New motor concern - smoke on start-up

[RickS]

As most of you know, I have a new engine with about 1700 miles. The car is driven pretty much only on weekends (insurance and Seattle stop and go traffic dictate my driving habits) and when the car has sat all week and is started, I am still getting nice blue cloud of oil. I know the engineering dictates some oil will still leak down into the cylinders, but I am a little concerned at the amount. After a complete rebuild, I anticipated a little smoke at start up but the cloud - when cold, has me alarmed. It this right, or after a few thousand miles will the rings seat better and decrease the smoke? As an aside, when the car is warmed up, the amount of smoke coming out is negligible.

Thanks, Rick

[yopurp]

Rick,

I'm not the expert here, but see the other post on gas getting in the oil. Is your engine MFI? If so, mine had a clogged/bad injector that was letting extra gas go unburned, running down into the crank and mixing with the oil. That'll make the oil burn. Also, since its a new rebuild, have you done your oil change and valve adjustment yet?

[Steve@Rennsport]

Hi Rick:

Having gone through this drill many times over the past 30+ years, I can tell you that until your rings have seated, your engine will smoke a little as long as it was assembled properly.

My best advice to you is to spend a weekend driving that thing and breaking it in correctly. Make a trip to Spokane and back, varying your speeds all the time and making WOT bursts from 2000-5000 an back down that will help the rings to seat.

[RickS]

Very late breaking update with a big DUH factor. I must first preface... With my old S motor, it had a manual fuel enrichment switch for start up. My mechanic suggested that I press it for 4 secs prior to cold start to get enough gas, which worked great. Well, the light bulb went on with my problem with the new motor, as well as the characteristics of fouled plugs. I figure out that if I only press it for a second or two, the engine starts up relatively cleanly. I would rather take my stupidity (or my mechnic's inability to communicate what should be the obvious) versus some type of mechanical or seating/glazing problem. Duh.