Condensation in my oil, is this normal? Update 05/21/2015 Found a problem

[BARRACUDA1968]

At this point, if you were you I'd ditch the irons and go for brand new set of al heads and done with it. Your build will scream with them.

That's the plan. All I wanted was a 10 second street car which I had/have but the car Gods had other plans for me. I should be able to run the number a little easier with the T/A heads.

 

[SS/GN]

Sorry for your misfortune but you did a great job at diagnosing. Any body can own a car but few can work on them. Your hard work and determination fixed this car , while others would have said no problem found and proceeded to blow the motor up and then blame the car. great post and good feed back from the community Good luck in your build

 

[BARRACUDA1968]

Sorry for your misfortune but you did a great job at diagnosing. Any body can own a car but few can work on them. Your hard work and determination fixed this car , while others would have said no problem found and proceeded to blow the motor up and then blame the car. great post and good feed back from the community Good luck in your build

Thank you! I had some help on what to do but I put in the wrench time. I just hope I caught it fast enough. I took a closer look at the cylinders this morning and this caught my eye.

Cylinder #1 looks great and the piston wasn't cleaned at the bottom like cylinder #3 and #5 where the gasket leaked. I had some weird air coming out the tail pipes on cold starts (intermittent) I always felt it was too much to be condensation but again it was intermittent. Now I wonder if during the cool down process coolant leaked in to these two cylinders and sat there until I started the motor causing the weird air (condensation) thus cleaning the piston off? There was no coolant laying in there when I pulled the head but after rotating the motor on the stand I have coolant goo residue on the cylinder wall on #5 and #3.

There "is" visible markings on the cylinder walls of #3 and #5. I can't really catch a fingernail on them but it concerns me.

#1



#5

 

[earlbrown]

Those heads defiantly aren't virgin. The deck finish isn't stock and the intake valve is an aftermarket O/S part. The stock intakes aren't that close to the exhaust valve and they have a dish on the CC side.

 

[BARRACUDA1968]

Ok Earl, I'll measure intake valves. What size was stock so I have a reference?

What is you take on the cylinder wall?

 

[BARRACUDA1968]

Intake valves measure 1.775 and exhaust valves measure 1.50

Pulled the other head tonight and all looks good. Cylinder walls look the same as the drivers side so maybe I'm being concerned for no reason.

The motor has not been fired since I had the pan off to check a main bearing for wear. My engine builder re-installed it for me and showed me how nice the lower cylinders looks so I'm just taking what I'm seeing as normal.

 

[BARRACUDA1968]

I sold my Champion Irons and bought a set of TA Performance heads. After thinking it through and talking with Nick Micale about the benefits of an aluminum head I went for it. I have read a lot of threads pertaining to this subject and I know I could have went the distance with the heads I had but I decided the TA heads were a better head than the irons.

May be overkill for my goals but my entire engine is overkill for my goals. I wanted it over built so I didn't need to stress the combo to run the number. These heads will only help.

They just showed up today, I wasn't expecting them this soon but when I called Nick he had a set in the pipeline so he put my name on them. I think I had them in less that 2 weeks. I had the mild port job done as well. Nick was great to deal with.

Now on to taking some final measurements and choosing a head gasket. I want to be 9.0 or a hair less. I'm using studs as well. Once the heads are on I'll measure for push rods and begin the process of installing the engine again. I'm so looking forward to that.

 

[Pronto]

Did you get a flow sheet too? I'ld like to see if you did...

 

[BARRACUDA1968]

Yeah I'm pretty sure I did, I'll get a picture of that in the morning.

 

[Boost231]

Nick does some killer port work on those heads. You'll be more then pleased once you get them installed.

 

[BEATAV8]

I'm worried you might need some more spring pressure. 355lb open sounds a bit low. I had to go well over 400lb with mine. I have an off the shelf 215/220 cam with 1.5 rockers. 530 lift. When I was at 345lb open pressure I had valve float problems coming in around 5400-5600rpm

 

[BARRACUDA1968]

I talked with Nick about spring pressure and this is what TA Performance used for my set up. My shift point will be about 5600 so I want a spring to keep me safe to 6000+ in case of a missed shift.

If these springs really float at 5400 to 5600 then I may make a change before I install the heads.

Here is the flow sheet.

 

[BEATAV8]

Are new springs and valvetrane components similar to what you had before? Probably the best way to gauge what it will do is compare to what it was.

 

[BARRACUDA1968]

No, my old springs were around 390# at full lift. I never had a chance to really run the old motor before I had to pull it. It saw 5500 rpm 1 time between the 2-3 shift and maybe 5000 rpm in 3rd before I shut down. I don't mind a 10 to 80 mph blast but anything over that on public roads freaks me out anymore. I must be getting older.

I talked with Nick about cam specs and previous spring pressure. He just relayed the info to TA Performance and this is what they put in the box. I'm probably not going to run this spring if it maxes out at 5600 rpm. I'll get with Nick and see what else they have. Now since I may have to shim the rocker stands will that effect valve spring rate?

 

[BEATAV8]

Nah the rocker geometry won't effect the spring pressures

 

[Pronto]

I have a TA billet cam that's alittle smaller than yours. I found out after talking with TA, the specs for the springs on my cam needed more seat pressure than what I was told. Went with the PAC 1201x which had the correct pressure for my installed height on iron heads. You may want to consult Bison on the springs for your TA heads/cam. I am not a cam expert but it looks to me you don't have quite enough spring pressure. It definitely made a difference in with my engine.

 

[BEATAV8]

PAC 1201 spring. That's the one I switched to also

 

[Pronto]

The "x" has more pressure...

 

[David Husek]

Hey Brett,

Looking at this spec sheet, you will have not have enough spring pressure for the cam you have. We discussed that you will need more spring pressure with these heads.

The springs are installed .218" from coil bind on the spec sheet. Not good. With your cam they are .260+" from coil bind. Even worse.

You will need a spring that will give you 170-180# on the seat. Also a min of 430-440# open pressure and installed .060-.100" from coil bind.

You could shim .150-180" to get more pressure, but it still would not be enough and a real bad idea.

Give me a call, I have a few sets of springs in mind that will work. I just sent a set of these heads to someone with the correct springs. I will have to do the math though, his cam is more aggressive with more lift.

 

[David Husek]

The 1201 or x cannot be used on this applications as the installed height is too tall. You cannot get enough seat pressure without getting into coil bind.