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So all 8 of my spark plugs were covered in oil and fouled, also losing a decent amount of oil over a couple day course and I do daily drive my vette. No smoke out of the exhaust and no loss of power at all. Could this be a pcv problem (this is a 04 which has the ls6 style pcv set up) or is this a piston ring problem. The car is also H/C.If this is a pcv system problem would a simple catch can fix it?
Just going thru something similar. I bet if you look behind your throttle body you find a pool of oil in the intake. Mine had/has a bunch in it, now and in the past.
I did not check the plugs on my 98 but I noticed increased oil consumption after using 80% on my oil life monitor, or about 8500 miles this month. Yes, I drive it a lot, like 20k miles in the two years I've owned it. Doesn't blow smoke on start up or full throttle. As of last spring, my car also has the 2004 "improved" valley cover and PVC system when I did my head/cam/header install. I put an Elite catch can on last Tuesday on it drove it 30 miles and got about a tablespoon of oil... Hmm..., WTF. Thursday, I changed the oil, drove it over 900 miles on the highway over two days and I got the same tablespoon out of the catch can. Lesson learned. I'm doing oil changes at 5000 miles, just like I do on all the other cars I own. Lesson learned, screw that oil life monitor. Try changing your oil, that calmed my cars oil consumption down considerably.
About the catch can. I do not like how hard it is to drain the Elite catch can as it places the bottom of the can to close to the clamps coming out of the water pump. In hindsight I wish I'd have bought the Moroso version, with a drain valve right from the get go, but could not find a black one that I wanted on-line. Ideally the Moroso one with a clear reservoir and black housing/ bracket would be ideal for Joe's visual pleasure. I could not figure out that configuration on-line and called Moroso and they ignored my request so I went with the Elite version. For now I'll drill and tap the side of the Elite catch can reservoir for a drain valve can for ease of checking/draining. I'm hoping that I'll just need to dump the catch can every 5000 miles, when I change the oil. So far the fresh clean oil seams to cured my oil consumption on my car.
Now that the catch can is installed I'll swab out that oil in the intake and go from there.
YMMV
I have an Elite on my Z and I cannot find any issue to remove the bottom reservoir from it, make sure you put the hockey stick bracket all the way up so that should clear anything below
It would have to be a massive amount of oil in the manifold to cover all 8 plugs. I doubt all 8 rings or valve seals gave out at the same time. If it was a small amount of oil going by the pcv it would probably only end up in a few cylinders as it tends to puddle in a certain spot in the manifold and take the path of least resistance.
If you pulled the manifold you would get a lot more info to identify the problem but I wouldn't go and throw money at a catch can just yet. Does oil pressure look like its in the normal range?
The OEM LS PCV systems suck, literally. My LS7 intake is full of oil. It is damn near impossible to get out. Bottom line is, catch can or not, if you hook up a vacuum to oil mist, it's going to end up in the intake sooner or later. I pitched the entire system, and vented it to atmosphere. Just used a little clear bottle to route the breather hose into to collect excess oil, which I drain approximately every 3 months. Worked great on most every internal combustion engine from the 1800s to the 1960s. Works great on mine, too. No oil leaks, oil stays carmel colored for at least 5,000 miles, minimum. Oh, and my modded, 600hp LS7 wet sump has 53,000 miles on it in 10 years, and uses 1/2qt-maybe- between 5,000 mile oil and filter changes.
How many miles on the engine? oil consumption is usually caused by oil getting by the piston rings or valve seals, it could also be the pvc system.
the car itself has 86k I had a 50k mile ls1 swapped in because the old block head bolts thread pulled out, the engine was supposed to completely rebuilt the heads are brand new prc heads with roughly 5k on them.
It would have to be a massive amount of oil in the manifold to cover all 8 plugs. I doubt all 8 rings or valve seals gave out at the same time. If it was a small amount of oil going by the pcv it would probably only end up in a few cylinders as it tends to puddle in a certain spot in the manifold and take the path of least resistance.
If you pulled the manifold you would get a lot more info to identify the problem but I wouldn't go and throw money at a catch can just yet. Does oil pressure look like its in the normal range?
Do you have pictures of the spark plugs?
oil pressure is normal. Ill pull the intake soon and i have to put a quart of oil in roughly every 3 days depending on the drive. Normal city driving oil dosent go down much, long highway drives it goes down pretty fast.
The OEM LS PCV systems suck, literally. My LS7 intake is full of oil. It is damn near impossible to get out. Bottom line is, catch can or not, if you hook up a vacuum to oil mist, it's going to end up in the intake sooner or later. I pitched the entire system, and vented it to atmosphere. Just used a little clear bottle to route the breather hose into to collect excess oil, which I drain approximately every 3 months. Worked great on most every internal combustion engine from the 1800s to the 1960s. Works great on mine, too. No oil leaks, oil stays carmel colored for at least 5,000 miles, minimum. Oh, and my modded, 600hp LS7 wet sump has 53,000 miles on it in 10 years, and uses 1/2qt-maybe- between 5,000 mile oil and filter changes.
can you describe how you vented it into the atmosphere might be the best bet for me.
Just going thru something similar. I bet if you look behind your throttle body you find a pool of oil in the intake. Mine had/has a bunch in it, now and in the past.
I did not check the plugs on my 98 but I noticed increased oil consumption after using 80% on my oil life monitor, or about 8500 miles this month. Yes, I drive it a lot, like 20k miles in the two years I've owned it. Doesn't blow smoke on start up or full throttle. As of last spring, my car also has the 2004 "improved" valley cover and PVC system when I did my head/cam/header install. I put an Elite catch can on last Tuesday on it drove it 30 miles and got about a tablespoon of oil... Hmm..., WTF. Thursday, I changed the oil, drove it over 900 miles on the highway over two days and I got the same tablespoon out of the catch can. Lesson learned. I'm doing oil changes at 5000 miles, just like I do on all the other cars I own. Lesson learned, screw that oil life monitor. Try changing your oil, that calmed my cars oil consumption down considerably.
About the catch can. I do not like how hard it is to drain the Elite catch can as it places the bottom of the can to close to the clamps coming out of the water pump. In hindsight I wish I'd have bought the Moroso version, with a drain valve right from the get go, but could not find a black one that I wanted on-line. Ideally the Moroso one with a clear reservoir and black housing/ bracket would be ideal for Joe's visual pleasure. I could not figure out that configuration on-line and called Moroso and they ignored my request so I went with the Elite version. For now I'll drill and tap the side of the Elite catch can reservoir for a drain valve can for ease of checking/draining. I'm hoping that I'll just need to dump the catch can every 5000 miles, when I change the oil. So far the fresh clean oil seams to cured my oil consumption on my car.
Now that the catch can is installed I'll swab out that oil in the intake and go from there.
YMMV
so basically do a oil change and see what that does then possibly do a catch can, I love that everyone who has responded has said nothing about piston rings lol. Makes me less worried
Another scientific guess would be valve guide seals if all 8 plugs were covered, just putting that out there since you said engine & heads were rebuilt, a lot of oil would have to go pass PCV to consume that much oil. A real test would be a leak down test to rule out rings.
Last edited by BELVIN20; 02-29-2024 at 01:02 PM.
Reason: More im put
Another scientific guess would be valve guide seals if all 8 plugs were covered, just putting that out there since you said engine & heads were rebuilt, a lot of oil would have to go pass PCV to consume that much oil. A real test would be a leak down test to rule out rings.
Are you saying that they could have been the wrong size? It seems highly unlikely that they would all fail at the same time. Just curious. Agree in a leak down to rule out rings if thats a concern.
Shyt, Plugs look good, from what I can see. I see some oil on the threads. A little oil around the threads will make them easier to remove. Looks like they are burning the oil just fine.
I added the catch can to avoid the oil in the intake. I asked the guy who tuned my car if I needed a catch can. He said "It'll burn it, no need". That being said I was curious. I may just remove the catch can at this point now that I know what works for me/my car,
These work for experimental aircraft and I may have an old EGR check valve or two to make my own set up laying in the garage somewhere: https://antisplataero.com/product/cr...-kit-complete/
Drag racers have been using these set ups for years. No catch can under he hood and should make a few more hp.
EDIT: After a little research on that check valve system the one that Moroso sells is only designed for open headers. Any sort of back pressure and the venturi will NOT pull enough oil vapor out of the engine. Oh well, so much for that idea, unless you are running open headers.
Last edited by Prop Joe; 03-01-2024 at 08:37 AM.
Reason: spellin'. Research
the heads are brand new prc heads with roughly 5k on them.
Do you know if the rocker arm bolt holes are open to the intake runners? If they are some kind of thread sealant is needed on them or you'll get oil sucked into the runners.
Do you know if the rocker arm bolt holes are open to the intake runners? If they are some kind of thread sealant is needed on them or you'll get oil sucked into the runners.
02-29-2024, 06:31 AM
Oil on spark plugs
