[Steelythefez]

If my car idles for more than about 15 seconds I get a huge blue smoke cloud that appears. Its definately oil because I burn a quart ever 1500 miles or so. Anyone else experience this kind of problem. The car has 71000 miles on it. I thought maybe valve seals but when I asked the dealer they said that they shouldn't go bad so early. He said maybe its just dumping too much oil. Is there anything I can do to check things out before I bring it to them?
Thanks guys,
-Paul

 

[MattRed3000GT]

I had the same thing on my old SL and got it fixed by changing value stem seals. Now, my VR4 is doing the same damn thing. I guess I will be changing value stem seals again. Blue smoke ususally oil getting into the engine. I would think value stem seal first, then value guide, and could be pistons. Do a compression test to check.

 

[Andrew Caple]

><i>He said maybe its just dumping too much oil.</i>

What the heck did he mean by that???

 

[JagdStealth]

my NA does that...like it's been said, valve stem seals...

It shouldn't really effect performance though...or maybe thats my old American pushrod mind thinking...

 

[Steelythefez]

ya he said maybe its dumping too much oil. After he said that I said ya maybe I'll bring it in..... Well luckily he wouldn't be the guy working on the car. I know at least one of the mechanics there knows his stuff. Anyways how much was the seal job? Is it something that I could maybe do myself? I'm going to be changing the clutch this winter so I might as well add that to the list if its at all possible for me to do.
Thanks guys,
-Paul

 

[redrocket]

My car has been doing something like that, but only rarely, like one time once every couple of weeks.

Is the smoke like a "purple haze"?? That's the colour mine makes, and I have the same problem with burning oil.

How much is the valve seal job? Is this burning bad for the engine long term???

 

[KD4PWH]

Yep, mine does it too. I 'm going to go through my heads anyway pretty soon, so hopefully that will put an end to it.


Chris

 

[Steelythefez]

what kind of money are we talkin about here to get this fixed?

 

[PROFILEVR4]

The problem definately sounds like the valve stem seals. A problem I used to have. After getting an estimate of $1600 from the Mitsu dealership I decided to do the work myself. I pulled off both head and sent them to a machine shop where they replaced the valve stem seals and valve guides and some other work to the heads to the tune of $400 a head.

Here's an old post of mine showing the condition of the heads before and after the machine shop.

http://www.3si.org/vbb/showthread.php?threadid=30829&highlight=head

From what I've heard, this doesn't affect performance nor is it hurting the engine.