Welcome to the Corvette Forums at the Corvette Action Center!

Oil In The Cylinders?

USNA1969

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 12, 2005
Messages
93
Location
Maryland
Corvette
1972 Big Block/4-Speed
During my last ride, my car slowly started missing, but it got worse quickly. At the end, I barely made it home, with the car bucking and backfiring.

I had been going through a quart of oil every 200 miles or so, and I noticed bluing on the driver's side bumper. So, when the car died, I decided to pull the heads and see if the valves were ok. They weren't bent, but there was a sizeable gummy buildup on some of the exhaust valves. Although I couldn't detect any slop in the guides, the shop relaced some of them, but I don't know which ones because I didn't think to ask.

I have a repair kit for the carb and, along with some epoxy on the infamous leak points on the bottom of the carb, I think the blue smoke will go away.

My problem is that there is wet oil in the #6 and #8 cylinders. Should I remove the pistons to make sure that the rings aren't broken?
 
MY favorite quote that i've gotten from this site is"Why i'm here i might as well...".If you got the heads off already it might be piece of mind to drop the pan and pull the two pistons your concerned about.I had a Camaro that did what your car did and i thought the worse and it ended up being a clogged PVC valve.
 
That's what I was thinking, but I wasn't sure if I was just being paranoid.
 
i would reinstall the heads and do a compression test. if the cylinders are low, do a leak down test before pulling the bottom end apart. there are lots of tests that can be done before pulling anything apart on a motor in order to narrow down your problem. if #6 and #8 are oily, did you look at the intake gasket?? it is pretty common for the intake gasket to leak and suck oil in from the lifter valley directly into the intake runner of the head. 1 quart per tank is major oil consumption, more than bad valve guides and seals will cause. if you had / have little to no compression on 6 & 8 then maybe your rings are bad. if compression is good, then the rings should be fine. also look to your PCV valve, see if the line to the intake is oil soaked. this indicates the oil is being sucked out of the valve covers and into the intake.
 
If your valve seals were bad enough to leak oil into the cylinders, that could explain the crud on the valves and oil in the cylinder. But it would have been blowing a pretty good amount of blue smoke out of the exhaust, especially on start up.
Usually you will get a puddle of anti-freeze in the cylinders when you pull the heads. It looks oily, but it's green.

I would do what AK suggested. Rebuild the top end and see how the compression test proves out before tearing the lower end apart.
 

Corvette Forums

Not a member of the Corvette Action Center?  Join now!  It's free!

Help support the Corvette Action Center!

Supporting Vendors

Dealers:

MacMulkin Chevrolet - The Second Largest Corvette Dealer in the Country!

Advertise with the Corvette Action Center!

Double Your Chances!

Our Partners

Back
Top Bottom