cobraboy
Well-Known Member
During more relaxed fiddling I happened to pull a spark plug and the colour was very black. I got a boreoscope and looked in the bore and the top of the piston was shiny and oily.
The engine has always had an appetite for oil, I have always been disappointed as it is a fresh motor. I worked on the PCV system as one day I discovered the pipe into the carb spacer had oil in it. Realising the engine was sucking in its own oil I took a baffle from over the rockers on the old 3.5 and installed it under the PCV valve and bought and fitted an oil separator and fitted this high up in the engine bay with the pipe to the carb spacer running down hill. The engine uses no oil now - result !
Yesterday I pulled all the plugs and the pic tells the result, they are perhaps a little too grey, I would have liked them to be more sandy, but they are a lot better.
Another reason for pulling plugs was to see if I could see any evidence of the motor burning coolant, I looked in all the cylinders for a steam cleaned piston crown, they were all black, phew. I have had a mystery coolant loss situation. I did have a pin hole in the rad, so changed that, but the level has still been going down. I am now hoping it may be the last of the air coming out of the system as it seems to be stabilising now.
I am contemplating some sort of fuel system cleaner additive to try to clean up the oily pistons as they don't seem to be cleaning up on their own now the oily intake has been sorted. Anyone recommend one ?
Plugs
Still getting oily plug threads as you can see.
The engine has always had an appetite for oil, I have always been disappointed as it is a fresh motor. I worked on the PCV system as one day I discovered the pipe into the carb spacer had oil in it. Realising the engine was sucking in its own oil I took a baffle from over the rockers on the old 3.5 and installed it under the PCV valve and bought and fitted an oil separator and fitted this high up in the engine bay with the pipe to the carb spacer running down hill. The engine uses no oil now - result !
Yesterday I pulled all the plugs and the pic tells the result, they are perhaps a little too grey, I would have liked them to be more sandy, but they are a lot better.
Another reason for pulling plugs was to see if I could see any evidence of the motor burning coolant, I looked in all the cylinders for a steam cleaned piston crown, they were all black, phew. I have had a mystery coolant loss situation. I did have a pin hole in the rad, so changed that, but the level has still been going down. I am now hoping it may be the last of the air coming out of the system as it seems to be stabilising now.
I am contemplating some sort of fuel system cleaner additive to try to clean up the oily pistons as they don't seem to be cleaning up on their own now the oily intake has been sorted. Anyone recommend one ?
Plugs
Still getting oily plug threads as you can see.