Engine smoking at idle , oil in intake GN1R heads

luv2fast

Member
Joined
Apr 28, 2002
maby a bit of help
I been fighting oil in my intake track and engine smoke at idle and on de-accell
TA aluminum block Cometic MLS gaskets GN1-R heads
Just got the heads back from Champion a couple weeks ago after a full rebuild
Put them on and after the engine warms up and the oil temp gets to around 140 deg
It starts smoking and a lot!!
I run Redline racing 30 wt
The turbo is not the issue, I can run the engine without it and the same thing happens when it gets warm
Oil in the intake all the way behind the throttle body
Any ideas?
 
Are you running a pcv valve? With the cross bracing in the lifter valley it is harder to get a valley pan or splash shield in there to keep the pcv from sucking oil.
Other points of entry can be through the threads of the rocker studs/stand mounts, valve seals have come off the guides or been damaged, and possible poor sealing of the intake gaskets at the bottom of the inlet port sealing surface.
If this is a fresh build what piston rings did you use...and are they standard or low tension?
I have seen oil burning from all of these places.
 
If the guides are passing oil you will see it in the intake port. Pull the upper plenum and shine a light down there. Mine pass a little oil but not enough to smoke.

Also I understand the TA sleeves are quite hard and require special honing.
 
No PCV valve
Heads have new guides and seals
I am running 1.5 mm top zero gap 1.5mm st second and 3mm low tension oil rings
I just yesterday bolted on the heads and after 15 min of running engine up to temp at idle oil covering the intake

I pulled the rockers off and did a 25 PSI leak down on the intake and it held perfectly any more pressure than that the injectors leaked backwards

Is it possible the rings are messed up and have never seated??
 
I had similar issues with a set of total seal top gapless low tension rings.It was a TA engine also but that had nothing to do with it.

They needed a vacuum pump on the engine to work right. I dont know if total seal has different tension levels available but these were
way low tension and I had used speed pro low tension in the past without issues so we went back to them.

They also Require a special honing deal to seat IIRC. I knew i was in trouble when I could rotate the fully assembled engine
by hand easily using the I/C fan but we were in a rush to get ready for bowling green so it had to go in the car.

I would still pull the valve covers to look at the seals to seal if there damaged or off the guides.
Best of luck man sucks to have that kind of problem on a new build.
 
Maybe too much back pressure in crank case. Try venting the valve covers better AND the front cover.
 
Have you vacuum or pressure tested the intake? Pull the crossover off and see if the smoke comes from one side or both?


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Have you vacuum or pressure tested the intake? Pull the crossover off and see if the smoke comes from one side or both?
He pressure tested it and it held 25 psi, but not sure if he used smoke.



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So I pulled off the cross over and after the engine gets up to temp the engine started to smoke first from the drivers side than from the passenger side
I pulled the plugs and oil on all of them and oil in the intake again
Did a engine leak down test and I had 100 psi on the first gauge and 98 psi on the second on all of the holes , you would think if the oil rings were messed up that would show it
This is really pissing me off
Do you think that under vaccume it will pull oil past the bottom of the intake gaskets, on the ported Champion GN1R heads there is only like a 1/16 inch of gasket that catches the bottom of the intake to seal it up, Maybe I have a bit of intake misalignment, mabe double up on the intake gaskets, or I need some custom intake gaskets
I'm idling at 16" vaccume
 
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Maybe I have a bit of intake misalignment, mabe double up on the intake gaskets, or I need some custom intake gaskets
 
I had similar issues with a set of total seal top gapless low tension rings.It was a TA engine also but that had nothing to do with it.

They needed a vacuum pump on the engine to work right. I dont know if total seal has different tension levels available but these were
way low tension and I had used speed pro low tension in the past without issues so we went back to them.

They also Require a special honing deal to seat IIRC. I knew i was in trouble when I could rotate the fully assembled engine
by hand easily using the I/C fan but we were in a rush to get ready for bowling green so it had to go in the car.

I would still pull the valve covers to look at the seals to seal if there damaged or off the guides.
Best of luck man sucks to have that kind of problem on a new build.

All of the seals are still on, they used the blue kind, not sure of the material
 
So I pulled off the cross over and after the engine gets up to temp the engine started to smoke first from the drivers side than from the passenger side
I pulled the plugs and oil on all of them and oil in the intake again
Did a engine leak down test and I had 100 psi on the first gauge and 98 psi on the second on all of the holes , you would think if the oil rings were messed up that would show it
This is really pissing me off
Do you think that under vaccume it will pull oil past the bottom of the intake gaskets, on the ported Champion GN1R heads there is only like a 1/16 inch of gasket that catches the bottom of the intake to seal it up, Maybe I have a bit of intake misalignment, mabe double up on the intake gaskets, or I need some custom intake gaskets
I'm idling at 16" vaccume

Even though compression is good it's possible the rings were installed wrong but I don't see that putting oil in the intake. If the intake gasket was leaking from underneath it would not idle very well.

Is oil in the intercooler and pipes? Maybe the turbo is passing oil on the fresh air side.
 
Even though compression is good it's possible the rings were installed wrong but I don't see that putting oil in the intake. If the intake gasket was leaking from underneath it would not idle very well.

Is oil in the intercooler and pipes? Maybe the turbo is passing oil on the fresh air side.

I don't even have the turbo on the engine yet, have a set of old headers that I used to warm up with so I can re-torque the heads.
The engine once warm, Idles a bit high, but not eratic, it typically idles at 1100, makes since now its idling at 1400
I cant really tell if the intake gaskets are messed up because when I pull the intake off, it rips the gaskets all up

If the oil rings are bad or not installed correctly, it will smoke, but not get oil into the intake, right?
 
with only 1/16" of gasket sealing on the bottom valley side I would be a little suspect, that it is sucking the oil from there, did you pull the doghouse to see the oil in the intake ?, was it high or low ?
 
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