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My old 1977 dodge 440 runs well but seems to use a lot of oil. There is no blue exhaust smoke. I have a problem with valve covers leaking, particularly on the right side. Heat from the extremely hot exhaust manifold will burn through a cork gasket in one summer. Rather than a cork gasket I have tried a good quality high heat resistent gasket compound instead but that seems to be deteriorating with the heat as well. I know it is leaking because of the smell, But I can't see it leaking that much to cause the high oil consumption
I'd love to know also. I've reduced my 440's consumption be replacing all of the vaccuum hoses & torquing the valve covers, but it's still around 1 qt per 150 miles. The engine only has 32K on it.
Two causes of oil consumption, leaky rings or valve stem oil seals. To check for leaky rings, see how much blow-by the engine has by removing the large hose from the air cleaner to the rocker arm cover, and pulling the PCV valve out of the rocker arm cover.Start and warm up engine. If the engine is sending out "smoke signals" from the rocker arm aperatures, then the rings/bores are the problem. Little smoke signal means the problem is valve stem oil seals. Do the blow-by test and post the results.
Thanks for the tip Sam. I did the blow by test and a small amount of oil-like vapor comes from the hose. From your description it looks like the valve guides. The connection at the valve cover fits loose as well as the oil filler cap. Does that matter?
As long as it is only a drift of smoke, then your rings are in reasonably good shape. The valve stem oil seals can be replaced with the heads on the engine.
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