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  • 1979 - 1995 (Fox, SN95.0, & 2.3L) -General/Talk-
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Bad valve guide or piston ring

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steed93
  • Start date Start date Apr 20, 2004

Steed93

Founding Member
Jan 26, 1999
248
0
0
Cleveland, OH
Apr 20, 2004
#1
  • Apr 20, 2004
  • #1
Last summer, I was driving down my street slowly when I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a huge trail of smoke behind me, like doing a big burnout. I heard no noises at all, it just happened with a snap of a finger. I first thought I popped out the dipstick but noticed that there was small amouts of smoke exiting the tailpipes. My oil pressure was fine, idled fine, and drove fine. If I would rev it up, smoke would bellow out the pipes. Next day, I start it up, and no smoke. Drive it down the street, and same things happens. It is definitely oil smoke. I pulled the plugs on the left side and found #8 to be full of oil. I pulled the intake to find that there is oil in the intake port on that cylinder. The port was half filled with coolant from removing the intake and there was a bead of oil around the perimeter of the coolant pool in that port. This leads me to bad valve guide or valve stem seal. Anybody with this experience please give me symptoms of both. When the car is started and is cold, it takes a while for the smoke to start appearing out the pipes. I know TFS TW heads have had problems with valve guides but I thought they were fixed. I do have bronze guides. How can this happen all of a sudden? Wouldn't a bad valve guide gradually worsen and show signs of wear? Is the oil coming from the valvetrain or up into the intake port from a bad oil ring? I pulled the head off and seen that the exhaust valve is blackish compared to the other 3 which are whitish. There is definitely oil in the combustion. I called Fox Lake today and Ron says it may be a bad piston ring blowing oil up into the intake port. The car has been sitting ever since I found this problem. Any help would be greatful.
 
R

Rerun

Founding Member
Mar 31, 2002
312
0
16
South Bay, California
Apr 20, 2004
#2
  • Apr 20, 2004
  • #2
I just got a busted valve guide fixed. When I started the car, didn't matter if it was hot or cold it would shoot white smoke; just initially. Once I started going the smoke went away, although when you stood behind the car you could smell it burning oil. The busted valve guide was also creating a ticking noise in the engine compartment, was consistant with the revs. Sorry I can't be of more help.
 

Steed93

Founding Member
Jan 26, 1999
248
0
0
Cleveland, OH
Apr 21, 2004
#3
  • Apr 21, 2004
  • #3
I had no ticking noise you are talking of. I removed a few intake valve springs yesterday on the head in suspect. I didn't see any type of irregular seal wear or excessive valve guide slop. The valve guide did wiggle just a tad, but it was somewhat the same as other intake valve guides. I will try running a compression test next.
 

dvsmike

New Member
Jan 2, 2003
70
0
0
Chicago il
Apr 21, 2004
#4
  • Apr 21, 2004
  • #4
I have the same problem but I know its my rings. I switched to 20w 50 oil. It still smokes when I accelerate hard but not as bad. I went from using 2-3 qts a week to 1qt a week. Im in the process of having a shortblock built.
 
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