More had to stop to do some grillin so I’ll post 2 and 6 later

Last two, got my leak down and compression tool today.

I texted with the guy that drove the car and did the tuning on it last night…
He said it ran fine for them and he put 8 passes on it and he can’t believe anything is hurt.
He said the car did set for a year or so after it was freshened but he read plugs every pass while dialIng in the nitrous just
Before I picked it up.
He also said:
“May not even have seals in it”
“A lot of builders do not put them on race engines.”

He went on to say “make sure your valves are closed on the cylinder your testing.
I try to have the piston toward the top to. Run your psi up to 100 and if you have 80 on the other gauge you have 20% leak down etc. You’ll probably have to have some one hold the engine from turning with a breaker bar.

I would welcome input on these comments to all of this, I’ll be updating with leak down
Soon.
Thanks

I've done leak down tests for a lot of years by putting the cylinder being tested at TDC both when hot and later when cold, I do rock the crank a tiny bit, no more than 5 degrees from TDC either way to see if it will seal better by loading the rings both ways
I used to own a airplane, all the annual tests I had done by A&P mechanic always tested each cylinder just above bottom dead center on the power stroke to check the ring and valve seal on all cylinders, I would be ask to grab the prop and spin it towards TDC to load it against the air pressure put into the cylinder by the A&P air compressor
They allowed up to 40 % leakage when cold
I was concerned on my car street motors when they leaked worse than 15%, less on the race motors when warm
As far as my comments on your plugs there are way to much shiny with oil on those plugs for me to keep using without fixing the oil sealing issue first
Visual oil on the spark plugs can and will lead to detonation, especially with NOS
Good luck

Ok I’m hooked up in the garage.
How’s this looking?
100 psi input with 92 on secondary gauge so 8%.
I hear a little air seems like in the head area like say it’s filling the cylinder…?
No air bubbles in the radiator and it’s steady so what’s your thoughts on #7 cylinder test?
This is the first plug picture that I posted.
Thanks
And Cab thanks for sticking with me on this I really appreciate it.
I wanna get this to the track and get into the local list race here so bad but I want to have a better idea of where this engine is.
Ain’t no Mopars on the list so I want to represent!

That looks okay, it would probably read better with dry cylinders and rings
Is this test warm or cold?
It wound not surprise me to see you pick up .15 or more ET and 2 or more MPH by fixing the oil leaking or oil consumption in the combustion chamber

This was a cold test.
So where do you think the oil is coming from if the leak down looks this good?
Not opposed to fixing the issue just trying to understand what to fix.

Might have a intake leak on the valley side. What intake are you running?

Intake is an Indy 4500

Is it a full intake that seals the valley? Or is it a open style with a separate valley plate?

Would the valley leaking not present itself during leak down? And could it still be valve stem seals?
Are the seals changeable on Indy -1 heads with the motor in the car?
I know I need air or some say rope to keep the valves up, but is it good practice?
If intake leak on the valley how do you diagnose that?
Thanks

Separate valley tray but not the removable center one it’s a solid separate tray

So your style set up does not have the ports exposed into the valley. With that being said the intake will not suck oil. No it will not show on a leak down test. As far as I know it should have valve seals. Leak down all the cylinders first. Do you see oil hazing from the exhaust?

Is it possible that plug is wet with fuel from being way fat?

I dont want to start any arguments or conflicts....leakdown is useless on a nitrous engine. you have to do compression test.

Block the carb open, take all the plugs out. Then compression test it, record the first pump then what it does after 5-6 pumps. for reference, my engine pumps 90 then goes to 130 after 6 pumps. (YES this is what i mean, nitrous cams that open the exh early give compression results like this)

This is also my routine maintenance, after every race i check the valve lash, the valve spring seat pressure, and compression test.

Leak down can fool you , compression test never lies.

Your "black" plugs could be from a lot of issues....if there is that much oil pumping the thing should be smoking like crazy...i would start with a compression test

That’s what I thought initially but Cab is seeing oil.

The guy that used to mech on this car said those plugs had been idle around in quite a bit
But I’m gonna complete the leak down tonight, run a compression and change plug to an -9
And creep it around like Cab said to do above.
I’ll watch for a puff of smoke on start up or anything as well.
I have a couple of questions still:
Can valve seals be done with engine in car on -1 Indy heads
Does the 92 jet seem big?
Idle screws are at 1.5 turns out and I’ll check AFR gauge and report back

Valve seals can be done on engine, just need to support valves, and dissasemble retainer/spring.

does this engine have a vacum pump on it???

Thanks N20, I plan on doing the compression test this evening, I have a helper coming by.
No she is not smoking, well not anything noticeable to me.
I will do a more thorough check on the characteristics at startup and throttle to see if I see anything this evening hopefully (if enough time) in not I'll do more tomorrow.

I appreciate the input and take no offense to differing experiences.
And yes plan on making a program for after run and after race maintenance like you mention.
I'm a weekend warrior wanting to do the SWFL list race but realize the need for sure.

Please stay tuned everyone, its nice to be working on it and giving you guys the findings and then seeing you all's replies.

Yes an aerospace vacuum pump system, and that's another question since I have not had experience with a vac system.
Can that impact this oil on plugs at all?
Does the tank need to emptied periodically or maintained in any way?
I know they had replaced bearings and "rebuilt" it just before I picked it up because it had a slight tick, which I thought sounded like a lifter but it was gone after they "rebuilt it"

Pan Vac is a great indication of the engine health. Yes you should monitor the pan vac during a pass (data log) as this tell you if the engine is happy with the tune up ( timing/AFR)
Yes you should empty the catch can after every pass and monitor that, its literally a dynamic leakdown test of the rings as the engine is running ( as long as there are no other leaks letting air into the engine)
IF you have a stuck ring or nipped piston, the catch can will be getting a LOT of oil in it with the engine running....

So how are you seeing the pan vac?
external analog gauge or using a sensor for input to a box or..?

I did see a guy saying You need MSD part no 7762, some 1/4 pushlock tubing and you'll be fixed right up.
He says that he uses anytime he runs his car.
It records in psi, and you just need to convert that to inhg.
He just uses it to watch my vacuum trace for detonation.
Once it's powered up it starts watching the sensor, you don't need to do anything special
to make it work other than make sure the retard function is disabled, unless you want to use it, but it's referenced off of boost.

Do you have a way you do yours?
And where should the measurement be taken from