Ok, quick background:

Just got my new 2.4L 4g64 block, it now has 1200 miles on it and it's burning a real hefty amount of oil, like a quart every few hundred miles. First, it had a leaky headgasket, I noticed the smoke was pretty whitish.... So I drained my oil and a little bit of it was milky, so I replaced the head gasket, and I'm still burning oil.

It's a freshly built motor and the rings should for sure be seated by now, I carefully followed the break in procedure.

It smokes a little bit I usually notice when I start it, but mostly when it's under load street driving. I can rev it up and hit the launch control and get a tiny puff of smoke when I first hit the throttle, but not when the pedal is on the floor.....

If sounds to me like the valve stem seals are a good guess but I replaced them when I got the new motor, I installed my new gsc s2 cams, valve springs, retainers, and supertech valve stem seals. I used a small socket to install them and I was pretty damn sure I did a good job of installing those.....

Does anybody have a clue why it's burning so much oil and from where?!?

 

How is your leakdown test?

 

The only thing I can think of is to do a few general checks.

1. Do a leak down and Compression check to make sure things are ok inside.
2. Built motors do generally burn more oil then normal due to the lose tolerances.

I burn some oil when I am in and out of boost allot but its normal.

 

I have yet to do a leak down test but my compression test was pretty low, like 125-140 across the board,

I wasn't sure if this was due to the cams in it, I was told aggressive cams can have a Lower compression test

 

I would do it again and make the cylinders individually, A large cam will have a impact but I don't think the 125 would be in that ball park. That to me would say something is wrong. If you lost a head gasket and had stuff go through the motor to make it milky I would check your rings next and make sure the motor is sound.

 

Ok, so I redid the compression test and it turns our I wasn't cranking it over long enough, the pressure was still rising when I stopped before, this time I had a buddy watch the gauge as I was cranking it over

The results were:
165/173/166/163

I thought this was pretty good for the new engine with s2 cams, but to check for bad rings I redid the test after putting a teaspoon of oil in each cylinder, the numbers went up, but not significantly.

180/179/179/179

But I believe my numbers without oil are pretty on par of where they should be. I think It's more likely the valve seals since it's most noticeable on a first start, or after idling a little but, not constantly blowing smoke under load or boost, but they're brand new seals!

Any more insight?

 

Whose break in procedure?

 

This. However, compression seems good.

Also, you may need to pull both manifolds to see if you lost some valve seals. you'll be able to tell because the valves will have evidence of oil leak age.

 

I had issues with the supertech dual valve springs popping the valve stem seals off, I switched to a set of GSC springs

 

When I replaced my head gasket, both manifolds had oil residue in then, but I thought it was just due to the head gasket.

As for break in, I went by the procedure detailed to me by my engine builder

 

fit a set of valve seals

 

Recommendation on which valve seals to use? Or as to why mine could have gone bad so soon?

Somebody that builds v8's told me that on a fresh engine I should lube the valves before installing them or the heat from them rubbing on initial startup could burn them out before they get properly lubed.... But the service manual never mentions to do this....

I really hope it's not my supertech dual springs that are popping the seals off, I'll have to do some investigation, might hold off a month or two until winter to tear into it again

 

It's the Leakdown test that will tell you more about/which valve(s) is/are the problem. Compression test not so much.

 

I had broken rings not too long ago and had symptoms like you, turned out to be rings. was burning oil like crazy and would throw bluish smoke during start up. Also during full throttle would see a cloud of smoke behind. Don't rule out the rings think that might be your problem.

 

I really don't want it to be the rings, but it's deff a possibility. I'm only leaning away from rings because it doesn't really smoke under wide open throttle