heads or rings?

[custom89stang]

Ok my car has been burning oil at 500 miles a quart, now its like 200 a quart or less, so my mechanic says take his set of heads (he got some AFR's) and get them rebuilt and that should fix my problem.

Then i took it to the machine shop and the guy says its not ur heads if it doesn't smoke on start up. It doesn't smoke on start up, so he says its the piston rings, i already know i have one bad piston ring, but would it really get that bad to take 200 a quart? I also said, it smokes between 1500-2500 RPM's, whenever i hear that stupid droning sound, prolly closer to 1500.

Anyway i thought it was only piston rings if it smokes at like 3000+ RPM's? Is that true? it smokes some at that high, but thats cause of my one bad piston ring, so thats the question, is it my piston ring? (and its just gotten extremely bad) or is it my heads? letting the oil by....valve seals maybe? or is it a combo of both? what do you think? thanks for your time guys!

 

[Stang8URMPRT]

If your piston rings are bad they will burn oil at idle. You don't have to be dogging it to make it burn oil, but dogging it will make it burn faster, thus more smoke.

It def. sounds like a ring problem... Just pull the motor, have the block honed and put new rings in it. Don't go cheap here, or you'll be doing it again soon. I like Speed Pro rings myself, but go with what you like and you can afford.

Nick

 

[shttygtstang]

blues smoke pisto ring .when you take your heads off look for cracks mine smoked and i thought it was bad vavle seats cracked block small crack will still burn alot of oil

 

[custom89stang]

blue smoke could also be the heads though, oil getting by the valves into the engine? right?

 

[custom89stang]

i mean, i only have 1 bad ring, as far as i know (i pulled the plug and it was oily) the others are fine, could that ONE RING really burn this much oil?

 

[v8only]

sure it could.

it's extremely common for stangs to burn a little oil, but it should never be visible. 500 miles isnt' too bad, but 200 miles is. Mustangs have soft oil rings, harder compression rings, that's why you burn a quart of oil every 200 miles, but still run like a raped ape.

I won't promise you anything, but I'm willing to bet it's the rings, and slapping afr's on it is gonna kill the engine sooner.

 

[Stang8URMPRT]

Hey, I need some heads. Gimme the AFRs.. What size? 165 or 185s?

Nick