major oil consumption

i posted thsi question on the other 460 side as well. hoping for as much insight as possible.

my 501 is using oil, lots of oil. 8-9 quarts in 1200 miles. there wasn't an overly huge blue cloud. it was really just a faint blue/white at the most. there is only 1400 miles on the motor, it was a fresh build. i have pulled the motor and tore down the top half today, i will take the short block apart tomorrow. what i have found so far:
the intake was sucking some oil through the bottom of the runners in the lifter valley.
the exhaust ports are cruded up with buned oil. Some of the oil is still sticky
the back sides of the exhaust valves have oil crud on them.
the back sides of the intake valves have oil crude on them.(the guides are new bronze with new teflon seals)
a leak down test showed about 20% leakage on the compression rings, a compression test showed 140 psig.
The cylinder walls are not damaged from anything like a broken ring. The only noticable item on the cylinder walls is scuffing on the header side and valley side of the cylinder walls. the clearance was set to 2.5 thousandths per the piston manufacturer (hyperutectic pistons).
the engine ran well before i pulled it, vacuum was 15" which is what it was when new. engine runs steady, i don't suspect a bad intake vacuum leak. i have dealt with those and vacuum would tend to be 12" or less.


what am i looking for on the oil rings tomorrow?? any sugestions?

Thank you for any suggestions.
Chris

Can you tell if its on both sides and is the oil on the valves on every cyl. Pay close attention to the oil ring rails and make sure the expander rings didn't overlap each other.

This sounds like it's strictly an intake gasket sealing problem to me. If the compression test showwed a fairly even 140-ish reading, I'd hesitate to blame the oil rings. A bad oil ring will usually over-oil the compression rings, causing the compression in that cylinder to read artificially high.....just like squirting oil into a cylinder will temporarily raise cranking compression. You've already said it was sucking oil past the intake gasket and described the resulting oil coating the valves and ports. I think I'd have carefully re-sealed the intake and tried it again before I tore it all the way down.

my problem is the vacuum hadn't dropped significantly. i know i was loosing some oil through the intake, but it just seemed like an awfull lot for an intake leak. it is bad enough that there was liquid oil on a couple pistons when i pulled the heads.

to answer the other question, both sides had oil down the intake runners, both sides were buring oil. the drivers was worse. i appreciate all thoughts on this. i may know more when i pull the pistons tonight, i hope. the engine is already on a stand down to the short block so at this point its not a huge deal to pull the bottom end.

thanks all
Chris

Chris, When I had my oil ring problem I had oil on top of pistons,in the intake runners, and dripping out of both headers. And the compression test showed great. Keep us informed of what you find.And good luck brother

falcon -
thats actually good to here because that is exactly the state that i am in; liquid oil on the pistons, thick oil in the exhaust runners, and oil in the intake runners, and good compression.

what was your diagnosis. . . overlapped oil ring gaps, broken rings, ???

thanks

Wrong oil rings w/ring set. The rail depth was not wide enough to touch the cyl. walls, so it was like I had no oil rings at all. I only live 45 min. from you so if you need any help, just holler 740-395-4275 Rick