Burning oil when warm

[galto]

I have a 2.0 that runs great when cold, but as soon as it gets warm, it starts burning oil. This seems opposite to what I would expect. Anyone had this problem?

I also had a bad t-stat (always closed) and may have been over heating. I have set the flaps to full open (Spring loaded, but no t-stat). But haven't run like this yet. I would like to set the flaps to what normal Temp would be, but I need to know the dims of a cold t-stat, anyone got those?

Also, what weight oil do y'all run?
I haven't run into straight 30 yet. Running 5-30 right now. Hope I didn't burn out my journals. Would straight 40 wrong?

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Full open is fine. You'll be putting extra wear on the engine for the first 5-10 minutes, but that's about all.

I run 20W50 oil. I think 5-30 is probably rather thin for our cars...

How do you know it's burning oil? Smoke out the tailpipe? Smoke out of the engine bay? Other??

--DD

[galto]

Smoke out the tail pipe after about 20-30 min of running.

The crankcase ventilation was plugged up orig. and so I got oil everywhere, but that has been cleaned up, made sure to get it off the oil cooler and piston fins. then I noticed after a short run, a bluish smoke coming from the tail pipe. Hope I didn't trash the bearings for running too thin of an oil.

My best guess is that the oil is getting up to temperature, thinning out like it should and blowing by the cylinders. Just glad I don't have a cat on this car!

Any consequences that you can think of if I change the oil shortly after a re-build? I know it says to wait for 200 mi of break it, but what if I do it sooner to try some 20W50?