Blowing oil - part 2
Many of you are aware of my oil blowby issues on the YS boosted 327. I've recently tried two different PCV valves designed for turbo applications, as well as venting the valve cover. But the dipstick continues to get blown out, and now the problem is getting much worse. As of yesterday, I'm still blowing oil out of the dipstick tube, but now the volume has significantly increased. But more importantly, I've got smoke coming from the tailpipe(s). This happens if I accelerate the car with too much load for the gear I'm in - for example, flooring the gas when in second gear while rolling at 10-15 mph and going uphill. If I hold the gas to 6K rpm, I'll see smoke at the top end. It's possible that it's just oil burning off the headers, but I doubt it.
Here's where I need your help. I suspect that the rings on one or more pistons have gone bad, leading to excessive crankcase pressurization and the resulting blowby. One possible reason that this happened may be linked to the first time I threw a belt. I had no clue what was going on, and drove all the way back to the pits before shutting down (probably 2 minutes of driving). By the time I shut down, the radiator had boiled over. But I was an idiot and failed to pay attention to engine temperature, so I don't know how hot things got in there (and have since learned to look at both oil and temp gauges as soon as something doesn't seem right). Is it possible that the block got too hot and damaged one or more rings? The block is a brand new Ford stocker, and the internals are all forged with chromoly rings. Also, this problem started right after that incident.
The other possiblity is insufficient fuel delivery, causing one or more cylinders to run too lean. Doug warned me about this potential problem when he saw that I was running a blown 327 with stock rails. Considering I have 12 pounds of boost and 42 lb injectors, could this be the culprit (assuming that my problem is ring related)? Would Aeromotive be the best aftermarket fuel delivery system to look into?
My plan is to pull the plugs for inspection today to see if there is an obvious problem. But my question is how much should I expect to pay to have new rings installed if that is indeed the problem? Should I even bother? When I talked with Doug the other day, he said the engine is a "ticking timebomb" (I think that's an accurate quote Doug), and I should just run it until it's dead - then get something bigger and stronger. I've thought about doing just this, but the bloody thing is only six months old, and I was expecting a little more life out of it than this. Am I just being overly optimistic about it's expected lifespan?
BTW - I did run it last night Doug. However I only got 3 passes in before one of my water pump hoses breached. Once I had it fixed, I just called it a night since every pass now pisses more oil onto the engine, and I could see smoke off the starting line in the rearview mirror.
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