the root cause of it. You have a modest goal and that motor should be able to handle it easily.
#7 is shot for sure. Hopefully no head or cylinder walk damage and you can throw another piston in. I would be wanting to find out what caused it. What was ring gap? Timing? AFR? Need to get to the root cause of it. You have a modest goal and that motor should be able to handle it easily.
TECH Junkie
Joined: Jul 2015
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I knew #7 would be the that hole that died. If you have the cash.....go forged and be done with it. Yes, people do the sbe deal...some live....but most don't for the long-term. It's cheaper once the expensive way.....think about it.
TECH Junkie
Joined: Jul 2015
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This is true. But 6 weeks from now, 500hp will be stale....and he will begin the quest for 7-800rwhp. It would be cheaper and easier to go ahead and have a bomb proof bottom end that will be rock solid and reliable for whatever power he makes...future wise.