need some q's answered
need some q's answered ok here it is.....i changed my oil last week and found quite a few very fine metal shavings in my drain plug. it just turned over 60k and it's a stock motor with boltons and free mods. the car feels like it's lost some power but i cant be sure b/c i dont drive it often at all and it's not a track car, well not yet anyway. i do run it hard everyonce in a while but it's not everytime i take it out. it's used about 3qts of oil from the last oil change to this one and i saw where some oil had seeped out of the #2 spark plug hole at one time and ran about 1" on the block. it's dried up but like i said, it's remains that it happened. i decided i'm going to put on a catch can today. anyway. there's my scenerio.. here's my questions. i'm going to do a compression/leakdown check. what should the compression/leakdown tolerances be? anything else i should check? i'm going to be driving home next month 1k mile round trip and i dont know when i'll have enough money to do a rebuild (if i need one) let alone a stroker kit or anything. suggestions?
Staging Lane
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 77
Likes: 0
From: KentuckY
3qts of oil in how many miles? i guess thats not unacceptable, as GMs tolerance is 1qt every 1000 miles,
How fine are these metal shavings? they could be casued by bent pushrods rubbing the head and cause the shavings, thats what happend to me, i took the rocker off, removed the pushrod and could see where it had rubbed the head, it could be bearing material, if it was on the magnet then it is more than likely bearing material.. any strange noised? or knocking sounds?
Was it ever ran low on oil before you added?
How fine are these metal shavings? they could be casued by bent pushrods rubbing the head and cause the shavings, thats what happend to me, i took the rocker off, removed the pushrod and could see where it had rubbed the head, it could be bearing material, if it was on the magnet then it is more than likely bearing material.. any strange noised? or knocking sounds?
Was it ever ran low on oil before you added?
If you were getting oil out of the spark plug hole you must be getting oil blow by in combo with a loose spark plug. The oil blow by could be due to simple blow by, broken ring land (shavings in oil), worn out rings (unlikely), just to name a few.
Staging Lane
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 77
Likes: 0
From: KentuckY
There maybe oil stains there, but i really doubt its coming out of the spark plug hole. if the plug is that loose to let fluids out it would be missing, or atleast in "theory" it should.. does that car smoke at WOT or on startup? are you sure you arent leaking any oil to cause some of this 3qt loss?
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 743
Likes: 0
From: Foley, Alabama-southern Alabama
I don't know what the pressure should be on you rCR leakdown test but it will help you find the bad cylinder if you have one,I mean your averages!! 
Have you lost any oilpressure?
Have you lost any oilpressure? i used/lost 3 qts in 3000 miles... the metal shaving were in the magnet and they were pretty fine... there's no unusual knocking or strange noises....i'll check the sparkplug today to see if it's loose, i had the codes pulled at autozone yesterday and it's not missing. what exactly is a ring land? the car dosent smoke at startup and does smoke at wot. i ran my buddy in a stang the other day and he said it was white smoke but it wasnt really that bad or anything. when i mash it i do see some smoke but i can't tell what color it is. it's not leaking and my oil pressure at cold startup is 50-55 psi and warmed up at 180 or so it's 38-40 psi both at idle.
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Staging Lane
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 77
Likes: 0
From: KentuckY
well, metal shavings to some extent can be normal, i mean if its really fine, like how does if feel if you put it between your fingers and rub them together? does it turn to mush? or do you feel it poke ya?
i understand what u mean my it can be normal. it may have been normal and i was just being ****. i took he rout today and goosed it for a few seconds. i guess there's not much of a power loss cause she picked up really well. i didnt rub it between my fingers but i remember when i wiped it on the rag i think 90% of the turned to mush so i guess it's ok. thanx for the help.