Oil consumption in New 454 Crate Motor

LDICANZIO

MEMBER
1945 CHEVROLET

Greetings,
I recently installed a 454 crate motor in a 69 Chevelle. I have 700 easy miles on this motor and found that I am down a half a quart of oil. I would think with a new motor there would be no oil consumption within the first 1000 miles. Am I wrong?
Is there a potential problem with this motor or is this normal.
thanks,
Lou

5 Replies

MERLIN2021

MECHANIC
17,250 POSTS

I wouldn't panick just yet wait till you do the first oil change, about 1000-1500 mi ought to be about right. Panick sets in after the break in period, you're not see the smoke from tailpipes are you? And was it a long or short block?

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Sunday, September 30th, 2007 AT 7:13 PM

BIGBADPIRATETOM

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19 POSTS

The reason why there are crosshatch marks on new cylinders is so that the rings are polished to fit the cylinders perfectly. Until that happens, and until the crosshatching is polished out, the engine will consume quite a bit of oil. A light grade oil should be used (5W30) for break-in, and the car should not be driven in excess of 50 mph for at least 1000 miles, and not continuously at speeds above 40 until then, either. A lot of metal will be in the oil from the polishing that takes place during break-in. The oil and filter should be changed after 500 miles, and then every 1000 miles for the next 2000 miles. Shiny mirror-like cylinder walls should result, but the crosshatch must be present when the engine is first broken in to make sure that the piston rings conform to the cylinder walls perfectly. If the cylinder walls were shiny to begin with, the rings wouldn't polish to shape.

Thomas

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Friday, October 5th, 2007 AT 12:06 AM

HMAC300

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48,601 POSTS

Having worked with this specific motor for more than 30 or more years there are a few things you should know. This engine when it was designed was designed as an oil eater. Alot of work has been done to clean it up engineering wise. The best way to brreak this in is to keep it under 50, but try to do a lot of high gear slowdowns. That will be the fastest way to seat the rings. With the miles you have on this you can actually go faster as it won't matter to much now anyhow. Up until a few years ago and that would include that motor, 1 quart of oil per 500 miles was considered normal consumptions. As you engine ages/more miles, you consumption will drop to a better range. One of the things you should check is to make sure the torque on the inlet manifold is tight as they tend to loosen up after a little while. You should only need to tighten the inlet bolts once as they will hold torque once retightened.

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Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 AT 11:48 AM

MERLIN2021

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HMAC300 this post is two years old. May look to answer newer posts?

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Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 AT 12:33 PM

MICKEY-D

MECHANIC
304 POSTS

I don't believe you have any problems. Big blocks always tended to use a little oil. But they don't like light weight oils, and never did.
Break it in with the oil weight you intend to use until the car is dead! My preference, is a good brand of 15w40. Always ran it in my Chevelles, and my Camaro's, all were big blocks, and had over 80.000 miles or more when I sold them.
Even then, no more than a qt. At around 1200 to
1500 miles.
Mickey-d