Well as some of you may know I have had a problem lately with crank case pressure. I have WAY WAY too much, and it is getting worse. I have no loss of vacuum at idle (15in, same as the day I installed the engine), I have never had any misfires. It runs WAY good, just too much crank case pressure.... SO, I ordered a bor-a-scope to help me find the problem. I have no coolant or oil burning issues; well I was told I had a puff of blue smoke at start up. so....
SO what did I find????
The WHOLE left bank is much much worse than the right.....
On the right side I have anywhere from 1% to a max of around 5%...
The left side looks like this.. (I can't remember the exact numbers, but these are very close)
Cylinder number 1 10%
Cylinder number 3 40%
Cylinder number 5 10%
Cylinder number 7 35%
You see I keep hoping that it is just a head gasket. Of course, I have never heard of a head gasket blowing and not have coolant and oil mixing, which I don't. It's starting to look like a head gasket "could" be the problem.......
O, and with the bor-a-scope, I could not see any cracks on any pistons. (of course it is kinda hard to see the ring lands.)

 

With that much leaking did you feel any loss in power when driving it around? Seems like that's a lot of power to be missing no?? Glad you found your problem!

 

I have seen a headgasket blow on a trans am that lost no coolant or oil. The engine was making a squeaking type noise, sounded like a bearing, and when the engine was turned off it made a pressure release air noise. The gasket was blown on two cylinders above the headers. It was leaking nothing but air pretty much. The car ran fine but was down some on power but with no miss either.Replaced the headgaskets and all was good. So,it is possible it could be a headgasket.

 

That would be cool if it was just that.

 

Yes it would, Hopfully I will have a 5.3l engine here by next week so I a can pull this engine down. I can't go with-out a truck for a month plus, which is the amount of time it would take me to re-build the lq4. SO, it would be nice if it was just a head gasket, but I think it will still be turned in to a complete engine build.

 

Oh No!!!, not the dreaded #7 with more leak than others. Hate to be the bearer of bad news , but you can't see all of thr ring lands with just the heads off. Best of luck to you.

 

O, I know all about the #7 lean condition, well mine was more 5 than 7 last time but any how number 3 is the worst....

 

i am thinking right now that you may have just pushed the head gasket in to each cylinder and that is why they change so much one is push more than the other i really don't see that much wrong but i have been wrong before

 

Is it possible that the rings are annealed?

 

YA, that is also a big possabilty