Hellbore

Well, I have a 1975 Ford F-150 passed down from my grandpa, to my Dad, to me.

The poor thing smokes like crazy! Also uses lots of oil. I mean LOTS, like a couple quarts a week.

The truck sat for many years without being driven, then people started using it to haul things, it probably has been driven around 6,000 miles since it sat.

The whole time, through around 6,000 miles, it has smoked and burned oil. The engine only has 60,000 total miles on it though, and it has never been rebuilt. Nothing on the truck has more than 60,000 miles. People never changed the oil either, they just ran it with dirty sludge oil. So sad. My stupid family ruined this truck!

I am wondering if maybe it just had stuck rings from sitting all those years, but now, nobody tried to fix the problem, and just drove the hell out of it, so I dunno if the rings could really be stuck after all this time.

I did a compression test and found that cylinders 3,4,7,8 all have perfect compression (the rear-most 4 cylinders). The front 4 cylinders, however, start at 60 PSI on the first crank and the compression builds up to 90 PSI after about 5 cranks on one of them, 2 of them start at 60 PSI and build up to 120 PSI, and the last one starts at 90 PSI and builds up to 120 PSI.

The wet compression test gives 120 PSI immediately, which is why I think rings are the cause of the problem.

So, is it possible for all this to be stuck rings, after all this time could they come un-stuck?

Last night I took all the plugs out and filled every cylinder to overflowing with Marvel Mystery Oil. Today when I get home from work I want to turn the engine a little by hand and get most of the oil out, then crank it a little with the starter and no plugs, then finally start it up. The darn engine runs smooth and sounds great, it's so sad about the burning oil.

So, if I do this, and run the engine a bit, it should burn out the marvel right? Then I can do a compression test and see if that helped?

Has anyone had stuck rings before and been able to free them up by pouring stuff into the cylinders or something?

Any advice would be appreciated. Such a shame to ruin a perfectly good pickup truck.

If worst comes to worst, there is a rebuilt engine I found for $500 that comes with all the manifolds, carb, starter, and everything, some guy set it all up then never finished the vehicle it was to go in, so I'll buy his engine if this one is a goner.

Big Block Ford

There are products that can be added to the oil prior to changing it to help remove sludge and build up. I know of an STP product and I'm sure there are many others that may be worth trying. Basically you add this product to the oil and run the engine for approx 15 mins and then do an oil change. You may need to do this more than once but it could be worth a try and should be relatively cheap to do.

Be sure you have the engine warmed up to operating temp before you carry out a compression test too as this can affect the results.

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71 429SCJ Mustang

garth04

Hate to be the one who spoils the party here, but the cylinder that started at 60 and only got up to 90, I would say is a bit of trouble.

Does the plug from that cylinder oil up?

I have seen it so many times when a vehicle isnt driven for many years, and at some stage over that sitting time, moisture has gotten into one or more of the cylinders rusting the bore surface.

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hot428ford

I bought a 390 in a wrecked truck .It had been setting for about 11 months with only 40,000 miles . I put it in my truck and it smoked bad for two weeks and I tried everything ...When I pulled it apart the rings were stuck and only bought a set of gaskets and new rings ...

Butchart

one thing might work, change the oil and instead of the usual 5 litres use 4 litres plus one litre of auto transmission fluid, that might loosen up the rings, other than that I would say change the valve seals. They probably have disinigrated. Leaky valve seals will make your engine smoke like crazy.