Breaking in a motor with synthetic oil...

[ECU5.0]

my motor has about 3k miles on it right now and smokes maybe a little bit when you really get on it. the guy who did my machine work and got me the rings said that it will smoke for close to 5k miles no matter what you do. that might not be your case, but its mine and my friends case. his car just quite smoking all of a sudden right around 5k miles.

 

[Michael Yount]

"...it will smoke for close to 5k miles no matter what you do." Get another machinist next time. They shouldn't smoke and while they might consume a bit of oil, one that's properly assembled/machined ought to be able to make it between changes without adding any. There's no reason a rebuilt shouldn't work just as well as a brand new engine does - 99.9% of new cars don't smoke, don't use oil and the rings seat within minutes of first start up with no special oil or procedures. And more and more of them are started up the first time using synthetic. If that's not happening with your rebuilds -- time to find other people to help you with them.

 

[ECU5.0]

sorry, maybe i misphrased what i meant to say. it doesnt smoke until you really get on it, but it does use a little bit of oil. its used maybe a quart since the initial break in

 

[bubba-dough]

.

 

[vristang]

sorry, maybe i misphrased what i meant to say. it doesnt smoke until you really get on it, but it does use a little bit of oil. its used maybe a quart since the initial break in

Do you have any oil in the intake? The oil usage could be from the pcv?
I had this problem and only had the smoke evidence with spirited driving.

 

[ECU5.0]

no oil in the intake....pcv isnt pulling any oil because ive got one of thost catch cans inline with the pcv valve and it has no oil in it. he told me its just the type of rings that he gets. i dont remember the part number, but they are sealed power rings

 

[5spd GT]

Keith Craft recommends to not switch to synthetic until 5,000 miles I believe. He recommends breaking an engine in with a slightly thicker oil like 10w-40.

You very would could be fine, run the regular oil and see what happens.

An engine rebuild can get pretty costly so the "break-in" oil of synthetic at $25 dollars is nothing to the overall cost so that isn't a reason.

I believe the ls1/ls6 engines come from the factory with synthetic but are broke in at the production plant with "dino oil".