420A Blue Smoke

[papiwappy57]

I purchased a 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS about 3 weeks ago now. At the time of purchase it had 220,000 miles which is fairly high but was expected for the 2000$ price tag that came on it. I did an oil change and coolant flush which are the usual procedures of buying a used old car as well as replacing an O2 sensor that the owner said was bad. Yesterday on my way home from work blue smoke started to come out of the exhaust and I noticed it lingering after taking a turn and accelerating. I did some research and noticed the valve seals and head cover gaskets are the main culprits but I’d rather do some diagnostics before buying anything major and digging in. This is my first time working on a 420a so I am open to any and all possibilities

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

If the cylinder head has never been rebuilt, it is most likely the valve stem seals. They're old and hardened now.

Alternatively it could be the piston rings, but normally you notice severe blowby once it begins smoking from this.

 

[CKOPOCT]

At 220K miles and blue smoke, I would recommend doing a compression test. It won't diagnose the source of your oil burning issue, but it will give you an indication as to the health of your engine. If the numbers come back low or out of spec, or wacky between cylinders, you can put a little oil in each cylinder to see if the numbers improve. If they do, you have compression leaking past the rings = rebuild in the offing.

A leakdown test is also a good idea, if you want to get a little deeper into the state of things. Also, unless you have receipts as to when the timing belt was changed, that should be done as well.

Why mention all this? Because it makes little sense to go through replacing seals and other things if the engine is on borrowed time.

 

[papiwappy57]

At 220K miles and blue smoke, I would recommend doing a compression test. It won't diagnose the source of your oil burning issue, but it will give you an indication as to the health of your engine. If the numbers come back low or out of spec, or wacky between cylinders, you can put a little oil in each cylinder to see if the numbers improve. If they do, you have compression leaking past the rings = rebuild in the offing.

A leakdown test is also a good idea, if you want to get a little deeper into the state of things. Also, unless you have receipts as to when the timing belt was changed, that should be done as well.

Why mention all this? Because it makes little sense to go through replacing seals and other things if the engine is on borrowed time.

I wanted to get others opinions on wether or not I should just bite the bullet on a rebuild or full replacement. I planned on replacing it later this year even if this hadn’t happened but if it’s on borrowed time I’m just going to go through with it now