Ring job?

[Devin]

I'm burning a bunch of oil. No real puddles, although I definitely have built up dirt/oil under the engine, and I know the oil level sensor gasket is leaking a bit... but I am putting in about a quart every 500 miles or so. I park in gravel, but I don't seem to leave puddles. To me it seems like rings. What are the other options? Is there a way I can tell?

 

[Devin]

Seafoam?

 

[zoomlater]

any burning oil smell? any bluish smoke out the tail pipe? Have you gone under to look if its burning off on the cats. one of my cars used a quart every 1000 miles

smoking every now and then

I have an 89' Sho. I just had a seal job done recently - cam seal, valve stem seals, spark well gaskets, and valve cover gaskets. After the job, the car ran real good. But the car smoked up every once in awhile. The mechanic did a leak down test, decided that the valve stem seals had a...

shoforum.com

engine using too much oil

I have an 89 sho (since 1990) with 142,000 easy driven miles on it. The car is in good shape and runs well. There is no oil on my garage floor, no oil smell when I pull into the garage after a drive, no smoke when I'm driving, pretty much keep to the low RPMs, and the mechanic sees nothing...

shoforum.com

Let's talk oil loss

Hello everyone, I have a 1990 with about 93k miles. I did the 60k myself(because I didn't trust the previous owner's word). Everything looks and runs as you'd expect after a 60k except... I got on the gas one particular time, and I noticed a cloud of blue smoke from the exhaust >:|...

shoforum.com

 

[luigisho]

Do you park in the same spot every day? If so you can put some cardboard uner the usual place and see if you are leaking to the ground.

I have seen alot of people use marvel mystery oil and I know there is a GM piston and ring cleaner. Seafoam also. I haven't seen anyone do this in a long time on a vehicle so I don't remember procedure other than soak and change out the oil when you're done. Maybe remove from piston/cylinder top first? I forget. Maybe some in tank additive could work. I think Nimz used to use atf fluid. I've seen more use MM oil but that's just backyard stuff a long time ago.

 

[Irish Pride]

Switch to Motorcraft synthetic blend oil. I've heard good stories about it being good at freeing stuck rings.

About 100 miles before your next oil change put a quart of ATF in the crankcase. The detergents in ATF can sometimes help too. The ATF will clean out any sludge that you might have in the engine.

-Chad

 

[luigisho]

ATF has decent detergents and that is part of the reason why you can get tranny failure if you change fluid after it's been in there unchanged for a long time. I think it frees up stuff that was stuck in places and the new atf detergents free it back up into circulation.

I've heard of people using berryman's for rings too.

 

[TankII]

Sure it isn't exhaust valve seals? That is what I think is happening to mine, since it only smokes after sitting. Though if I am really ******* it, I see smoke when shifting above 7K

 

[Devin]

Sure it isn't exhaust valve seals? That is what I think is happening to mine, since it only smokes after sitting. Though if I am really ******* it, I see smoke when shifting above 7K

How much oil are you losing?

 

[TankII]

I am burning about 6 quarts per 3,000 miles.
The car 'hydrolocks' at times after being run hard, taking a second attempt to start it.

 

[rubydist]

Good chance it is stuck rings from what you describe. I have seen these engines with the exhaust valve stem seals totally gone and they didn't use that much oil (I think because of how the shim holders fit down over the top of the valve stem). I have had really good luck with Motorcraft semi-synthetic oil freeing up stuck rings, so I recommend trying that first.

 

[Devin]

Leaking is happening, but not too bad. This is after a week.

 

[luigisho]

Shoot, with these cars that is close to normal.

 

[Devin]

I am getting some smoke in the morning. But I also get some while at stop lights. It is very possible I have leaking valves, stuck rings and various block leaks.

 

[Devin]

Switch to Motorcraft synthetic blend oil. I've heard good stories about it being good at freeing stuck rings.

About 100 miles before your next oil change put a quart of ATF in the crankcase. The detergents in ATF can sometimes help too. The ATF will clean out any sludge that you might have in the engine.

-Chad

This stuff?

https://www.amazon.com/Motorcraft-XO5W30-5Q3SP-Oil/dp/B01MQJ1EGW

 

[zak]

AutoRX with an oil change is another option to unstick rings.