Headers Installed - Oil consumption issues as a result.
Ever since i had the headers and back box installed on my car i've had quite a few small niggles with it, i've noticed a few things which weren't present before. One of them is excessive oil burning and a slight blue tint to exhaust gases when under hard acceleration. Also i noticed quite a strong smell of petrol in the exhaust gases.
The car hasnt been remapped yet, so i'm putting the petrol smell down to incorrect Fuel/air mixture (i hope correctly).
But the oil consumption issue is bugging me now, the engine seems to be pushing out plenty of power (i know because i've raced an E46 M3 convertible and was quicker at higher speeds as expected).
With the OEM exhaust (with x-pipe) no black spots ever on the bootlid and only carbon blew out of the exhaust on hard acceleration.
Now with headers, x-pipe and new silencers (pretty much dummy with little or no silencing) i'm getting black spots and blue tint to exhaust gases, and increased oil consumption.
I spoke to a neighbour who has a lot of experience with the turbo charged fords of the 90's and he mentioned crankcase pressure, i.e blow by. He said changing the headers has lead to excessive crankcase pressure leading to more oil blowing out into the intake thus being burned.
Is this possible? has anyone else experienced this?
Could it be that a slightly off fuel mixture (until i've got the remap done) is causing high crankcase pressures/temps thus increasing blow by?
When it goes in for the remap (1st July) i'll be getting them to clean out the oil seperators and replace all the rubber hoses connecting to it. Hopefully a combination of both that and a remap will bring the oil consumption back to normal (i.e pre headers).
how could adding headers cause an increase in crankcase pressure? That makes absolutely no sense.
So what is your actual oil consumption, post headers vs pre headers, as far as quarts/liters per mile/km?
I wouldn't base oil consumption based on what you're seeing from the tail pipe.
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Headers *MAY* cause less back pressure, which *COULD* result in more oil consumption---I'm talking out of my ***. Doesn't really make sense. I'd look elsewhere for a problem.
Headers *MAY* cause less back pressure, which *COULD* result in more oil consumption---I'm talking out of my ***. Doesn't really make sense. I'd look elsewhere for a problem.
Agreed. And if anything, you are running lean, not rich, so that does not account for the petrol smell. I think the OP has 2 separate problems. I would look for loose hoses or clamps, or something not property secured when the stock exhaust manifold got removed. Or something near the exhaust, as I believe that is dropped during the install.
Regards,
Jerry
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Do you have the stock cats? Deleting them will change the exhaust odor.
There's no way changing headers will change the oil consumption. I'd say you're seeing something that you didn't look for before. The stock crankcase breathers are more than adequate to vent the block.
Your biggest problem is that you went to a guy with 90's turbo ford experience for advice. A proper crankcase vent for a turbo block works differently than on an NA motor.
On a different note, LOL @ people who mod engines and expect them to act stock.
edit: and wth is a "black box"?
Last edited by Dr Pooface; 20th June 2008 at 21:26.
Adding headers will make the engine think its lean and add more fuel. Having a richer fuel mixture will effect ring seal on a engine that already has enough of a problem with ring sealing.
Quote:
edit: and wth is a "black box"?
The mufflers are sometimes called "cans" "boxes"
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Adding headers will make the engine think its lean and add more fuel. Having a richer fuel mixture will effect ring seal on a engine that already has enough of a problem with ring sealing.
No it won't. Maybe if you're 9:1 or more and if the DME adds that much fuel to compensate for headers I will eat my hat. Lets deal with facts and reality at the same time please.
Yep if they weren't they'd throw an SES straight away.
Took it to a well respected indie/tuning shop who will be doing my remap and found one of the lamda readings to be to high, they suspected the headers were blowing which i've since got checked and tightened.
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