car is burning oil on start up?

enjoi.this

Formerly ChrisC
Aug 18, 2008
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suprafanatic;1312131 said:
Im starting to think its not the piston rings.. because while its sitting oil is getting into the cylinders.. soo oil isn't going to leak upwards.. i wouldnt think..lol. seems more likely to be the valve stem seals leaking oil down in there while its sitting.. most of the smoke comes out at start up. Is my thinking correct? Another thought to add.. someone was following behind me and said they noticed the smoke coming out when i would shift gears.


Did you rebuild the head on your engine and replace valve seals 3 months ago too along with rings+turbo? Would hope you did anyways.
That mustang racing would be hard on rings+turbo, they wont last long either under heavy abuse.
 

CajunKenny

PULL MY FINGER. PLEASE!
Nov 15, 2007
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I hear valve stem seals being echo'd... ;)

I'm not sure if I understood the post about plugging your PCV. You DON'T want to do that. Not unless you want to blow out your main seals that is...
 

NTRA08

TWINKY
Jun 10, 2008
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Conroe, Texas
CajunKenny;1312171 said:
I hear valve stem seals being echo'd... ;)

I'm not sure if I understood the post about plugging your PCV. You DON'T want to do that. Not unless you want to blow out your main seals that is...

talking about plugging the nipple on the throttle body.
 

CyFi6

Aliens.
Oct 11, 2007
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If you plugged the nipple on the throttle body, how are the lines off the valve covers routed?

Edit, sorry if im mixing you two up lol you have very similar avatar pictures
 

suprafanatic

New Member
May 25, 2007
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the lines go from the valve covers to the catch can to the turbo intake. So you guys really think its the valve stem seals rather than the rings or turbo? And no i dont think the valve stem seals got replaced when the motor was built..
 

grimreaper

New Member
Jul 2, 2008
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dumbo;1312331 said:
= Oil degrading at a alarming rate, you should learn how a system operates before you f$&@ with it.
Has all the symptoms of valve stem seals.

agreed. We all have to learn but learn first, wrench second
 

enjoi.this

Formerly ChrisC
Aug 18, 2008
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I know of people who have built motors and never replaced the old valve seals then paid for it a couple months down the road. He had to dig into the engine again to replace them. Then eventually I think the motor blew up since he had no friggen idea what he was doing when he built it. :nono:
 

suprafanatic

New Member
May 25, 2007
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haha.. seems like the notion is on the valve stem seals. I think i forgot to mention this but the problem started out with just alittle smoke about a week ago, its been getting worse every time i start the car up. My question now is, what makes you guys think its not the turbo or rings? would it be smoking all the time if it were the turbo or rings? Also, how hard is it to replace the stem seals?
 

CajunKenny

PULL MY FINGER. PLEASE!
Nov 15, 2007
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You should still do a compression and leak down test.

As far as the valve stem seal replacement. It's not necessarily a hard thing to do; but, it is time consuming as you have to remove the head and all the valves, shims, buckets, and such... Definitely not the funnest thing to do.

We're all guessing at this point. Compression and leak down numbers will help narrow it down.
 

suprafanatic

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May 25, 2007
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so does the head have to come completely off? i thought maybe you would just remove the valve covers, cams, and all that... Well today was the last day of finals so i'll be moving back home for the summer. As soon as i get back and get settled in im going to do a compression test and see what numbers I get from that. Right now im going to go out to the car and just look things over in the daylight and check the pcv system. I'll post updates if I find anything else unusual with the car.
 

suprafanatic

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May 25, 2007
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Ok, went out to the car, looked in my catch can and theres no fresh oil in there its empty. checked hoses going to and from the catch can and theres just a slight amount of oil lining the hoses. As for the smoking.. today i started the car and very little smoke came out on start up.. most of the smoking came out when I drove the car for the first few mins and smoked the MOST on decel coming up to a light or stop sigh.. However, once the car reached operating temps I no longer saw any smoke coming out. Then i did a test run under boost and the car smokes pretty good under heavy boosting, but then stops smoking once I go back to normal driving. Something else to add to the issue that happened about a week back, i pulled out a spark plug wire and found that the spark plug valley was pretty much a lake of oil sitting in there. I pulled all the wires out and soaked the oil out of the valley. However, there is still a small amount of oil down around the spark plugs. Im guessing the valve covers were leaking. I tightened the covers more and the oil hasnt returned. But still a small amount left around the plugs that i could soak out.
 

NTRA08

TWINKY
Jun 10, 2008
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Conroe, Texas
suprafanatic;1312703 said:
Ok, went out to the car, looked in my catch can and theres no fresh oil in there its empty. checked hoses going to and from the catch can and theres just a slight amount of oil lining the hoses. As for the smoking.. today i started the car and very little smoke came out on start up.. most of the smoking came out when I drove the car for the first few mins and smoked the MOST on decel coming up to a light or stop sigh.. However, once the car reached operating temps I no longer saw any smoke coming out. Then i did a test run under boost and the car smokes pretty good under heavy boosting, but then stops smoking once I go back to normal driving. Something else to add to the issue that happened about a week back, i pulled out a spark plug wire and found that the spark plug valley was pretty much a lake of oil sitting in there. I pulled all the wires out and soaked the oil out of the valley. However, there is still a small amount of oil down around the spark plugs. Im guessing the valve covers were leaking. I tightened the covers more and the oil hasnt returned. But still a small amount left around the plugs that i could soak out.

My valley was full of oil too. You think its your valve covers but for that much oil its not. You have 4 big bolts/plugs that hold down you spark plug valley cover. I took valley cover off and cleaned up the oil. I didn't even bother to put it back on. The bolts/plugs have aluminum crush washers on them. I just tightened the bolts/plugs back in and it never leaked again
 

dumbo

Supramania Contributor
Jul 16, 2008
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lol...facts change every post...
Your catch can won't collect anything if it's not properly set up. Unless you have a extremly dirty air filter, theres little to no vacum pre turbo.

I think they refer to the allen plugs and cover as the "third" valve cover. Oil that pools on your spark plugs wont get into the cyliners(until you remove the spark plug) so I wouldn't be too concerned with that.

I don't think that the head has to be remove but I could be wrong, you gotta make sure the cylinder your doing though is at TDC so when you take the keepers off the valve doesn't fall in your engine;)

Finally, if you want to help yourself, you gotta do a compression test to confirm your rings. And properly set up your catch can.
 

4U2QUIK

1UZFE SWAP DUDE!!!
my.02c, but when I first got my blue supra I had the same problems you're experiencing, first off was the oil in the plug valley, which had absolutely nothing to do with the smoking I had later on. it was just a leaky valve cover gasket. (super common problem) Then later on I had the smoking issues you're having. When I finally broke everything down it turned out to be the ring seal in the back of the turbo. and I had everyone saying the same thing as they are here. everyone kept on saying valve seals or guides, and when it came down to it, it was neither.
 

grimreaper

New Member
Jul 2, 2008
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dumbo;1312784 said:
lol...facts change every post...
Your catch can won't collect anything if it's not properly set up. Unless you have a extremly dirty air filter, theres little to no vacum pre turbo
.

I think they refer to the allen plugs and cover as the "third" valve cover. Oil that pools on your spark plugs wont get into the cyliners(until you remove the spark plug) so I wouldn't be too concerned with that.

I don't think that the head has to be remove but I could be wrong, you gotta make sure the cylinder your doing though is at TDC so when you take the keepers off the valve doesn't fall in your engine;)

Finally, if you want to help yourself, you gotta do a compression test to confirm your rings. And properly set up your catch can.

this is getting redundant!