yes my car has developed a nasty habit, she's burning some oil.. now i know most people say that i would need a valve job done but is this the only place that causes oil burning? she will only start to burn it when the rpm's start to get a little higher, under normal driving i think she's fine, but when that trottle is wide she puffs like mad. is there a device that i could use to see where the problem is? could it be the heads? any help with this one would be great guys
thanks

 

It doesnt sound like valve seals. Valve seals normaly only smoke during start up after sitting for a while. It sound more like rings. but i'm not sure.

 

yeah, im going to agree with zach and say piston rings. valve seals will cause your car to blow blue smoke at start up only.

 

so you guys think the piston rings hey, well i have heard a few people in the past say this so i guess thats a good possibilty. Now does anyone know if this is a costly job to repair? the motor is an LG4 so it's nothing to fancy.. and i take it you have to pull the motor to do the job right? that would make it costly right there.. maybe it's time for a nice 350..

 

It is costly and time consuming. you have to take aprt the whole engine.

 

I'd sure try a new set of valve guide seals first before I coondemned the rings sight unseen...

 

yea i want to be certain what the problem is first so i'm not throwing money in the air.. is there such a device, i dont know like a compression test or something to really get down to where the oil is getting past, if it is the piston rings, it's not worth the money to repair.. just put that money into a 350 or something.. for the time being could i just run thicker oil so reduce the buring? or is that not a good idea because summer is comming or it hinders proformance..?

 

Does it smoke on startup also? Could be rings, could be valve seals or guides, could be all of the above. A compression or leakdown test will just tell you that you've got problems, not exactly where.

 

How much oil consumption are we talking about here? Valve guides/seals can also smoke when you smash the throttle--just for a second or two. Also, when you shift it make smoke some oil through the valve guides/seals. Seals won't help if the guides are toast.

 

ya i uasually pour one of those quarts of oil about every week and a half or so, if i smash the trottle, which i tend to do a bit, she will puff that stuff out till i lay off.. it will also smoke say when i downshift going down a hill, to slow my self down, and the RPM's jump to like 3 and a half, she will puff then to, pretty much any time the rpm's jump to mid range she will start to puff.. under normal driving i belive it is very very minimal. and of coarse at start up when she's warming up and the rpm's are locked at like 2 and a half till i can kick down the trottle.. i know it's just guesses on this thing but i guess it's pretty much narrowed down to valve guide/seals or piston rings.. is the valve guide seals also an expensive job? if not i mite as well try that out and see what happens..

 

With that much smoke and oil usage, it would have to be pretty serious valve guide and seal problems. Putting on seals at that point won't help if the guides are that bad. You may also have some stuck/broken/worn out rings. Smoke and oil usage like that usually means it needs an engine rebuild.

 

How many miles does the car have if it is under 100k it shouldn't be the rings unless you drive the car really hard.

 

ya the car has well over 100K on her, i'm fed up with the old thing, so i'll just save my pennies for a 350, cause rebuilding that stock LG4 would probably be almost the same price as the 350.. i asked this before and not sure if anyone saw it but in the meantime could i run thicker oil in the engine to reduce a little oil burning? or seeing that summer is comming up is that not good for the engine? those additives are just a waste of money in my books..

 

Run 20w50 oil in the meantime, that will help a little bit. It will burn additives just as bad as the oil and they cost more so I wouldn't use them.