Looking at buying a car with a motor that had the bottom end re done honed cylinders rings bearing and a head and cam job. How much oil will this motor use over the first several thousand miles?
Thanks
Shawn

 

I'm at 500 miles on my engine that had done exactly what you describe. So far, it hasn't eaten enough that I can tell the level is down. Maybe it will eat some, but I plan on changing the oil at 1000 miles and at this rate I won't worry.

 

a quart in 700 miles? any way to accelerate the rate in which the rings seal?

 

The current trend it to run motors fairly hard during the very few first miles, I think arnie just posted about this in the advanced section within the last week or so worth a look. There are specific guidlines followed as well not just random beating.

 

one major thing when breaking in new rings is to make sure you run a non-synthetic oil. Just run cheap Advanced or auto zone oil. I have heard of people sprinkling comet in front of the TB to help seat teh rings but that was on chromoly rings. You do want to vary the load on a new motor. A lot of stop and go driving is best for seating rings. But I have had one motor that I couldnt get to quit smoking until I got pissed and took it out of the driveway and dumped the clutch at about 4000 rpm. Didnt smoke after that

 

If you have molly rings and oiled the hell out of them they will take a long time to seat 2000+ miles or may not ever seat due to slick out on cyl walls.
Molly don't like a lot of oil in it's first 20-30 minutes of running.
Use dino oil your first 2000 miles then synthetic.If you started it with synthetic they may not seat due to the same reason above.
Normal oil consumption IMO is more than a quart it's first 1000 miles and tapering off the more miles you get on it.

 

When I did my LT1 to LT4/Hotcam conversion I only replaced the rings and bearings (although they looked perfect). The engine had 106K on it. Hone marks still looked fresh (that's Mobil 1 for ya).

Did no honing or prep of any kind.

That said.. the break in time was zero. The cylinder walls were already in shape. I've run this combination to 6800rpm for the last 2 years+ and haven't burned any significant amount of oil.

A properly honed cylinder (mind you the hone matched to the ring intended) should be "broken in" within about 20 minutes of run time. "Broken in" meaning that the high points of the cylinder wall have been busted flat so that true ring sealing can begin. "Break in" is not breaking in the rings but conditioning the cylinder walls.

It should not take several thousand miles.

 

If you oil the hell out of molly rings they may never seat and you are lucky yours seated without even breaking the glaze.
"O" I have built more than one engine and did ring R&D for C&A for a few engines and learned what it takes for moly rings. I have my own engine shop also.
Personally I would not run molly in my lawn mower much less my race engines.

 

Are you talking about chrome molly or plasma molly?

 

which set of rings would you use

 

Chrome is not refered to as molly.....all molly rings are about the same,just advertised different.None are worth putting in a good engine.
Doesn't make a differance if they have a sprayed coating or the ring is groved with a layer inserted. They won't take pressure,heat or dirt.Any will cause the moly to chunk out.
Detonate a motor and do a leak down and ALL the moly will be in the pan,seen it to many times.

 

I would use a good set of ductil iron rings,file to fit from any of the good makers if you are n/a. If you have a power adder blower ,turbo,NOS,I would call Total Seal and let them recommend a ring (not molly) for your boost level or adder level. They are pricy but worth it to seal her up.