420A 2gNT burning oil

[Jtdemler]

I'm new to these cars and ever since I bought it it's been burning oil. It seems be getting worse but not severe (enough where when I'm idling you can see blue smoke) and if it's getting worse it's very slow. She's almost at 160k miles but doesn't have a check engine light so it's in good shape overall but does have a valve cover leak but I don't think it's an active leak just looks like it had been leaking and has oil caked up on alot of that area.

I just need some help on wether this is a bigger issue or common on these cars and I shouldn't be worried and just top the oil off here and there?
Thanks.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

I would remove the throttle body and look inside your intake manifold. Your PCV valve might be letting oil pass through into your intake. That is the easiest and cheapest possible issue.

Other issues could be bad pistons rings, bad valve stem seals, etc.

 

[97egl]

Burning oil is nothing to "worry" about as long as you remember to keep checking it. If you let it run out of oil you're going to have problems. A lot of times its the valve stem seals leaking.

At 160k unless it was poorly maintained and thrashed on the car shouldn't be burning oil past the piston rings. (It's a DSM so.... both of these could definitely be issues)

A sure sign of valve guides is if you have a lot of smoke on start up as well as more than normal smoke when reving up or taking off after idling. I'd check your PVC like Black98DSM said as that's the easiest fix but my money is on valve guides.

Personal story. I had a 95 avenger with the 420a in high school. It had 200k on it and had piston slap, a rod knock, burned oil like crazy and I had to take my foot off the gas to make the automatic trans shift into the next gear. I was able to cure the piston slap and oil burning with lucas oil stabilizer. I changed the rod bearing every oil change and never did anything about the transmission. Got it to about 220k miles when I sold it. Treat these engines right and they'll treat you right

 

[Jtdemler]

To me it seems like it may burn oil constantly because the exhaust always smells like it even if you can't see smoke. But once it's warm and you rev it, it becomes very easy to see but not while driving really, off startup there is nothing.

Previous owner said the car had been taken care of (there was a bit of a language barrier so his buddy listed it for him) real nice guys. Everything did seem very well taken care of so I don't believe it was beaten on although its 20 years old now so anything could have happened between now and then.

I got the car like maybe a month or two ago so it's been snow here the entire time. Maintenance has been at a minimum and only for essential repairs. Once it warms up and I can actually do things without freezing my hands solid I plan on doing a full tune up and making sure everything is up to date so hopefully she lasts another month or so .

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction guys. If I remember I'll make an update if I find anything.