Ok so past several months I have noticed my engine using oil. No oil leaks on the ground so I assumed that it was consuming it internally. Pulled the engine and noticed so much carbon build up on the pistons, in the heads, and in the headers. My tuner says I am not running rich according to his tune. But my injectors are maxed out at 110%. Stock ls1 injectors.
Heads, cam, intake car. what could have or what could be causing this??? Not to familiar with seeing this much build up

 

Burning oil. Usually when your buring oil it builds up in the exhaust ports and on the exhaust valves. Black carbon looking smutt.

Im geussing its time for a rebuild. Rings are done. Could also be bad valve seals. Usually when seals are bad engine smokes pretty good on a first start after sitting over night. Do a compression test to know for sure.

 

 

agree 100%


To add to this your going to want to upgrade the rocker covers to the newer style. 05? iirc is where they begin. The baffling is better and the orfice style PVC is the only way to go. If you take your PVC out and it rattles? Junk it and get an orfice type for a quick semi fix. The rocker covers are a worthy upgrade as well imo.

 

Quick note: I had tons of oil consumption a while back and it was because my OEM PCV hose cracked and I built my own out of 3/8 hose and that I guess caused more flow or something than it was designed for and caused oil to suck into the intake. It was bad enough that when I took my rubber snorkle off of the throttle body there was obvious black puddle of oil laying there at the throttle body blade. Did a breather after that.

 

So this much build up could be an oil issue? Valve seals were bad btw

 

I've seen worse, but that aint good. Was the intake wet with oil behind the throttle body? Bad valve seals not going to help you either. Check valve guides for excessive wear and test/replace valve springs while you have it apart. Its always a good plan to install fresh valve springs. I'd be upgrading those injectors while your at it

 

The intake did not have any oil that it was using. The valve seals definitely were a problem. I have already ordered new valve springs.
I thought at first this was a tuning issue and it was running pig rich.. does a tune not cause what is shown in the pics to why several people are telling me it was oil consumption? Like I said I've never seen this so I would like to make sure i don't need to let my tuner known about this

 

I don't see really "excessive" oil consumption there.

Mostly, rich.

But to avoid oil burning, be sure to put thread sealer on the intake rocker bolts. They are exposed to the intake ports.

A bad tune, too rich, can add to oil control problems, in several ways. If YOU KNOW your tune is defective, take care of that, FOR SURE. Don't try to hack your way around already-identified problems.

 

I wouldn't say I know my tune is defective. Mostly because the car ran so good. With the first tuner I used I had so many surging problems, was idling at 1100rpms and it was running rich. Then with this new tuner I never had that problem and it ran the best it had run the last 4 months. Main reason I actually removed the engine, was because I had severe lifter failure. I mean it was BAD. Took out the cam, along with the lifter bore. Thought id pull it as well because of the oil leak. The shop it was built it is making it right, but they blamed this issue (black carbon build up) on the tuner.

 

If the intake has no signs of oil and the PCV hose is dry then its something else. Valves seals indicate by wet valve stems and usually build up on backside of valve. Overly rich usually washes everything clean int he combustion chamber. Lots of "usually" comments there because stranger things can happen. Was it down on power? Could also be rings as mentioned in second post. Hard to tell that without a leakdown but a good indicator is cross hatch on the cylinder walls. If the cyls are shiny smooth? Rings might be done. Wiggle valves to test the guides while apart you might as well inspect/measure everything. If this is beyond your comfort zone strip in down bare keeping all parts organized to their location and take the block to a machine shop to measure bores. Freshh valve job while heads off and new valve springs is a sound plan as well.

 

How many miles on the H/C swap?

The piston tops look normal IF they were not cleaned during the h/c swap.

Post a couple plug pictures

 

It was not down on power at all! Was running great. Smoked when first start in the mornings. Ive got the block at the shop that built it now, reason being is I had lifter failure that I saw was definitely an install issue. The lifter was stuck in the bore and once the builder got it out he ended up making things right and im getting a new engine so it will get a full rebuild like it should have in the beginning.
When doing the heads and cam, the plugs, rings, bearings, valve seals were all reused which I didnt actually know happened. But the builder really thought this was a tuning issue and the car was running rich. But again there was no loss in power like I have experienced before when my car was running rich.

 

Maybe 5k.
They were not cleaned during the heads and cam swap, and the engine was not rebuilt during the process either.

I will try and get the builder to send me some pics of the plugs

 

I wouldnt lose any sleep over the build up at all then. Smoke at start up is 100% valve leaking oil down. Id get a valve job and fresh seals button it up and go. If you do that you dont need a retune, if you swap heads or other gofast upgrades then you need to plan on another tune up as well. I doubt the o-ring is problematic now that the picture is clearer it sounds completely valve seal related.