burning oil question

[levit99]

i was seeing if anyone knew of any common problems with valve guide seals or piston rings. cars only got 99k on it. 3.0 mtx im going to be doing a compression test but my teacher at UTI said its pretty much worthless to do that since the sho is built so well.



so hence the valve guide seal concern. does it happen often?

 

['94SHO]

Are you burning oil? If so, how much? More likely a leak than either of the two choices you gave. Ford valve seals do suck though.. I have almost 180,000 miles on mine, and I burn no
oil.. Might leak a little bit from the valve covers..

 

[levit99]

could it really be just the valve cover gasket? because i think mine does leak a little. but other than that there are no visable leaks. im willing to do whatever is necessary I LOVE THIS CAR!!!!!


i put in like a quart every two to three weeks. but i do drive the car like it was ment to be driven. HARD!!!

 

['94SHO]

Mine leaks a tiny bit from the cam sensor.. Round thing above the P.S. pump.
The plug wells can leak a little, the oil pan gasket can leak a little.
All these little leaks can add up. As long as you are not burning oil, all the
other leaks can be fixed relatively easily.. A complete upper gasket set is not
much money.. Next time before you change your oil, add a quart or so of ATF
(depending on how low the oil level is) and let it IDLE for 20-30 minutes.
This will help with small leaks. HOWEVER, you WILL need to clean the oil out
of your spark plug wells.. It will probably be 75% tranny fluid in there.
After I did this, I pulled the boots out, and suprise! No more oil in my plug wells.. Oh, DO NOT DRIVE your car with all that atf in it. Too much oil can
screw something up. So, IDLE ONLY!!!

 

[levit99]

im definetly not leaking anywhere but the valve cover gasket. the motor is really clean no oil stains anywhere. also the reason for me thinking its burning is the blue cloud of smoke out the tailpipe when im on it really hard. does it less and less as the car warms up. hence me assuming the valve guides or rings.

 

[Phoenix]

im definetly not leaking anywhere but the valve cover gasket. the motor is really clean no oil stains anywhere. also the reason for me thinking its burning is the blue cloud of smoke out the tailpipe when im on it really hard. does it less and less as the car warms up. hence me assuming the valve guides or rings.

Yup , it sums it up perfectly. There's no "magical" way to figure which one needs attention.

Bad Valve seals will leave some blue smoke when the car sits for a long period (24hours or more). But if it doesnt do that it doesnt mean it's the rings automaticly.

I've ran into jammed-up rings almost "seized" up on the piston , but they were only dirty , after a good cleaning everything was A1 , rings were loose again and no blue puffs @ 8k RPM. The rings are good on the SHO , they may only need a cleaning , or it's just the seals which is getting common on our aging SHOs.

 

['94SHO]

Try This!!!!!

Pull all your plugs, take a skinny funnel, and pour some Berrymans into the
holes... Let it soak, pull the computer ground, and crank it briefly. Repeat. change your oil.
If this does not work, you may need valve seals... This will cost you nothing but time,
and might even work!!

 

[93rev2sev]

As far as the compression goes...if you do it right, you can tell A LOT...even on a Yamaha. In fact...a GOOD compression test is the NUMBER ONE way to tell what's going on in an engine.

Look up:
HP Books "how to rebuild your SMALL BLOCK FORD" By Tom Monroe.

It might be in a nearby library or on eBay. It details how to perform a compression test like I've never seen before. It's not as simple as hooking up the guage and cranking the engine. I think that if you research and perform a complete compression test, you will 1. Get an "A". and 2. Figure out more about your engine than tearing it down and looking at all the parts.

 

[SHOZ123]

Get some Auto RX and clean the carbon out from behind the rings.

 

[SHOtimer]

...also the reason for me thinking its burning is the blue cloud of smoke out the tailpipe when im on it really hard. does it less and less as the car warms up. hence me assuming the valve guides or rings.

You should really wait untill the car is warmed up to get on it hard at all....that is really not good for the motor.

As for the blue smoke, your valve stem seals are most likely leaking into the cylinder while the motor is off.

As Paul said above me, try some AutoRX first and see how it does...

Doug

 

[rubydist]

I've ran into jammed-up rings almost "seized" up on the piston , but they were only dirty , after a good cleaning everything was A1 , rings were loose again and no blue puffs @ 8k RPM. The rings are good on the SHO...

So how did you clean the "almost seized up" rings???

 

[SHOtimer]

im going to be doing a compression test but my teacher at UTI said its pretty much worthless to do that since the sho is built so well.

Haha, I assume he has never seen a SHO-boom...

Doug

 

[ScottyDsntKno]

Well let the car sit for a day or so and check the plug wells. If there is oil in there then pull the intake, pull the VCs and change the valve cover seals and the o rings for the spark plug wells. It takes like an hour max.

Other common leaks are the cam seals, the mains and the pan. The rings are probably fine but you should still do a compression check. From what I've seen/heard most sho engines die from poor maintenance or rod bearings.

 

[Phoenix]

So how did you clean the "almost seized up" rings???

Removed them one by one. That was when I did my re-build. Some of them had to be pry'd with a screwdriver inch by inch. They were gummed up pretty bad.

 

[rubydist]

Phoenix, did you replace the rings, or put the same ones back in after you cleaned them?

Does the auto-rx or seafoam type stuff really loosen up stuck rings, or is that just the marketing hype? Anyone have real experience with this? (My blue 93 exhibits symptoms of stuck rings - it idles a little rough and when doing the cylinder balance test #4 makes less of a difference than the others, and #4 comes up as 'failing' that test. The roughness goes away at higher rpms, and it doesn't sound like a burned valve.)

 

[SHOZ123]

Auto-RX works great. Just pour it in and drive like you usually do. I would run it longer than it says though. I usually go 5k with an oil filter change at 1.5k and 3k. Be sure to use dino oil for the treatment and the rinse cycle (3k).

It takes a good 10k to get the full results. But it just keeps getting better as the miles rack up. Time is not an issue if you don't put on that many miles. Auto RX is completely compatible with your oil. I would get two bottles and do a treatment/rinse/treatment/rinse.

 

[Phoenix]

Phoenix, did you replace the rings, or put the same ones back in after you cleaned them?

Does the auto-rx or seafoam type stuff really loosen up stuck rings, or is that just the marketing hype? Anyone have real experience with this? (My blue 93 exhibits symptoms of stuck rings - it idles a little rough and when doing the cylinder balance test #4 makes less of a difference than the others, and #4 comes up as 'failing' that test. The roughness goes away at higher rpms, and it doesn't sound like a burned valve.)

I slammed the old ones back in there. They were like new (150k miles).

 

[rubydist]

Thanks, guys. I think I'll try the auto-rx route, and see if I can get them loosened up. If yours looked like new at 150k miles, these are 175k should be okay if I can get them un-stuck. (the previous owner apparently thought that since it leaked like crazy, he didn't need to change the oil, so it was pretty coked up. I put Mobil 1 in it, and its black already after about 200 miles!)

 

[AREA 91]

Have you changed your rod bearings?

 

[93rev2sev]

Toss a quart of ATF in with the next oil change.