[AJD] '41 B Oil in Cylinders

[Robert M. Massengale]

I'm having a problem with oil in the cylinders on my '41B.  It's a bit puzzling to me in 
that the B seems to run good with very little, if any, smoke out the exhaust, but 
there is a large quantity of oil leaking out of the compression relief petcocks.  If I 
open the compression relief petcocks while the engine is running I get puffs of 
smoke on each ignition stroke and a prominent splatter of oil out of both petcocks.  
After shutdown, both plugs are heavily fouled and oily.

I have reasoned that the oil must be getting in the cylinders either via the rings or 
valve guides.  The compression is good and it's VERY hard to turn the flywheel over 
without the compression relief petcocks open.  Even so, I guess if the oil rings are 
bad the oil could still be getting past the compression rings.  Not sure how I'd check 
to see if the oil is getting in via the valve guides without pulling the head.

I was hoping that just running her a while might work this problem out, but I have 
about ten hours on her now since I got her running and the problem has not 
improved.  Yesterday I did my first real work with her... got a fertilizer spreader with 
3100 lbs of 18-10-5 and spread it on the pasture.  She ran without so much as a 
hick-up pulling the 5,300 lb load.  I'd sure appreciate any List thoughts or 
suggestions from the List on this oil problem.

Mike
Fredericksburg, Texas 78624