Black Oil

[Murphy]

Hi Guys, long time no post.

I pulled the blown engine "Flathead" replaced the damaged parts and reinstalled it. It always smoked a little on start up and still does, but now the oil gets black pretty quick.

Any idea as to why ?

And just because it gets black quick does that always mean the oil is bad.

Will the oil break down that fast or is it just turning black from some other reason.?

And no my dumb *** didn't ring it when I had the motor out, I thought they were fine.

Thanks for any help and suggestions.

[nobuckbuild]

well any time you dont replace rings and have smoke that is an indicator of combustion gases getting past the rings and the oil ring not cleaning the oil from the cylinder wall thus causing the oil to get contaminated quicky and breaking down much more rapidly , also if you did not clean the ridge at the top of the cylinder before removing the piston the rings could have been damaged even more , unfortunatly ring wear and damage are difficult to determine visually so your best bet is to cheat it , on a kf 82 you can seperate the cylinder from the block and have it bored and pop in a new piston and rings from the bottom and not have to pull the engine. you may put 100 bucks in parts and who knows as far as machining goes or you could just get a new set of rings and risk it but how many risks do you want to take, just pull it and fix it right and just wait for the ignition parts to fail since they are impossible to find anymore , or just start thinking clone swap

[Murphy]

Thanks no buck, I just pulled the head and cylinder, the so called golf cart mechanic who worked on it the last time had the oil ring and center ring ends lined up and didn't put a gasket between the cylinder and the crankcase. I ordered a new piston kit and gaskets. When I reassemble with a gasket I'm sure to have some valve clearance issues.

Anyone know if the tappet caps are still available.

Thanks again