New stroker engine burning oil

[74stroker]

I have a 74 Challenger with 360 engine stroked to 415; Eagle stroker kit, 10.5:1 compression, Erson hydraulic Cam, forged pistons, steel crank,
ported/polished heads with enlarged intake.

The engine was rebuilt and stroked to 415 a year ago and has about 2000 miles. Engine began running rough and missing, and trailing blue smoke from passenger side.
I pulled the plugs. 2 and 4 cylinders looked good. 6 and 8 were oil founded and electrode gaps were reduced to .012" and .001". Other plugs were .032.

Any suggestions on what caused this (ex. piston rings, valve guides leaking oil) combination. Could pistons have excess travel and be hitting plug electrodes?

Thanks! 74 Stroker

 

[Bug Guy]

Seems like a timing issue or issue w/cam lobe, check your distributor to see if you have each spark plug firing. Remember auto 101 Air Fule spark timing . If good go to your valves opening and closing for that stuff to happen?

 

[moparleo]

OK, stroker the other stuff is blah, blah, blah. If the gaps are closed, it can't burn oil or anything else. No gap, no spark.
2,000 miles and all of a sudden runs poor and blue smoke ?
If the gaps are closed because of physical contact, just pull the heads. Anything that would cause the pistons to travel farther in the cylinder ( loose rod bolts but you would also have little/no oil pressure and loud knocking) has already done its damage.
Trying to run it more to diagnose will just cause more potential damage to the engine.
Closed plug gaps don't cause blue smoke.
The only other non running test to do is a compression test. At least you will know what cylinders died.

 

[Chryco Psycho]

I would start with a compression test , & you can get a cheap camera to plug into a smart phone that will fit in the spark plug hole to take a look inside also .

 

[Adam]

Agree on the compression test, might have a busted ring(s).

 

[rklein71]

Were the plug gaps reduced due to oil residue on the plugs or were they physically pushed in (contact with the pistons maybe)? Weird for sure.

 

[Chryco Psycho]

It would depend if the plug gap was properly checked when they were installed & if the were dropped .

 

[rklein71]

It would depend if the plug gap was properly checked when they were installed & if the were dropped .

I am making a wild assumption that they were gapped correctly. I could be crazy wrong though.

 

[74stroker]

Compression test showed no 6 cylinder averaged 124 psi, which was 33-45 psi lower than other cylinders.
Cylinders 6 and 8 had oil fouled plugs, especially 6, and both had bent spark plug electrodes.
Will try to upload pics

 

[74stroker]

plug from No 8 cylinder

plug from No 6 cylinder. gap reduced to .012 from .035

compression test results. No 6 cylinder is 33-45 psi lower than average for other cylinders.

 

[74stroker]

The engine was built by a well-known race and street engine builder, Joe Lemley.

 

[rklein71]

Might need to do a leak down check on no. 6 to see if it is rings or valves.

 

[Chryco Psycho]

Or slide a camera in there & take a look , or just pull the head .
Something is not right in there !

 

[AUSTA]

Check for badly worn valve guides i ate up 1 in 2000 km really bad geometry could explain poor compression, burning oil & clipping the spark plug mainly on the inlet especially with a large intake valves take the rocker gear off & check the contact wear mark on the tip also the side to side movement towards the inlet & exhaust

 

[fasjac]

Agreed, start with the borescope (chrap ones at HF) with light. Might be obvious when you see the screen. Burning oil???

 

[Beekeeper]

I had an engine do that once and it turned out that a couple of the cylinders had rings that never seated properly, even after 1500+ miles. Removing the head showed that two of the cylinders were slick with oil and the walls still had the cross hatch hone pattern while the others did not.

A guy I know gave me some powder that I put on the walls (very sparingly) after cleaning the oil off. That did the trick.

 

[74stroker]

Any suggestions on reliable engine builders in southern Ohio or eastern KY?

 

[Adam]

Are you going to disassemble it? I would at least pull the heads and have a look for anything obvious; could be something as simple as the intake passages sucking oil from the lifter galley, past the gasket. Then I would take it back to the guy who built it for a discussion.

 

[Beekeeper]

I just dropped off a set of heads for rebuilding and the guy told me six months minimum. He claims he is overloaded and can’t find decent help anywhere. Same story everywhere anymore.

I’ve been hearing that from guys in other parts of the country too. I’d try and tackle this yourself if you can.

 

[Challenger RTA]

Any suggestions on reliable engine builders in southern Ohio or eastern KY?

YOU!