ben_p

Hi guys

Hope you can help me with some issues I'm having on a 2009 ford zetec se sigma block, this came as a crate engine in my Caterham 7 and has covered 7400 miles since new. I bought the car on 6500 miles, drove it 200miles then stripped it down with the following mods -

Caterham throttle bodies
Uprated injectors
Piper cams (circa 280 duration) Caterham spec, the same on the supersports
New cam buckets
HD springs
Caterham reflash on the MBE ecu

The spec essentially took the car from the standard 125hp to the 150 upgrade.
I have no previous experience of the engine before the upgrades as I only drove it home from the old owners address to my unit and began the strip down.



The issues I'm having are -
Oil consumption (circa 1ltr per 200 miles)
Oil quickly turning black
Distinct smell of oil when driving
Breather setup is constantly firing out gas/oil from the catch can. Id say 90% is a smoke/gas and 10% is oil, no oil collects in the can
Two of the 4 plugs are wet with oil
Two cylinders have a small amount of oil on the crowns
There is oil coming from the filler cap (only a small amount)
The dip stick does NOT blow out


I have done a compression test, results were 160 psi on all cylinders, it went to 210psi when i poured oil in the plug holes (I put way too much in!) so wasn't a fair test really.

Ive stripped the engine down today to see if the head gasket had failed but it was ok,
The oil on the crowns wasn't excessive
The underside of the head looks cleanish, the two that had oil on the plugs were more black than the other two
I checked the PCV and I could blow and suck through it with ease (not sure if thats how you test them) there wasn't any shit in it
The bores looked ok to me?

Any ideas?
Everything is pointing towards worn rings but with the engine having 7k on it, I just can't see it?
The rocker cover seems to have excessive pressure to me but I having nothing to bench against

How are you supposed to test a PCV

ben_p

Also, originally I had the rocker breather and PCV linked on a Y section to my catch can which only had a small vent.
Would this of caused an issue, I don't really understand how PCV works as I now don't have a vacuum on it as the bodies have no link to it and it just "vents" into the catch can

Turbo Zetec

iTrader: (1)

oil consumption like that is almost certainly rings, but it may be worth checking the valve stem seals and valve to guide clearance. if you need to fit new rings, be sure to have it honed by a machine shop, not just a hone on a drill ideally.