My new stroker burning oil ***Engine pulled***

[Strawdawg]

I am finding it difficult to believe that the ridge is like that...I have seen engines with thousands of miles with less ridge than that.  Also I have never seen one with the cross hatching gone like that.  Today, we expect to see the cross hatching and no ridge after 50,000 miles....

Was the engine difficult to turn over by hand after it was assembled?

[farmboy70]

This may not be the problem for your engine ,but I recently had the same oil use problem. Mine was due to a bad fuel pump rod. It ground it self down putting fine metal all thru the engine plugging the rings. It glazed the cylinder walls causing major oil use.

[Belgium Cuda]

I am finding it difficult to believe that the ridge is like that...I have seen engines with thousands of miles with less ridge than that.  Also I have never seen one with the cross hatching gone like that.  Today, we expect to see the cross hatching and no ridge after 50,000 miles....

Was the engine difficult to turn over by hand after it was assembled?

Nothing that I reacted on, now on the other hand they almost fell out after removing the rodcap.

Per

[Belgium Cuda]

This may not be the problem for your engine ,but I recently had the same oil use problem. Mine was due to a bad fuel pump rod. It ground it self down putting fine metal all thru the engine plugging the rings. It glazed the cylinder walls causing major oil use.

I almost have the feeling some kind of grindingproduct has been poored down into the engine seeing the grey oilgreasefilm here and there but my fuelpump rod looks OK.

Per

[farmboy70]

If the ends look good and it measures 3 1/4 in length it is OK.
My engine had a gray film also. The cylinder wall looked just like yours.
Dave

[dodj]

Synthetic oil would destroy the crosshatch pattern
 very quickly.

Really? How come?  I wouldn't have thought that. (Not suggesting you are wrong, just wondering why synth would destroy the crosshatch quickly)

[Strawdawg]

Really? How come?  I wouldn't have thought that. (Not suggesting you are wrong, just wondering why synth would destroy the crosshatch quickly)

That would be a new one on me...the knock on using synthetic is that the rings may not seat..not that it destroys the cross hatch...modern rings should seat within a couple of minutes of starting the engine.

[72cudamaan]

That would be a new one on me...the knock on using synthetic is that the rings may not seat..not that it destroys the cross hatch...modern rings should seat within a couple of minutes of starting the engine.

The reason for not using synthetic oil is simple. Synthetic is too slippery which makes the rings
glide over the crosshatch. For a ring to seat, it actually is  very lightly etched by the crosshatch pattern
which enables it to seal properly. When you add synthetic it can't do that. The factory
doesn't have nearly as many problems with this because the machines that hone the cylinders
 apply a plateau crosshatch pattern to the bore which does not need to be scuffed by the rings.
We actually even had the engineers from Mobil1 explain this to one of our customers that had destroyed his
cylinders by breaking his engine in  with Mobil 1 synthetic.

And yes, with a plateau finish, your rings are usually seated by the time you get done
rotating the engine around to install the pistons. Most machine shops either won't spend the money for the correct stones or
don't even know that they exist.

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Per, I sure dont have any answers , but it sure looks like a world of SH!+  I wish you the best on getting this straightend out!

[Strawdawg]

The reason for not using synthetic oil is simple. Synthetic is too slippery which makes the rings
glide over the crosshatch. For a ring to seat, it actually is  very lightly etched by the crosshatch pattern
which enables it to seal properly. When you add synthetic it can't do that. The factory
doesn't have nearly as many problems with this because the machines that hone the cylinders
 apply a plateau crosshatch pattern to the bore which does not need to be scuffed by the rings.
We actually even had the engineers from Mobil1 explain this to one of our customers that had destroyed his
cylinders by breaking his engine in  with Mobil 1 synthetic.

And yes, with a plateau finish, your rings are usually seated by the time you get done
rotating the engine around to install the pistons. Most machine shops either won't spend the money for the correct stones or
don't even know that they exist.

I am guessing that engineer does not work there anymore ?   http://www.mobiloil.com/usa-english/motoroil/synthetics/myths.aspx

[Strawdawg]

I am guessing the piston clearancing was not correct for the pistons, or the hone job was royally botched.

[Belgium Cuda]

I am guessing the piston clearancing was not correct for the pistons, or the hone job was royally botched.

Finally some thoughts about the reason  can you give some more explanation about your thoughts?

BTW, the ringgaps are bigger now when I meassure them at the ridgearea, almost double.

Per

[72cudamaan]

I am guessing that engineer does not work there anymore ?   http://www.mobiloil.com/usa-english/motoroil/synthetics/myths.aspx

 As pointed out in the article "with modern technology no breakin period is required"
Which means that as I have said, some machine shops lack the knowledge
or technology to do this operation correctly.

The picture that Per submitted showing the crosshatch pattern kind
of confirms my suspicion because the crosshatch pattern shown is definitely
NOT a plateau finish. It looks very coarse and prominent,like roughing stones were used.
And then not followed by finish and plateau stones. But just my opinion of course.

[Belgium Cuda]

Andy, do you confirm my theori that the shop didn't meassure correct/or not, didn't fit the pistons to clearence but just roughed out the surface a little bit and the rings has now eaten down to the "real" cylinderwall because of wrong pistonclearence?

Per

[Strawdawg]

Finally some thoughts about the reason  can you give some more explanation about your thoughts?

BTW, the ringgaps are bigger now when I meassure them at the ridgearea, almost double.

Per

Given the ridge that shows now, it would seem that the pistons were installed without sufficient clearance and they expanded when they warmed up and knocked the "tooth" off the cross hatch to make their own clearance.  An examination of the rings by a professional engine builder would probably answer the question.

It may be the machine shop may have tried to use the hone to obtain the clearance and this is always a bad idea.  This usually results in the "teeth" being folded over which prevents the rings from seating properly.

But, in this case, I would guess that the pistons clearanced themselves by knocking the metal off the cylinder walls.

In the cases that people try to blame on the oil being too slick, the teeth are simply folded over by the excessive honing and are burnished by the rings, but the crosshatch is still visible.

Modern rings take a much smoother bore finish than the old non coated iron or chrome ring, but, as Cudamaan stated, the honing must be done properly.

I think the machine shop screwed up and no matter what kind of oil was used, the result would have been the same.