Oily top end, oil fouled plugs.

[Laxy]

Hi all,

I have a recently rebuilt mild 440 (4,000 miles max) that has a couple of issues, if anyone could give me a hint as to what I should do it would be most appreciated.

It's running the Mopar Performance valve covers and dual chrome breathers, but dumps a lot of oil out the breather holes. It never smokes, but is leaking enough that I have to top up the oil fairly regularly and it's making a real mess. All plugs are equally oily and fouling, currently running NGK B6S after finding colder B8S plugs in there.

In addition, there is oil on the valley pan, on closer inspection of the oil stains the intake gasket could be leaking, although I'm not sure if it's just excess from the valve covers. It's an Edelbrock Performer RPM that was installed when the motor was built. It was run in on the dyno.

After pulling a valve cover last night I discovered the baffles had never been installed. I'm assuming this has contributed a fair bit so will order these asap, but they can't be the only problem?

I have learned a lot from searching previous threads on here with some similar issues, but not sure if mine is totally the same.

So, where to from here? Should I pull the intake and attempt to reseal? Change the type of breathers I'm using? Compression test to check the rings? With all plugs fouling equally I'm hoping the rings are not the issue (unless they all didn't seal!).

Thanks!!

[JB400]

I agree that you should put the baffles in your valve covers.  You'd be surprised as to how much oil can be lost through them.  Clean your engine up afterwards to make sure that takes care of your leaks.

[Laxy]

Cheers, I'll will try that first then give it a good degrease to determine if there are further leaks.

[Challenger340]

Although Oil on the plugs themselves, is a completely seperate problem from Valve Cover Baffling, related to oil actually getting into the combustion chamber,
the 2 symptoms together.....
may be related to a common precursor ?

How much blow-by does the Engine exibit ?
All engines have some Blow-by. "Acceptable" Blow-by being taken care of by the PCV valve with no Engine exit.
But,
too much Blow-by, in excess of what the PCV system can handle, would exacerbate the lack of V/C baffling, because too much excess combustion gas leakage is bound to carry Oil up and OUT through the non baffled covers...
as well as go a long way to explaining the plug fouling, if the source of the leakage of Oil into the combustion chamber is lack of ring seal.

[ACUDANUT]

My valve covers do not leak and they have no top shield (baffles)...That still not explain Fouled plugs.

[JB400]

If he has significant blowby, it will amplify the oil leak of the no baffles in the valve covers.  I'm wondering if someone put the rings on the pistons right.

[maxwellwedge]

Start with a full leak-down test

[471_Magnum]

Who did your heads?

Sounds like you might have questionable clearance on your valve guides. Or you may just have poor sealing on your intake manifold.

[Laxy]

Thanks for the replies! The engine was put together by a reputable Mopar specialist (including the heads, they are just cleaned up 906s) so I'm really hoping the rings were installed correctly.

Could all of this be caused by poor sealing of the intake manifold 471 Magnum? I'm trying to eliminate the simpler stuff before blaming the ring seal.

It really doesn't appear to have any noticeable blow-by Challenger340, no smoke whatsoever. I've ordered baffles for the covers but this obviously will not help my plug fouling issue.

Maxwellwedge, I don't have a leak-down tester yet but will perform a compression test first. Will that help me at all or should I just go straight to a leak-down test?

[polywideblock]

if block heads were machined and intake wasn't  intake could be uniformy "loose" along bottom edge  and be sucking oil into intake, therefor fouled plugs 

[471_Magnum]

If the intake isn't sealed well, you'll draw a ton of oil through. Did you use gaskets, or just the valley pan? Any sealant?

I had my small block heads done by a supposed reputable Mopar ship and they were complete crap. It was a complete fiasco.

Pulling the intake may reveal the problem. You can see oil film in the ports if it's sucking though. If it's the guides, you'll see it literally running down the stems or pooling on the valves, but the ports should be clean. In either case, there will likely be carbon build up on the valves.

If it is coming in through the PCV system, you should see oil film inside the manifold.

[firefighter3931]

The missing baffles are a huge problem....get those installed asap to eliminate the external misting in your engine bay ! 

If all the plugs are oil fouled and it's a fresh build that was broken in on the dyno....ring seal should be a non issue. Those rings were seated before it left the dyno room. 

It sure sounds like an intake manifold seal problem....i'd start there and see if there is any oil in the ports.  You should be able to thread all of the intake bolts into the heads with the gasket in place....if not you have an alignment problem that needs fixed. I use Ultra Copper RTV on both sides of the valley pan and on the end rails. No problems with leaks, ever !


Ron

[Laxy]

I am waiting on the baffles in the post, in the meantime I will definitely pull the intake using your posts as a guide. It was installed by the engine builder so I am unsure what he did in regards to gaskets and sealant.

Thanks guys, really appreciate the help as I have never encountered this kind of issue before.

[ACUDANUT]

if block heads were machined and intake wasn't  intake could be uniformy "loose" along bottom edge  and be sucking oil into intake, therefor fouled plugs  

Intakes do not get "machined"  At least I have never heard of such a thing.

[polywideblock]

if block heads were machined and intake wasn't  intake could be uniformy "loose" along bottom edge  and be sucking oil into intake, therefor fouled plugs 

Intakes do not get "machined"  At least I have never of such a thing.

when heads/block  have been milled to bugery to get comp up

[Bob T]

Hey Laxy, bit of a hijack, but, a while back you did a monster roadtrip across the desert in your 440 Charger, I remember being quite impressed at the time with the distance and decided to bust out a long one too, ended up just over 1300 miles,  check it out ,  

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,98112.0.html

[Laxy]

Great stuff Bob, love the pics!! You'll be addicted to it now, a few months after the Nullarbor trip I took it from Perth to Kalgoorlie and back on a weekend, about 1,200km all up! No better way to explore the countryside.

Update on the car - I spent the weekend at a huge bogan car festival here so haven't pulled the intake yet. It did run better than it ever has before and was pulling strong on the drag strip, also some huge smoky burnouts.  Unfortunately I grenaded the rear extension housing on the 727 at 100mph, possibly the rear sprag let go. Cue massive driveline vibrations and trans fluid all over the track!

So while waiting for another 727 I'll reseal the intake, install the baffles and see how the plugs clean up. Will update again then.

Cheers for all the help so far.