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As I'm trying to get this thing buttoned up and resolving the smoking issue, I took a look inside the intake and this what I found:
I noticed at the back of the intake on one side it's shiny clean, and the rest is coated in soot. I would expect this to be consistent either way. Is there some possible issue I should look into before putting it back together? For reference the top end is an LT4 intake with AFR 195 heads, all ported.
All of the plugs were completely covered in oil. I replaced all of them, but have only started the engine a number of times since in short bursts since the water pump wasn't hooked up. I haven't run with the turbo on since I changed the plugs as I want to make sure the smoking stops and it isn't the engine itself.
I have turbo headers (they're full headers, not manifolds).
The intake looks pretty normal to me. That shiny spot looks to be sanding marks from when it was ported. I would expect to see more oil in the intake if that was your burning oil concern.
The intake looks pretty normal to me. That shiny spot looks to be sanding marks from when it was ported. I would expect to see more oil in the intake if that was your burning oil concern.
The intake and heads were ported, but that was before the build. I just wasn't sure if that could a sign of some other problem before I start putting it all back together.
You had the heads on before the build? If so, did you by chance go through them to make sure the valve guides are good for this current build? With plugs covered in oil it's possible the guides are bad causing oil to be drawn into the cylinder. The clear spot may be an indication an intake valve is not seating correctly, causing some sort of reversion, blowing fuel vapor into the plenum. Just a theory. If you haven't gone through the heads with this build I'd highly suggest you do so.
That cylinder with the shiny spot is close to the rear wall of the intake manifold so it was sanded during the porting process. The rest of the intake runners you can see in the picture are also shiny. The soot has a better chance sticking to the rough/non sanded intake wall. That and the lack of oil in the intake would be why I would not be worried about it.
I would look into the valve guides and/or rings as the cause for your oil burning problem. Pull the intake manifold and see if there is oil sitting on top of the valves.
No, the motor was built all at the same time. The oil burning was believed to be a combo of my super high oil pressure with the Mellings pump with the turbo not having any restrictor and the oil getting past the seals. I'm trying to identify if there's anything I should address before getting everything back together.
Originally Posted by SS RRR
You had the heads on before the build? If so, did you by chance go through them to make sure the valve guides are good for this current build? With plugs covered in oil it's possible the guides are bad causing oil to be drawn into the cylinder. The clear spot may be an indication an intake valve is not seating correctly, causing some sort of reversion, blowing fuel vapor into the plenum. Just a theory. If you haven't gone through the heads with this build I'd highly suggest you do so.
The new motor and the turbo were all put in at the time. The smoke is more white'ish. I had the exhaust shop put on a turbo bypass pipe and he said there wasn't smoke with that on before the Opti went out and the car went out is commission, but with the little running I've done at idle with the turbo off after replacing the Opti and plugs, I'm still seeing some smoke.
I bought a .065 restrictor for the oil feed and running -10AN drain with a TurboWerx pump. I'm hoping with the restrictor and the Mighty Mouse PCV can I just added the the turbo won't be an issue any longer.
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Does This Look Normal? 
