Valve stem Seals!!!

[97ClipseDSM]

Oh God this is driving me insane. I recently had a new motor installed with 20k miles on it. They forgot to send me the turbo so i had to use the old turbo. Well i use to notice blueish smoke out of the exhaust. The old turbo had shaft play so we figured it was the turbo seal that was blown. Changed the turbo, it boosts, but there is still smoke coming out of the exhaust at idle. Sometimes when i rev it it will blow blue smoke. I talked to one of my friends today and he said it is probably either A) The new turbo's seal is blown or B) Valve steam seals. My question is what are symptoms of valve steam seals being blown or whatever. This is driving me nuts, i just want my car to be 100%. The engine seems to be running excellent, but what could this be. I did notice just a drop or 2 of oil in the compressor of the turbo. At first thoughts, i thought maybe it was still blowing smoke because the intercooler was full of oil because of my last turbo that blew a seal and it would take time for it to burn off. But would it really continute to smoke whenever i rev it to check for smoke??

Can anyone please help me..this is driving me insane

 

[Game Over]

First off, DSM's are never 100%.

Second, check you PCV valve, change it or whatever.

If that doesn't work, I would say it is your valve seals because my turbo is f'ed right now and there is oil all inside the compressor housing and it is blowing white smoke. I don;t think there would be oil in the intercooler, because the seals would leak oil or coolant into the exhaust system and it would burn off there.

Maybe someone else can be a better help.

 

[97ClipseDSM]

Hey bro i wasnt trying to say i want it to be 100% 100%, i know DSM's will always have one problem or another, what i was trying to say was i want it to be 100% to my standards, like i want it to be atleast fine Engine was because i didnt spend over $3k on a new engine for no reason. I will try to see if the pcv valve resolves the issue, which im not sure it will but it wont hurt to try. Thanks for your help, any more help from anyone will be appreciated.

 

[EROK81]

I think my 100% for cars has dropped to maybe 40% since having my car. So if it only breaks down once a month, that is about as 100% as it gets.

When my valve stem seals went bac it would only smoke at idle. The longer it would idle, the more smoke it would make.

 

[pr0]

1. Do a compression check, if you get good results you can eliminate piston rings.

2. Check your spark plugs for oil deposits. If its good, its probably your exhaust valve guides leaving the plugs clean.

I just finished pulling my cylinder head off, replaced the valve gudies because I was blowing blue smoke. It solved my problem, my compression was fine. If you notice your exhaust tip is heavily soaked in oil its most likely the guides.

 

[97ClipseDSM]

God have mercy on me. $8K in repairs in the past 6 months (only has run for 2 months since i bought it in March 04) & driving it like a grandma, oh God have mercy on me

I hope im not f-ed over again

 

[pr0]

God have mercy on me. $8K in repairs in the past 6 months (only has run for 2 months since i bought it in March 04) & driving it like a grandma, oh God have mercy on me

I hope im not f-ed over again

If you never drive it hard (like me ) its probably just your valve guides. You can do this yourself over the weekend. While you're at it, may as well do your seals and springs too.

 

[97ClipseDSM]

Hey thanks for the help. Disregard my last reply about all the whining and crap because it was posted by my cousin. I guess he got bored and typed crap that isnt even true. He just dislikes DSM's and will find ways to make fun of them. Anyways, back to the problem. Im going to replace the PCV valve in the morning and give it a try, if thats not the case, its either the Valve stem seals (easy fix) or the turbo, but that isnt an issue at all Because ill just throw my Fresh machine shop rebuilt head with only 3k Miles on it from my previous motor that i parted out. It can be anything, however, i know its something small and fixable in a matter of minutes, or hours. The Engine runs fine, its just blue smoke at idle, and first gear take off. I dont think it would be the turbo, but than again i cant say anything untill i know for sure. Or i may sound stupid when i say this, but because the old turbo had a blown turbo seal, obviously the intercooler had alot of oil in it because of that, it could be that its just burning off right now. But than again i dont know for sure. I think the car is 95% healthy to my standards.

 

[DSMcrazy3]

I'm having the same problem with the smoking issue..I'm in an automotive class at school and the teacher is supposedly a well know ASE certified mechanic. Anyways one day i went up to him and asked "what would make my car burn oil after idling for a few minutes?", not even 2 seconds later he responded with "valve stem seals." and he was certain. Hope that helps...I haven't changed mine yet..i try not to have to sit at idle for very long.

hey pr0 you said you did yours yourself. How much experience do you have with that kind of work? I thought about doing it myself, but it seems to complicated for me.

 

[97ClipseDSM]

I'm having the same problem with the smoking issue..I'm in an automotive class at school and the teacher is supposedly a well know ASE certified mechanic. Anyways one day i went up to him and asked "what would make my car burn oil after idling for a few minutes?", not even 2 seconds later he responded with "valve stem seals." and he was certain. Hope that helps...I haven't changed mine yet..i try not to have to sit at idle for very long.

hey pr0 you said you did yours yourself. How much experience do you have with that kind of work? I thought about doing it myself, but it seems to complicated for me.

what beats me is why in the hell would they go so early. I mean the 4G63 7 Bolt only has 20K on the clock, and when we pulled the valve cover off, everything was like mirror shiny and looked well in shape. I mean u had to see this motor, it looked really fresh. I dont know, its hard to believe but that may be the issue. Still beats me

 

[pr0]

I'm having the same problem with the smoking issue..I'm in an automotive class at school and the teacher is supposedly a well know ASE certified mechanic. Anyways one day i went up to him and asked "what would make my car burn oil after idling for a few minutes?", not even 2 seconds later he responded with "valve stem seals." and he was certain. Hope that helps...I haven't changed mine yet..i try not to have to sit at idle for very long.

hey pr0 you said you did yours yourself. How much experience do you have with that kind of work? I thought about doing it myself, but it seems to complicated for me.

I'm not much of a mechanic but I decided to go for it, I've done basic stuff before. If you get one of those Haynes manuals, they show pretty much everything in detail. I replaced my seals based on the manual and had no problems. Since your seals are gone you might want to clean out your intake too, mine was loaded with thick dirty oil. PCV valve as well was pretty clogged.

All seems to be well now. No more oil loss or blue smoke In total took about 2 days (on and off) to replace and clean.

 

[jott5555]

ya dude it defeintly sounds like your valve seal, you can look at the vfaq for changeing to get some refereence since it is a pita. but good luck

 

[oldman]

If you never drive it hard (like me ) its probably just your valve guides. You can do this yourself over the weekend. While you're at it, may as well do your seals and springs too.

So is it valve guides or valve seals? I'm having the same problem, I was searching for tech articles for changing valve seals with the head in the car when I came upon this. Thanks.

 

[DSMcrazy3]

Most cases it's the seals. when replacing the seals, just check the guides while you're at it, and if it happens to be them, atleast you'll have new seals to go w/ it

 

[oldman]

Most cases it's the seals. when replacing the seals, just check the guides while you're at it, and if it happens to be them, atleast you'll have new seals to go w/ it

Thank you.

 

[peregrine]

sometimes when a head is reassembled the guides can scratch up the stem on the valve and then when the seals are put on they get screwed up too. i had this happen to me with a brand new motor. in the end i said screw it and just lived with it. ran fine and i sold it. still runs fine as far as i know.

 

[4g63mightymax]

I just thought that I would post a few things I have learned along the way. I know that when I had a oil-burning turbo in my laser, I swapped it with a known good one and it still burned oil. I was pissed. So just for kicks I took off my intercooler to see if there was any oil in it from the last turbo, and there was at LEAST a quart in it. So I emptied the intercooler and cleaned the pipes as best I could and didn't burn anymore oil in that car.

Then I bought my eclipse. Last week I decided to be good to my car and do valve seals because it would smoke every time I started it. I found that there were 2 valve seals still in 1 piece. 14 of them were in 2 pieces or more when I removed them. My car has 119K on it and I assume the original valve seals. I did my 3G lifters at the same time, and it doesn't burn a drop of oil so far. I highly recommend valve seals and new lifters on a higher milage car. I wouldn't think valve seals would be bad if they are honestly 20k old. you may want to check other things first because its a fairly lengthy job.

Just my 2 cents
good luck!

 

[oldman]

Thanks for the replies guys, I've decided to just install the new turbo for now and see how bad the seals are leaking. I really don't want to remove the head until I get my tax refund next month so I can rebuilt the head at the same time.

Oh, sorry for borrowing your thread.