this really makes me mad

[Deggy]

so i blew up the motor on my 1999 Grand Am GT. and i take it to a shop that i got two recomendation from. Both family members that went there for years. They rebuild my motor for me and say its gonna be about 2-3 weeks before its done. I get a call from my mother saying they called her and said the car is completed...mind you, its been like a week and 4 days. Car runs and drives fine, but blows white smoke from time to time. I called and he said it will do that for the first 100-200 miles, me not being the mechanic here i said okay...he said call me if you have any problems. So Saturday i goto my buddies house and im gonna change my brake rotors, when we were done, he pulled it outta the garage and goes "hey deggy, your low oil light is on" and im like wtf it was fine this morning, i checked it before i left to goto his house. Put in 2 quarts and it was full again....so where is this oil going so quickly im wondering and this motor is practically brand new. I called the shop and they are closed for the week...and im still blowing white smoke, and its gots a good 500 miles on it since i got it back a little less that a week ago.

and ive been very good to the motor...no beating on it, and following proper break in procedures...i dont get it...but best beleive when they open back up. they are gonna get an earfull from me. :flipoff::asshole

/rant

[Windsors 03 Cobra]

That does suck, oil is usually blue smoke, white is usually coolant.
Suprised you dropped all that money into rebuilding a throwaway engine, I would have done the junkyard engine bit with some new intake manifold gaskets, or is this the garbage 4 cylinder ?

Good luck getting it fixed, too bad closed this week.

[BAD LS1]

hmm sounds like intake gaskets are pissing to me... the oil consumption is excessive, you can count on a quart being added through the first 3,000 miles, but 2 in 500 is an issue.

This is typically a cyl wall/ring issue or valve guide seals that will use that much oil unless its leaking all over the place.

strange though... shops wont even "rebuild" engines anymore, its not economical at all for them besides all the chances for screw ups and come backs like so... They usually will sell you a remaned or junkyard OEM motor.

[lilws6]

i had a reman put in the blazer already for this reason most shops won't renbuild any more. but the good part is they will now have to fix everything that they rebuilt for free. well they should have to.

[Deggy]

its the v6, not the I-4....i paid to have it rebuilt because i love this car...

and im getting a hold on someone to look at it hopefully friday.

[Guteman]

When does the car smoke? When its been running for a while or right after startup? Anything on the ground?

Typically... if its been running for a while and starts to smoke its your rings. The shop might have honed too much off the block and put stock rings back.

If its right after startup.... valve guides.

If its on the ground most likely a gasket somewhere.

[Cryptic]

excellent feed back by everyone here :thumbsup

[lilws6]

Thats what the site is for :headbang

[Berettaspeed]

i hate to break it to you those 3400s are cheap used. i bought mine with
24,xxx miles on it in 04 out of an 03 impala for 700 bucks..

your better off getting a used engine next time. its not worth rebuilding engines that are everywhere in junk yards.. not bashing you but maybe it will save you headach. try and get some money back or the job done right.

[70challenger]

nowadays, junkyard motors are the way to go. considering price of rebuiling?reman. what kind of motor is it btw, and when does it smoke? just trying to help w/ diagnosis.

[Deggy]

i drove it yesterday and didnt burn any oil, i checked after everytime i drove the car and before i drove it again. it usually was smoking when it was at an idle, or when taking off from a stop light after being stopped for a bit. hasn't done that either for a day or 2 now.

thanks for all the feed back, hopefully the guys from this shop will be back soon so i can give them an earfull. thanks for all the input guys. :thumbsup

[BAD LS1]

This is why you pound the ever living aids out of a fresh motor. The first few miles are critical. Better to have it blow up right away, than later. If its a good motor, nothing will happen and it will only get better from it.

Everything i teach at work to people supports this theory, and i have a ton of info backing the stuff i teach too.

[Berettaspeed]

This is why you pound the ever living aids out of a fresh motor. The first few miles are critical. Better to have it blow up right away, than later. If its a good motor, nothing will happen and it will only get better from it.

Everything i teach at work to people supports this theory, and i have a ton of info backing the stuff i teach too.

it keeps build up from starting for one. and to me thats the big thing.. just always let the engine warm up before beating it.

never heat it up fast or cool it off fast are the other things i always tell people. if your car is overheating.. let it cool off. don't put cold or warm water in it. thats how you crack things.

[Moparjim]

If its not burning oil anymore, it may be alright. What he was telling you is true, depending on how the bores and rings were setup - honing, clearances, materials it may have taken some time for the rings to seat. Burning a quart or two of oil during breakin and the rings seating for 500-1000 miles wouldn't be what I would call optimal, but isn't necessarily out of the ordinary either. I would talk to the guy about it, just to document your concerns in case it is indeed an issue, then continue to keep an eye on it and see if they seat and the smoking and oil burning stops.

[BAD LS1]

Here is the long and short of it, a little more detail that what the motoman breakin site gives...

We need some sort of FRESH cross hatch when using new piston rings. There is a few diff types, but the basic 45 degree diamond cross hatch is preferred by most.

If you look at the cylinder wall under a microscope 200x the cross hatch will look like peaks and valleys, much like a rocky terain, these are called "asperities" and the rings have similar asperities as well. When you first start and run the engine these peaks on the asperities will break off leaving just the valleys. The valleys actually pool small amounts of oil for proper lubrication of the cylinder wall and proper heat transfer from the rings to the wall. Now if we start a fresh engine , warm it up for a few min and make sure its mechanically sound, not overheating, oil leaks yad yada... You would take the car out and put it through its paces with a series of high load pulls to try and force the rings out to the cylinder wall and wear these items to eachother in the type of conditions they will always see.

If you fail to do this, the evidence supports the rings will wear unevenly and will allow combustion gasses to blow by the 1st ring and oil to escape past the 2nd wiper ring.

It just doesnt make sence to me to take it totally easy on a engine for 500 miles that you intended to pound on after that?

I can understand perhaps trying to season certain parts... But if you have to allow for 500 miles worth of wear to take place i question the builders tolerances perhaps being too tight that they would be worried about a failure?

[Deggy]

again thanks for all the input guys.