Breaking in the R/T

[DoubleD]

Finally got around to breaking in my new motor last night. I followed motoman's break in procedure, but I think I may have taken it too far. I did 4 or 5 2nd gear pulls up to around 6-6500. I would run it up at partial throttle, then let it development back down to 2000, decel took substantially longer than accel. So after this I keep doing smaller accel and decel in 3rd. About a mile later I look down and start seeing my oil pressure gauge bouncing all over, so I proceed to limp the car home, oil pressure continues to fluctuate the rest of the way back. I get it into the garage and the valve train is noisy. I pull the dipstick there is barely any oil in it. So I jack the car up and drain the pan, I get about 3 quarts out of the 6 I put in it. The front of the motor on the drivers side is now covered in oil. I'm sure the high rpm slow decel made some crazy oil pressure. Where did all this oil come from?
On another note, my repair to my radiator end tank failed and sprayed coolant everywhere. Just freshly rebuilt this and painted everything.
In the oil that came out and the filter there was no metal at all. This motor had about 30 miles on it. Should I check the main and Rod bearings? Where did all the oil escape from?
Bad night all together, this car keeps fighting me.

[acannell]

Finally got around to breaking in my new motor last night. I followed motoman's break in procedure, but I think I may have taken it too far. I did 4 or 5 2nd gear pulls up to around 6-6500. I would run it up at partial throttle, then let it development back down to 2000, decel took substantially longer than accel. So after this I keep doing smaller accel and decel in 3rd. About a mile later I look down and start seeing my oil pressure gauge bouncing all over, so I proceed to limp the car home, oil pressure continues to fluctuate the rest of the way back. I get it into the garage and the valve train is noisy. I pull the dipstick there is barely any oil in it. So I jack the car up and drain the pan, I get about 3 quarts out of the 6 I put in it. The front of the motor on the drivers side is now covered in oil. I'm sure the high rpm slow decel made some crazy oil pressure. Where did all this oil come from?
On another note, my repair to my radiator end tank failed and sprayed coolant everywhere. Just freshly rebuilt this and painted everything.
In the oil that came out and the filter there was no metal at all. This motor had about 30 miles on it. Should I check the main and Rod bearings? Where did all the oil escape from?
Bad night all together, this car keeps fighting me.

Is it possible that the PCV system just wasn't up to the task of the blowby and the oil sump got pumped out the dipstick and oil cap, which is a very common problem?

The coolant leak is likely totally unrelated at least..

sorry to hear about all this, we've all been there..

[DoubleD]

Coolant leak is due to the previous owner using too long of a screw on the fan mounting bolts and driving it into the end cap. I'll repair that again. I'll check over pcv system, I'm glad there was no metal and was still enough oil and assembly lube coating around to protect everything. This was a pricy motor and I don't want to risk hurting it. I'll check
Over everything tonight. But I'm sure sitting at 6+k rpm for seconds makes some crazy oil
Pressure.

[acannell]

Coolant leak is due to the previous owner using too long of a screw on the fan mounting bolts and driving it into the end cap. I'll repair that again. I'll check over pcv system, I'm glad there was no metal and was still enough oil and assembly lube coating around to protect everything. This was a pricy motor and I don't want to risk hurting it. I'll check
Over everything tonight. But I'm sure sitting at 6+k rpm for seconds makes some crazy oil
Pressure.

I think the only way oil can get out of the engine is via the sump. There is no way high rpm would cause it to burst out of something unless there was a major leak somewhere. All the seals in the oil tract can probably handle ten times the oil pressure the engine operates at even at full rpm.

If you pull the dipstick is it wet all the way to the handle? Where does it look like the oil came out from?

[86Shelby]

I would clean the oil & coolant up, fill it with oil and start it up to find the oil leak. Perhaps a seal pushed out due to crankcase pressure? I would also be sure to take a look at the intermediate shaft seal, if the small oil drain passage in the housing got clogged with sealant it can put enough pressure on the seal to push oil out.


I hope you can find the cause of this. I know the feeling of having finished a ton of work only to have a very worrisome issue crop up right away.

[4 l-bodies]

Bradd,
Looking at your cylinder cross hatch told me they used a very fine stone. The machine shop I use uses the same stone. My motors will seat rings almost instantly. All that accel and decel is really not necessary IMO with today's ring and cylinder wall technology. I wish you would have asked me about break in procedures when I was over at your house when degreeing in the cams. Running WOT pulls on brand new motor is not my idea of breaking in a new motor correctly. Losing 3 quarts of oil in 30 miles is a HUGE leak or consumption! You need to find that FIRST and obviously repair the coolant leak. Hopefully it is not the oil galley plug behind the flywheel. If it was rings not being seated you would have oil dripping out tailpipe using that much oil. You should have been seeing huge clouds of smoke behind you if it was blowing by the rings. What do plugs look like? Saturated with oil or clean? New turbo okay and not the cause of oil leak? Did you install the oil restrictor in the short block? If so what size? Oil pressure gauge or factory gauge installed? Where was oil pressure needle on factory gauge while driving/idling? Was dipstick seated or oil coming from there? Is the bottom of hood covered in oil? That much oil loss shouldn't be hard to diagnose where it is coming from.
Todd

[4 l-bodies]

I would clean the oil & coolant up, fill it with oil and start it up to find the oil leak. Perhaps a seal pushed out due to crankcase pressure? I would also be sure to take a look at the intermediate shaft seal, if the small oil drain passage in the housing got clogged with sealant it can put enough pressure on the seal to push oil out.


I hope you can find the cause of this. I know the feeling of having finished a ton of work only to have a very worrisome issue crop up right away.

I agree, pull the radiator, repair and fill it back up and diagnose the leak(s). for starters.

[DoubleD]

I was not doing WOT pulls these were maybe 1/4 throttle, but it did see high rpm's. The oil came out from somewhere on the front of the block. There is oil in the front, it was on the oil pan and was also on the k member. There is no oil or look to be remnants on the front pulley end of the engine or near the tranny, it's all in the front near the oil pressure sensor and the oil filter. The back and "sides" are dry and clean. I'll check the plugs tonight. The turbo looks fine. I installed the same oil fitting that were on the other short block, I just swapped them over. Oil pressure gauge was my first sign something was up, it started fluctuating. Check gauges came on. Dipstick was seated, I know the oil didn't come from there. The top of the motor is dry, it's the bottom and underside of the car that's wet.
I'll fix the radiator again to get rid of that leak.

[Reaper1]

Oil pan seal, oil filter/adapter, oil distribution block and its associated fittings, head gasket, oil dipstick & tube, valve cover gasket, PCV tube assuming this is a CB TIII block, so no distributor or fuel pump block-off.

[DoubleD]

From what I remember last night, I think the oil came from the oil distribution block area. That's where the largest concentration of oil is. More analysis to come tonight.

[acannell]

From what I remember last night, I think the oil came from the oil distribution block area. That's where the largest concentration of oil is. More analysis to come tonight.

im guessing a problem with the turbo oil feed line then...assuming this has one? not sure what engine we're talking about. if the flare fitting was overtightened to the point of breaking, or not tight enough, etc..

[DoubleD]

Turbo oil feed line is a braided line from fwd, Looked fine, This is a TIII motor.

[Pat]

Look at the pvc port at the front of the block under the intake. When that line is off or loose, it will definitely make a mess of the engine, especially if you were holding it at sustained high rpms.

[DoubleD]

I actually plugged that with a rubber plug and clamp and added a new pipe tapped hole where the distributor would go originally, project I'm trying after talking to Jackson, I'll do a write up on it someday. I get its that plugged fitting.

[Force Fed Mopar]

Leaky oil pressure sending unit?

[DoubleD]

It dropped roughly 3 quarts in a couple of miles, it's a large leak, leaning towards something in pcv not up to that task, I don't run my car usually at that high of rpm's that long. In hindsight I took the break in procedure further than I should have. Fingers crossed nothing was damaged.

[DoubleD]

Found the problem...

This is the fitting on the block that the original pcv system was connected to. I have a rubber plug and clamp on it now. I didn't have my valve cover venture my hooked up, the pcv line is now running from the block where the distributor would be on a 8 valve. I drilled out the center oil drain back hole in the head. So with that open, the oil just came right out the hole. Glad I found the culprit.

[DoubleD]

I red loctited the fitting back into the block after pulling the intake manifold off. Cleaned everything up really good. Added 6 quarts of fresh oil. I swapped to a different oil pressure sender I had laying around. I cranked it over till it built pressure, everything looks good and made no weird sounds. I repaired the radiator also, we will see tonight if both fixes worked. Fingers crossed I'm over this hill.

[Pat]

Are you sure that what you drilled into the block is enough? I've always found the factory nipple in the front of the block to be barely adequate. If you went smaller, or if the path way is obscured by oil windage, I'm thinking you may have reduced venting of the block, especially if you haven't opened up the valve covers.

[DoubleD]

It is not enough, both my valve covers are vented and go to a catch can. On break in, my mistake was I had both valve cover vents capped. I didn't think the pressures would get high enough to be an issue yet, but I was wrong.