Hi all.. I am a little confused.. kinda leaning toward a PCV valve.. anyway..

Here is the problem:

I noticed shortly after changing my oil, I would have a burnt oil smell when I came to a stop.. I thought at first it was some oil I spilt when changing the oil, but yesterday my buddy was following me and he said I have a dark grey smoke coming out of my exhaust when I am driving.. and that it smells a bit like burnt oil...

Only thing is.. considering this car has 140k miles on it, I really have no power loss.. engine idles fine.. accellerates well.. haven't noticed any oil loss as of yet..

Please tell me this is something simple lol.. I just got the car less than a month ago.. and would hate to have to invest in an engine already..

Thanks all..

**EDIT**
- Checked Overflow, a tiny bit low, but no lower than it has been..
- Noticed, overflow bottle has a crack in the top (pretty big) - issues there?
- Also, noticed PCV valve has a good bit of oil residue built up on it.. Thinking that may be the culprit...

Thanks in advance..

 

oil smoke is usually a blueish shade.

grey/black is usually results from a messed up air/fuel ratio.

are you sure that you dont have any small leaks or something...

an oil leak drips on something hot (i.e. a header), and burns and smells like oil and you are associating that with the grey/black smoke that you might not have previously noticed.


PCV valves are cheap and not replaced as often as they should anyways, so if you are thinking about that, throw a new one in.

 

Ok, here is an update:

I followed the car around a while.. let my wife drive it lol.. and I followed in hers.. anyway..

the smoke to me looked more like a white or perhaps blueish white.. but.. it is sporatic.. it does it for a bit.. then stops completely.. then it may or may not do it again.. and it is not a whole lot when it does do it.. I changed the PCV valve, and it was pretty gummed up.. still rattled, but it was definitely in there a long time.

I am just praying that I don't need to get rings etc replaced.. oy vey.. that would suck lol..

I haven't driven it since I put the new PCV valve in... so, dunno if that solved it or not.. it would be all too easy if that did lol..

 

intermittant blue would be burning oil. could be topend related or piston rings. time for a compression test / and or leakdown (which is much better). that will help you find the culprit.

 

Check all your spark plugs...

 

Ok, I will.. I assume I am checking for fouling, and/or oil deposits, correct?

 

if you recently converted from conventional oil to synthetic, its common for your car to burn some synthetic off for acouple of oil changes until it gets used to it

 

I wish that were the case, but no, I didn't switch to synthetic.. is it possible it was just a bad pcv valve?