personally, I'd vote for leaving the engine alone, especially with good oil
pressure and compression readings. Your oil consumption is a bit on the high
side, but if that's the only thing wrong with it, I'd let it be.
In my experience, what begins as a simple "renewing" project almost always
metamorphs (sp?) into something bigger, especially if I screw up along the
way.
I'm thinking about doing something similar to what you suggest on my big
Healey (renew main bearings), but only because my oil pressure is alarmingly
low.
--Graham
-----Original Message-----
From: ShewFamily@aol.com [mailto:ShewFamily@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 1:10 PM
To: 6pack@autox.team.net
Subject: Oil Consumption
I am about to pull the engine in my '74 TR6 so that I can paint the engine
compartment before sending it out to the body shop for replacement of some
sheet metal and new paint.
While I have the engine out, I thought that I might send out my original
head for valve guides, harden seats and shave the head to give slightly
higher compression. In doing this it also occurred to me that I might renew
the main and rod bearings and rings, if I can do so without any machine
work. My thought is that for about $200 I can "renew" my engine enough to
get me down the road several years when I would do a complete and more
performance minded rebuild.
I currently run about 70 lbs of oil pressure running at operating
temperature at 70 mph in OD. I have about 30 lbs of oil pressure hot at
idle. I recently checked the compression on each cylinder and I get
readings from 123 to 127.5. I get from 300 to 350 miles on a quart of oil
and I have no engine oil leaks.
List, please chime in with your thoughts as I value your opinions. Thanks.
John Shewmake
'74 TR6
Chattanooga, TN
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