I have a rebuilt 460ci out of a '72 Lincoln. It is rebuilt and has about 35000mi on it. The oil pressure runs at about 32psi when it is warmed up and running at normal speeds. The engine is bored .030 over, is balanced and blueprinted, has an edelbrock cam and 750cfm carb, and runs on 92 octane gas. It runs great and has all power but mysteriously loses oil. By looking at the tailpipes it doesn't seem to be burning any oil, and I can't find any leaks anywhere. It uses about a quart for every 250 miles. Does anybody have any ideas as to where the oil is going? It is a $4000 engine and I don't want anything to happen to it.

 

>I have a rebuilt 460ci out of a '72 Lincoln. It is rebuilt
>and has about 35000mi on it. The oil pressure runs at about
>32psi when it is warmed up and running at normal speeds.
>The engine is bored .030 over, is balanced and blueprinted,
>has an edelbrock cam and 750cfm carb, and runs on 92 octane
>gas. It runs great and has all power but mysteriously loses
>oil. By looking at the tailpipes it doesn't seem to be
>burning any oil, and I can't find any leaks anywhere. It
>uses about a quart for every 250 miles. Does anybody have
>any ideas as to where the oil is going? It is a $4000
>engine and I don't want anything to happen to it.

every 250 is a little high. Mine goes through maybe a quart every 1000. I'm running forged pistons, and I am getting some leaking at my valve stems now I believe. But not much. Check your exhaust at start up, see if you can have someone hold a piece of cardboard or something near your tail pipe to see if you are getting any oil splatter coming out the tail pipe at start up.

Chris

79 F-150 Lariat: Long-bed, 2wd, 460 (intake, headers, cam, early heads), C-6 (shift kit)
79 Mustang: 460 swap under way, balanced rotating assembly, forged pistons, truck rods, c-8 heads ported, Lunati solid lifter cam, more stuff...
98 Chevy Silverado ext. cab 4x4 (work truck)
95 Lexus SC300 (wife's baby)

 

Sounds like valve seals for the oil consumption. Are you using a mechanical or electric oil pressure gauge?

 

don't feel bad...i burnt at least a quart every 75 miles

 

Try installing some good teflon oil seals. they do make some that you don't have to machine the guides to install them. Check around, probably run between 30-50 for a GOOD set of seals.

Usually a DIY project for the driveway. If you don't have a compressor, you can use the rope trick so the valve doesn't drop into the cylinder. Get some clean cotton rope, maybf 1/4" or 3/8" diamter rope and stuff the cylinger full and then rotate the crank (after you have removed the rockers) till it stops and then remove the keepers and change them out.

 

I am using a mechanical oil gauge. Of course, it is a very cheap "Wal-Mart Special" gauge that is a piece of junk, but it reads accurately enough. Two other things I forgot to mention is that the oil pressure is about 60psi on start-up and the lifters are very noisy, but this is because when the engine was rebuilt adjustable lifters weren't used. Could that cause problems with oil consumption?

 

It may be hard for me to do the cardboard next to the tailpipe trick because of the fact that the engine runs rich. This leads to lots of carbon in the tailpipes (I am near positive that it is not oil and everyone who has looked at it seems to agree. Also, you can smell gas at idle and hard acceleration.) and when the engine is cold the moisture in the pipes cleans out the carbon, spattering it.