Just something on my mind. My friend has a 2001 Cobra, 20k and his engine blew last week unexpectingly. He said that he was burning oil and he needed to add a quart every 1000 miles. My question is does an LT1 burn oil under aggressive driving conditions? This past week when I started my car, I did get a puff of blue smoke for a moment, I checked the oil level, it was fine. Is this normal? My Lt1 has 23k on it, no engine work done (yet). Should I be worried? Need some advice. Thanks for any info.

 

I wouldn't consider that normal. Maybe you have some rings that are going bad.

 

I really dont drive the car hard, this was the first time I noticed this happen. I run mobil-1 10-30 oil, I am just gonna wait and see.

 

you have a 94 with only 23k on it?
That is probably bad valve seals especially if it puffed blue smoke on start up.
Your car has had to be sitting arond a lot and not driven so the seals have probably gone bad.

 

I store my car every winter, the first 2 years, it was stored for 13 months at a time. What do I need to do to replace the valve seals? Is it expensive?

 

It's cheap to do it your self but you must take off your springs to do it. I think I paid like $25 for new seals from Thunder Racing.
I have been told by some engine buiders not to use the teflon kind that GM sells. I had someone do mine and I think it was $300

 

Thats normal my lt1 has 40 thousand miles on it its still new you needto driveit for at least 7000 miles break it in . its mormal go get it dynoed see what it has....

 

Thats normal? I am very cautious so I ask the questions before something breaks. Thanks for all the info fellas. :-)

 

I don't think that is normal. I've never heard of a engine needing that many miles to break in. See what some other guys say but I've never heard of such a thing.
If you're not using any oil then I don't think you have much to worry about.
How does your oil pressure run at idle and say 4000 rpms

 

BTW,

I had a corvette several years ago that did the same thing. The car didn't use a drop but would sometimes puff a little bit on start up. The car had very low miles and had been stored a lot

 

I would put money on it being valve seals. I have seen it a lot with cars that are not daily drivers and sit for periods of time.

Easy change, just pull the springs put new seals on, and you are good to go.

 

Valve seals dried out from sitting. I'd start it up every now and then. I run Mobil 1 in mine and at 144,000 it STILL doesn't burn ANY oil.

 

How crucial are the valve seals? Will this ruin my engine if I dont fix it right away?

 

Your friends Cobra that used a qt every 1000 miles is typical with oil being burnt around the rings. Most manufacturers will acccept up to a qt. every 1000 miles before they will repair anything. I personnally think anything more than a 1/2 qt. over 1000 miles is excesssive, even less if you are running synthetic (synthetic doesn't burn as easily). My '94 with 175k miles uses 1/4 qt. every 1000 miles, using Mobil 1 10w30. I change it every 5k, sometimes every 10k. I also have a intake manifold oil leak, so in reality im burning less than 1/4 qt.

Blue smoke on start-up is typical of leaky valve seals. Even if all of them are bad, you will not lose much oil through them, and may never notice a significant change in your oil level.

If you do nothing, your car could still run fine for another 100k miles. However, you run the chance of fouling your CAT and O2 sensors long term. Pick a time that is convenient, and replace the seals (maybe at your next spark plug change, since the plugs will need to be removed to do the seals).

BTW, dont wait till 100k to replace the stock platinums, they tend to fall apart after 50k.

 

PGR, your oil consumption is about like mine. 145,000 and I'm not even down a half a quart between my 5K mile changes. I use Mobil 1 also.