Oil Problems - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

smut · 12-25-2003, 22:42

Hey dudes

I am burning oil in my car atm, I get smoke but only when you do a semi fast take of at crusing she dosn't blow smoke at all. Not like some of the other cars that I have seen that burn oil. Anyway I have noticed what looks to be oil comming out the front of the rocker cover. I have only noticed this because I cleaned it about 3 months ago. In 4 months time I have had to put an extra 2 liters of oil into her.

Am I burning heaps of oil or is it leaking out the front of the rocker cover has anyone had this problem and do any of your guys cars burn oil?

XplodEd EA · 12-26-2003, 01:09

Could possibly be a few things, is the car leaving puddles of oil under it? Is there any drips of oil coming from the bottom of the motor? If there's no puddles and drips it could be your rings or valve stem seals, to test rings do a compression test and to test the valve stem seals let the car warm up and let it idle for a while (several minutes) then give it a quick big rev (foot to the floor) and if clouds of smoke poor out of the exhaust the valve stem seals have failed.

If there's puddles and the motor is dripping oil it's clearly an oil leak, it's pretty hard to decipher where exactly the oil is coming from as most gaskets/seals leak on these motors. I reckon judging by the amount of oil you're using it's probably the timing cover seal (front main, where the harmonic balancer goes through the timing case on the crank). The gasket inbetween the head and timing chain (especially the corner where they both meet the block) is also another place where oil can leak pretty severly. The rocker cover is not a place where severe oil leaks come from but does obviously leak a small amount. Your best bet to find where exactly it's coming from is to totally degrease the engine and keep a close eye on it after driving it.

SPHELL · 12-26-2003, 01:28

Mate what colour is the smoke? If your getting black smoke when you floor it then that's normal....it's just cause the car is running rich when you give it some. If the smoke is grey or white then you have oil burning problems.

smut · 12-26-2003, 03:33

Yeah the smoke is a grey blue sort of colour.

There is no oil drips comming from the car and I know when I stick the boot in a fairly large amount of smoke comes out. The valve stem seals sounds like an expensive job, but I think only a small amount of oil like you said has come front the front of the rocker cover.

crowbar · 12-26-2003, 19:06

Is there smoke coming out when u take the oil cap off? sounds like rings as said above u could probly get a new ring kit?? But that would be a rather large job and costly. maybe a reco? If its not losing too much then it wont be much of a hassle for a while, but eventually it will become like those 80s magnas that i see around all the time where every time the driver touches the pedal a cloud of blue smoke comes out hehe.

smut · 12-26-2003, 19:46

Yeah I think there is smoke when you take the oil cap off when she has been running for a while.

And I know those magnas that your talking about.

XplodEd EA · 12-26-2003, 20:03

I'd be leaning towards the valve stem seals, if it were the rings the smoke would constantly be coming out, not big clouds of smoke but constantly puffing out little clouds of smoke at idle. Check the compression just to be sure anyway, to get the valve stem seals replaced won't be too costly I'd imagine. How many k's has the engine done?

smut · 12-26-2003, 21:01

the engine has done 170,000 kms. When she is warm she dosn't puff smoke at idle. How much would it cost to fix this? And am I loosing power?

XplodEd EA · 12-26-2003, 22:36

That's odd with the seals going at such low klm's. I wouldnt know exactly how much it would cost to get them replaced on their own, I got mine done while I had my head reconditioned. I'd go talk to your mechanic about it. You shouldn't be losing any noticeable power I should think.