High Oil Consumption after Rebuild 4.3L Merc.

[bomar76]

Re: High Oil Consumption after Rebuild 4.3L Merc.

Yeah, I guess performing tests to gather emperical data to form a hypothesis is never as accurate as seeking SWAG's...

 

[Coors]

Re: High Oil Consumption after Rebuild 4.3L Merc.

Bomar, I give; what is SWAG?

 

[bomar76]

Re: High Oil Consumption after Rebuild 4.3L Merc.

Scientific
Wild
Azzed
Guess

and the emphasis is not on Scientific, but the WAG part.

 

[Don S]

Re: High Oil Consumption after Rebuild 4.3L Merc.

A leakdown test would be a lot more accurate at determining if the rings are the cause of the problem or not.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: High Oil Consumption after Rebuild 4.3L Merc.

Could I test this theory by sending the hose exhause on valve cover to collection point?

I don't understand what you want to do there?

A valve cover baffle is a small metal box bow inside the valve cover, attached to and below the breather holes, the box has passages inside making it look like a rat maze, air and blow-by can get out, but oil is trapped and flows back into the engine.

I guess another way to test for a baffle would be to stick a screw driver in there and see how far it goes down, 1" or so means theres something in there (baffle) 3"+ and your hitting the top of the head, no baffle.

Pull off the breather hoses and see if they are covered with oil and look at the spark arrestor where the breather hoses connect, if you are sucking oil into the carb these have a lot of oil residue in them, they should normally be dry to having a thin film of oil, not dripping or really noticable.


And that's my SWAG for the day (SWAG, I like that one, never heard it before)

 

[Don S]

Re: High Oil Consumption after Rebuild 4.3L Merc.

 

[tomdcat]

Re: High Oil Consumption after Rebuild 4.3L Merc.

Thanks for the post Don S. with picture because it clarifies what exactly we are talking about with regard to Baffle ....I have seen some valve cover baffles available from Summit Racing. But why install something that could potential become unattached resulting in some major damage to the heads. But again this just another SWAG.

I am one of the happiest boaters alive today. I ran the boat for probably more then 4 hours today....about a full tank of gas and had very little to no oil burn. I honestly am still in disbelief. I pretty much kept it around 3000 RPMs and under because I didn't want to push it too much plus we had our 6 month little girl with us. I did notice a considerable amount of smoke coming from the valve cover vent hoses. I attached some aluminum cans to the vent hoses to capture any kind of oil. I probably captured 2 oz on one side and very little on the other. So I am in the market for some well baffled valve covers. Any recommendations?

Attached are some pictures of one happy boater with baby and valve cover test rig. I really was dreading another engine tear down. I will keep eye on oil consumption and just take it EZ.

However, I do not have an answer for the high oil pressure. The guy the helped me with rebuild, who I considered an engine expert, claims it's a tight engine and HV oil pump. Totally ok and normal for this engine. I do wish I didn't use the HV pump because I think it's contributing to probably at ~4000 RPMs. That is where I think oil consumption begins but I have not test this theory....yet just another SWAG

Happy TOM! I think it's Miller Time!

 

[tomdcat]

Re: High Oil Consumption after Rebuild 4.3L Merc.