1961 Ford Falcon 302 Burns Oil

RAVINSOMNIAC

MEMBER
1961 FORD FALCON
V8
2WD
AUTOMATIC
10,000 MILES

I have a Ford iron block 302 crate motor, with just over 10,000 miles. It has SVO aluminum heads, Holley 570 Avenger carb and custom headers. It smokes when starting it, but not too bad when driving. It uses a quart of oil every 200 miles. After 500 miles of driving, the plugs are black, oily and crusted. Compression on the cylinders is from 180 to 165. I was going to do a leak down test, but someone told me that it wouldn't tell me if the valve seals were bad or if it was the oil rings. Any ideas?

4 Replies

MHPAUTOS

MECHANIC
31,937 POSTS

Hi there, do a wet comp test, that is add a small amount of oil into the cylinder 3-4 squirts from an oil can will do, spin the engine over a few revs to get the oil around the rings and then do a comp test, the oil will temp seal the rings so if the comps come up, the rings are leaking, if the comps are about the same the valves are leaking, try this first.

Mark (mhpautos)

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Friday, November 7th, 2008 AT 11:47 PM

RAVINSOMNIAC

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3 POSTS

Thanks for the tip. If it is the seals, I'll just replace them. If the oil rings are bad, I've heard using "Restore" oil additive will help for awhile. Will "Restore" clog the oil filter? I'm using a NAPA super shorty oil filter under the custom headers.

Also, rather than replace the rings, I would like to build a 347 aluminium block instead. Both "World" and "Dart" make aluminum blocks. Which do you think is better, and can I use my SVO aluminum heads on either?

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Saturday, November 8th, 2008 AT 1:48 AM

MHPAUTOS

MECHANIC
31,937 POSTS

Hi there,

As I am operation out of Australia, I am unsure of the products you have mentioned, so maybe you can add a new post with these questions and a more local Tech may be able to help you out with these questions.

Mark (mhpautos)

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Saturday, November 8th, 2008 AT 2:08 AM

RAVINSOMNIAC

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The steel plate inside the valve cover under the PCV valve was manufactured incorrectly. It was a poor design and allowed oil to get sucked into the PVC, then the carb. I custom made a larger plate, and switched to a heavier oil so it won't spatter as bad inside the valve cover. I also made a small spacer collar for the PCV valve, so it doesn't sit down as far as it did. Now it just sucks air, instead of quarts of oil.

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Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 AT 5:28 AM