Well, the first test drive was this yesterday...but it wasn't entirely successful.
Had no problems with the drive to Whistler, hammering on the car pretty good, until I arrived into town and slowed down. MASSIVE smoke show out the tailpipes and all I could think was "*%$@ I blew another one".
Popped off the valve-cover on the 1/2 head, and found nothing but clean oil (first good sign) and then popped the cover on the 3/4 head. WHOOPS! Dumped 3/4 of a quart of synthetic oil onto the side of the highway. Combined with excessive crankcase pressure we figured it was probably pushing oil past the valve stems. Hmmmm. After letting the car sit for a while, I drove it 1km to a buddies place with nothing more then a wisp or two (likely off the oil-soaked engine from pulling the valve cover).
Shamefully parked short of our destination...
So the theory of the day called for a little testing after work. If I could drive the car at low revs without smoke, it probably wasn't going to be a horrible conclusion...Driving home at 2500rpm or less is a rather painful experience, but completed with out issues. I did get some wisps of smoke at times, but when I jumped out to check, it was always the oil I dumped on the heat exchanger.
In the meantime, it was suggested I vent the valve covers. Test covers were made by drilling and tapping some 1/2" nipples into old covers. I then ran the vent line from the left cover over the trans and into the right wheel-well. Vice versa for the right cover. For now they're just popped into some empty water bottles, so I can see if I'm getting oil, vapour or a mix coming out. Once I know what's coming out of the lines, I can then decide if I put a breather in each wheel-well, or if I need something high on the firewall that can drain back into the sump.
(excuse the zipties...it is all temporary for testing :P)
With the new vents in place...it was off to whistler again this afternoon...or so I thought. We made it about 10min up the highway before there was a smoke show out the back. Pulling over I found the 3/4 cover dripping oil fairly quickly onto the heat exchanger. Geesh, what now? It's all downhill home, so I was able to coast it almost the whole way back. Pulling the valve cover tonight, things became pretty clear on what the issue was:
I've used a bit of Aviation 3H to hold down the new gasket, ran the car at idle for 10min and found no leaks...so tomorrow it will be off again to do another short test. In the meantime, I thought the car could use a bit of a pep-talk and reminder of exactly what type of relationship we're supposed to have...
-Dave