Calling all M54 gurus! HELP!
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I know it is a different engine but just for comparison. My m50 smokes a little, Pretty sure it is ring blowby in my case because it smokes most under WOT. The m50 has no catch can/ oil separator, it just goes from the valve cover to the intake manifold (stock) and the baffling in the valve cover is not good enough to keep oil from going with the air. It has 275k on it so I don't feel it's abnormal. It doesn't hang in the air like a diesel but it is a visible smoke on startup and when romping on it. I don't keep great records but I think I add a quart every 1000-1500 miles, some is due to leaks though.
Compare to a 2 stroke engine. Assuming 25mpg, 1k miles is 40 gallons of fuel, mixed 50:1 that is 3.2 quarts of oil per 1k miles. You aren't near that much so I wouldn't think it would cause plug fouling problems. A little lube for the cylinders is good anyway.
How's that for redneck engineering?
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how many tanks of fuel have run through the engine?
Since this started about 2 tanks. One of which was under heavy abuse.
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I know it is a different engine but just for comparison. My m50 smokes a little, Pretty sure it is ring blowby in my case because it smokes most under WOT. The m50 has no catch can/ oil separator, it just goes from the valve cover to the intake manifold (stock) and the baffling in the valve cover is not good enough to keep oil from going with the air. It has 275k on it so I don't feel it's abnormal. It doesn't hang in the air like a diesel but it is a visible smoke on startup and when romping on it. I don't keep great records but I think I add a quart every 1000-1500 miles, some is due to leaks though.
Compare to a 2 stroke engine. Assuming 25mpg, 1k miles is 40 gallons of fuel, mixed 50:1 that is 3.2 quarts of oil per 1k miles. You aren't near that much so I wouldn't think it would cause plug fouling problems. A little lube for the cylinders is good anyway.
How's that for redneck engineering?
Hahaha I don't disagree there, but to me it's abnormal for alot hanging smoke to be in the air after start up and at idle and when blipping the throttle. I went through a quart in one tank of gas, so something has to be wrong. After a good compression test result im leaning toward valve seals.
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I would be checking to see if you have any broken ccv hoses first.
The CCV is deleted with a sealed system catch can set up, description is in original post
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You shouldn't have a dead end system, it needs to vent somewhere. Preferably into the intake. A quart per tank of gas is a lot. The crankcase should ideally have a vacuum when idling from the intake sucking from it. At minimum it should vent through a catch can to atmosphere.
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Quick hook up a vac gauge and see what it pulls at idle
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How are you pulling ccv gases??
You shouldn't have a dead end system, it needs to vent somewhere. Preferably into the intake. A quart per tank of gas is a lot. The crankcase should ideally have a vacuum when idling from the intake sucking from it. At minimum it should vent through a catch can to atmosphere.
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The system was described in the original post. The valve cover goes to the catch can. Then the other input on the catch can runs to the 2 ports on the intake. The oil drain is plugged.
Also JC,that's what I was saying. The amount of smoke coming from the exhaust is not by any means a "natural" amount. I'm not new to engines or building them even, just made this post incase I was missing something I may not know about with all the accessories on these engines.
Quick hook up a vac gauge and see what it pulls at idle
I planned to once I can get down to the garage
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I read that wrong sorry. Seems like it is hooked up right. Maybe pull the line off the valve cover with the engine running and see if it is sucking a decent volume. Maybe something is plugged up in the hoses or can itself?
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Pulled the valve cover line and tested the vacuum on the VC - zero in.hg. and tested the vacuum on the hose going into the VC (so measuring through the can and into the intake manifold) got a reading of 18in.hg. Which to my knowledge is good vacuum. There's none of the white gunk or buildup in the hoses or the can. The can didn't have much in it (definatly not enough to be sucked back into the manifold by the vacuum).
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Heres a start up video, hopefully it loads and plays. This is my first time uploading a video to the forum.
cold_start_up__possible_valve.seals-
Attachments:
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Ok boys.. I believe I solved the problem today. I was thinking last night about when the issue occurred. This started happening about halfway though the first day of a 2 day event. Now, Friday night when I arrived we swapped the valve cover that was on the car to a spare that I had that was uncracked, the existing one was cracked. So the uncracked one was on the car for the entire event.
Now when i was cleaning the uncracked one the previous week I removed the baffle that is under the outlet on the VC that goes to the catch can. I didnt think anything of it considering the system had a catch can in it rather than the CCV.
With that being said my logic thought that maybe the large open gap now allowed oil being thrown around in the head to be sucked into the catch can tubes easier due to the engine vacuum being drawn through the catch can.
I made one last attempt to solve this today and re-installed the cracked valve cover that still had a baffle in it.
Started the car and instantly it smoked less. Drove the car a few miles and once I was back home blipped the throttle a few times and nowhere near as much smoke came out.
Let the car sit for 20ish minuates and started it and almost no smoke came out, and I did this multiple times throughout the night and the smoking on start up has ceased and same with when the throttle is blipped.
I will attach a photo of the valve cover with the baffle that I removed.
So for anyone that was interested in the outcome, I saved myself alot of time by not having to do valve seals. lol
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