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Maintenance & Repair Engine's burning oil - how much longer will it last?
64 messages, Last post on Sep 04, 2007 at 7:35 AM
You are in the Maintenance & Repair Forum. Your Host is mr_shiftright
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the baby in on a new Scion xA RS 2.0, eh? I owned a '66 Ford Fairlane(without fins!!)that burned oil badly. When the smoke would waft inside the passenger cabin I finally had to get rid of the thing. Yukko. Talk about barbequeing your old car's engine! fintail, been to Burlington, WA lately? Anything new along the I-5 corridor there? BTW-take a gander over towards Burlington as you're heading past town on I-5 next time and you should be able to spot Jerry Smith Kia there on old Highway 99. That's the dealer I bought both of my Kia's from. They're a solid and reliable dealer of Kia products there in the beautiful Skagit Valley region of Washington state. Over and out. |
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Here's what I'm thinking on the matter. Since the engine's still got good power and it still gets good fuel economy, my guess is the oil burning problem isn't coming from worn cylinders or rings. I would say this indicates the engine still has good compression which means the rings, cylinders, and valves are all sealing properly, which could only mean the valve guides are the cause of the problem. Anyone else agree? If this is the case, I could have the valve guides replace relatively inexpensively and still have plenty of miles left on the car. I really don't want to replace the car just yet if it can be avoided.
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Replying to: bottgers (Jul 02, 2005 3:59 pm) Best way to know what's up is to do a cylinder leakdown test, and then all will be revealed.
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My fintail had a severe lack of power and poor mileage when it was an oil burner. I was amazed at how competent the car performed when I had it fixed...the mileage isn't shabby either. iluv - I now live in Bellevue, transferred to a better job. I'll actually be going through that area tomorrow though, to pick up the fintail (it is stored north of Bellingham) and bring it here. Do a leakdown test for sure, as Shifty says. A valve job for that thing has to be well under a grand. |
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| My daughter drove for about two years using a quart every five hundred miles. as long as it isn't blowing blue smoke and you keep it topped off it will run for a long time. She just checked the oil every week and added when it reached the Add point. That was a Nissan Sentra that had maybe three oil changes in 100000 miles... I think it would have lasted a few more years had it not been totaled. And a lot longer had she changed the oil. | |
So is it possible the problem could be worn valve guides? If that's the case, I'm thinking that couldn't very expensive to get fixed, right? If it's the rings causing the problem, then that would be something I'd just have to live with. I wouldn't spend the money it would take to rebuild the engine. I suppose a valve job would be worth doing if the rest of the engine is still in good shape.
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Replying to: bottgers (Jul 03, 2005 5:57 am) This is why you want to do a leakdown test....you might have both valve guide AND ring wear, in which case strengthening the top end will only cause more oil to escape past the oil rings into the combustion chambers. Testing for bad valve guides shouldn't be too hard. First of all, if your valve guides are the culprit, usually...usually...you'll get a lot more blue smoke at start up, and it will gradually diminish; also, if you get blue smoke while ACCELERATING, that's usually rings...if you get huge clouds of blue smoke while DECELERATING, that could be guides. So when you get a high vacuum situation (closed throttle plate) you'll tend to suck oil past the guides, but in a low vacuum situation (throttle to floor) you'll tend to pump oil through the oil rings. Another sign of bad rings is blow-by, which is that chimney smoking effect you get at idle, where you can see puffs of smoke coming through the oil cap on top of the engine---be careful about testing for this on OHC engines, as the camshaft can send a lot of oil through the open oil cap.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Jul 03, 2005 6:30 am) |
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My car has exibited one of the symptoms you listed which is the puff of smoke coming out of the tailpipe during startup. The only other time I've actually seen the engine smoking was the other night. I was leaving a parking lot after a fireworks display and through the headlights behind me I could some smoke coimg out of my tailpipe while the engine was idling. As soon as I brought the engine above idle, the smoking stopped. I haven't seen the engine smoke during acceleration or deceleration, nor have I seen smoke coming out through the fill hole. I guess like you said, probably the next move would be to have a leakdown check done. I have that before about doing a valve job on an old engine and that it can cause problems with the bottom end. I guess at this stage of the game, the only thing I would probably want to do would be to replace the valve guides. Anything else I'll just have to live with until the problem gets so bad it isn't worth dealing with anymore.
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| I could be wrong about this, but I would think having the valve guides replaced would be the least expensive thing to fix of all the possible problems. If the rings are bad, that would mean a complete engine overhaul and I wouldn't do that as it would be prohibitively expensive. | |
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