All Small Six HELP! Oil blow-by with non-baffled valve cover

[aussie7mains]

Thanks aussie7mains! That's quite a set-up you have there! We are certain that you are right... we have excessive blow by at the rings. Pretty sure they aren't seated in yet. This engine was built with 10:1 JE forged pistons with chromoly rings. We put a new stock oil pump on, in case the original one was a HV pump. After removing it, we found out it was also a stock pump. We believe we have the problem resolved (see above post). Fingers crossed. Thanks again!

If you think your ring seal is not right, there is a fix. Take it out on the road, get into top gear, accelerate at WOT from about 50km/h to as fast as the road will allow (100 in Australia if outside the metro area) do this about 10 to 20 times, problem should be solved. Ive assuming you have recently bored and honed the block. Dont worry about loading up the bearings, this wont cause any damage. The moly in pistons rings is put there as an anti scuff agent to aid quick run in. Youve said you only have 150miles on th engine, so dont delay, do it now. Ive had to do this on a BMW 2002tii I re ringed many years ago, I left it to idle too long! Go to it.

 

[aussie7mains]

Good news on the progress.
Stock cover is probably the easiest way to baffle the valve cover. A spacer could be made, or weld two covers cut right to give the most height you can make work. I think that some covers only has one end baffled, you want both ends baffled.
Keep in mind that you may still need to vent some blowby out of the crankcase for 100% fix.
There are some south am. 200 u-tube vids that can give some good ideas.

You might consider welding a small plate into the rocker cover under the PCV port. You just need to keep the immediate splash away from the valve. Dont run catch cans or road draft tube, RDT will be illegal most places, catch cans are mainy used under boost engines, and even then they should be vented back to the crankcase and engine vacuum. The ring blow0by gases are pretty nasty, all sorts of toxic hydrocarbons, some totally unknown.

 

[drag-200stang]

This issue cannot be compared to other ford six family.
Here is why. When the engine first came out, it has a good-sized road draft tube that vented the blowby directly out of the crankcase. When they deleted the road draft tube, they made no provisions for the blowby now going out the valve cover. They should have made the three small drain back holes larger and more of them. But why it worked fine as is, but now we go add more power= more blowby, add more oil to the top end and rev it higher now we have a problem. Some people will say well I do not have issues, that your build won't it is not always the same.

 

[drag-200stang]

aussie, I am not saying to dump it on the road, what i am saying is to route the blowby the around the three small drain back holes so oil can drain back to the pan, and it can be done correctly. If it was piped to the valve cover how would that change the intent of the clean air system and I am sure there are better ways of doing it.

 

[Goldie]

Good news on the progress.
Stock cover is probably the easiest way to baffle the valve cover. A spacer could be made, or weld two covers cut right to give the most height you can make work. I think that some covers only has one end baffled, you want both ends baffled.
Keep in mind that you may still need to vent some blowby out of the crankcase for 100% fix.
There are some south am. 200 u-tube vids that can give some good ideas.

Thank you drag-200stang! We will refer back to this if our issue hasn’t been resolved. We appreciate your help and advice.

 

[Frank]

If you think your ring seal is not right, there is a fix. Take it out on the road, get into top gear, accelerate at WOT from about 50km/h to as fast as the road will allow do this about 10 to 20 times, so dont delay, do it now. I left it to idle too long! Go to it.

Goldie, I second this based on experience. Growing up It was touted to baby an engine the first 500 miles to break it in. I was shocked when I first saw pro diesel rebuilders doing just the opposite. Initial start up, as soon as vitals were verified, the engine was put to WOT, against the speed governor for 10-15 minutes. Then they went directly back to work, hard-load marine and truck applications. Idling and low speed light loads were avoided the first 100 hours.

 

[65coupei6]

You can switch back to the stock valve cover and glue two cork gaskets together to gain some height. It worked for me in the past.
Aussie7 is correct. Run the thing to set the rings and you should be good. I would also get a ME Wagner PCV if money permits.

 

[100_2023]

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[Goldie]

Thanks again everyone. Gary took it out for a 70 mile trip today and had it accelerated to 70-80mph for 15-20 min stretches. Came back and all was good on the PCV valve side of the valve cover, but the grommet on the breather side seemed to have a little play and is still weeping. Nothing like before but we are trying another grommet.

Will look into the ME Wagner PCV valve. Heck! At this point, it’s only money right? When it’s gone it’s gone.

 

[Wayne clark]

Goldie I was about to post you to find out about your oil problem when I found this post this morning . Sounds like you have about fixed the problem I'm glad to read .

I'm hopeing your experience will save me a few head aches when I get around to doing the top end work on my 200 or 250 which ever might be the case .

Thanks for posting everything as you went thru getting that 200 up & going . I hope you guys are past all the problems & on the way to some windshield time in your car .

 

[Soldmy66]

Thanks again everyone. Gary took it out for a 70 mile trip today and had it accelerated to 70-80mph for 15-20 min stretches. Came back and all was good on the PCV valve side of the valve cover, but the grommet on the breather side seemed to have a little play and is still weeping. Nothing like before but we are trying another grommet.

Will look into the ME Wagner PCV valve. Heck! At this point, it’s only money right? When it’s gone it’s gone.

The Wagner valve appears to provide a good benefit, based on the many videos I've watched on YouTube.

 

[Goldie]

Goldie I was about to post you to find out about your oil problem when I found this post this morning . Sounds like you have about fixed the problem I'm glad to read .

I'm hopeing your experience will save me a few head aches when I get around to doing the top end work on my 200 or 250 which ever might be the case .

Thanks for posting everything as you went thru getting that 200 up & going . I hope you guys are past all the problems & on the way to some windshield time in your car .

Thanks a bunch Wayne! Yes! Our problems seem to be resolved, and we had a nice 100 mile cruise a couple of days after that first trip. Ran great, with only a few drops of oil seeping from the grommet on the PCV side this time. There was a little bit of play in that grommet however, and we have wrapped it for a tighter fit which should prevent any seepage at all going forward. Hope to get some more miles on the motor this weekend.

We are also ordering one of the Wagner PCV valves. It seems like a really cool set-up that might even help prolong oil life and, ultimately, engine life too!

So glad you've enjoyed following our build and our many posts. You've all helped us a ton with this build, and I'm just grateful that some of our experiences might help others too.

 

[Wayne clark]

I feel certain it will help me even if no one else is helped by any of it . I had allready been thinking about your problems with getting the Yella Terra roller rockers centered because I have some but have not did much more than open them up & go oh that look good . Then this morning I read about your oil issue from the blow by . And this afternoon my Ford Raceing valve cover showed up & it is un baffled ,so maybe your problems are my saveing grace. Again thanks for the posts.
I forgot to ask you guys get any of the new front suspension on & if so do you think it was worth it ?

 

[Goldie]

I feel certain it will help me even if no one else is helped by any of it . I had allready been thinking about your problems with getting the Yella Terra roller rockers centered because I have some but have not did much more than open them up & go oh that look good . Then this morning I read about your oil issue from the blow by . And this afternoon my Ford Raceing valve cover showed up & it is un baffled ,so maybe your problems are my saveing grace. Again thanks for the posts.
I forgot to ask you guys get any of the new front suspension on & if so do you think it was worth it ?

Hi Wayne! Absolutely worth every penny! We did the Shelby drop, and purchased the cheater upper control arms and full roller lowers from Opentracker in CA. Also the Bilstein front shocks and the roller spring perches from them. What a major difference in handling. Highly recommend.

 

[Goldie]

Goldie I was about to post you to find out about your oil problem when I found this post this morning . Sounds like you have about fixed the problem I'm glad to read .

I'm hopeing your experience will save me a few head aches when I get around to doing the top end work on my 200 or 250 which ever might be the case .

Thanks for posting everything as you went thru getting that 200 up & going . I hope you guys are past all the problems & on the way to some windshield time in your car .

Well, we ran the car hard today for about 50 of a 100 mile round trip. Unfortunately we are still dealing with blowby. Very frustrating.

So, we are going to buy a Ford chrome valve cover and have a spacer made up for clearance. This engine bay is beautiful and when the blowby issue causes messes, it’s a real pain in the butt having to detail the engine bay all over again.

This car is going to be a long hauler on the Hot Rod Power tour this year, so our focus is on ironing out the bugs in the next couple of months.

The other problem we are having is with cheap brake pads that came with the NPD power disc conversion kit. They squeak terribly but we can’t figure out what to replace them with because this isn’t a stock setup.

 

[alwill923]

On my 240 with roller rockers I cut and welded together two valve covers. Tiged together with silicon bronze rod. Can be brazed or soldered. Put the top half into the bottom half so it is a lap joint. Just be carful how you cut the valve covers so you get the height you want. This way you can baffle as required

 

[guhfluh]

Many times the cheaper pads will not squeak while the more expensive ones will. This is because the cheaper ones are organic while the more expensive are metallic and then ceramic. But, then again the more expensive sets will come with nicer anti-vibration/squeal backings, while the cheaper ones sometimes come with none.

My first thought would be to try the anti squeal glue on the back of the pads before trying new pads, BUT I would still find out what OE application the pads are from for future maintenance at least.

 

[65coupei6]

I say try 2 cork gaskets glued together. It should give you the height. Measure with silly puddy. put on the rockers then push the valve cover down on the two gaskets. See if the puddy gets squished.

Which NPD brake kit did you get? EBC reds are great if you find a cross reference

 

[TrickSix]

I'm not sure if it's enough extra room for you, but the early 60s valve covers seem to be a little taller than the later ones. When I had an 1101 on my 200, a '64 valve cover was too tall and didn't fit. One from 1968 fit fine.

 

[Broncitis]

I run a stock ford baffled cover with yella terra on a blown 200 for similar reasons over open baffle clifford cover and helped alot but for N/A it sounds from reading every post here, you have serious blowby as stated before, the steps you took from the help and your own doing seem well done and thought out and would of all helped in most mild blowby events. Hope is gets better with more miles, the odds are probably not good. at least this motor is easy to work on.