Alright, this stupid POS of mine runs awesome going down the highway at 75 mph. I can get anywhere between 23 - 25 mpg on the highway and it runs great. But that's where it stops. If my car is warm and I sit in a drive thru at like Jack in the Box for more than 3 or 4 minutes, letting it idle in Drive puts out smoke like it's about to blow up. It burns oil horribly during these situations but if I rev it up to 1500 rpms and leave it there for a while, the smoking stops.

Is it me or is there a compression problem?? The rings going out? Something has got to be wrong somewhere if it can run clean with no smoke on the highway but can't idle worth crap. It also vibrates randomly at idle sitting at stoplights, mostly when warm and at a certain rpm.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I just would like to have some hints on what could be causing this. All mods are in the sig.

Thanks,
Kyle

 

ok i gotta question for you, what color is your smoke..and i suggest you take it to get a compression test...if its what i think it is..your not gonna be a happy camper

 

sounds like your rings are toast....pull out your oil fill cap, pvc valve, any opening in the valve covers and start the car....does it smoke out of there??

that's generally a big time sign of bad rings

 

ok alex your right could be the rings but it sounds to me like oil is passing through the valve guide seals. usually when that happens time for a new engine. or you can cheaply add a few cans of stop smoke in with your oil to temporarly help with the smoking. check your plugs for black residue as well

 

valve guide seals will smoke on startup, but usually not once the car is warmed up...and you can do the valve seals in an afternoon

 

uh uh noooo my old car had that prob and when the car was warmed up it would still smoke like crazy when idiling., plus it idled a little rough even after a tuneup.his car was the same year as my old one as well with the exact same prob.

 

hmmm...you must have had no seals left at all...haha

 

just buy a few cans of stop smoke and run compression test on the car. grrr

 

after you pull the pcv or the fill plug and see if it smokes out the valve covers that it

hi nikki

 

Thanks for the all the help given so far. I've got to tell you, this engine has been to hell and back. I've torn the top end apart twice this last year and took the heads off and cleaned everything up in March when I changed the cam and other misc. stuff. We replaced the valve seals like 3 years ago because the previous owner had used PLASTIC ones!! (I don't know why this would have been done). They had cracked and were everywhere and it smoked real bad on startup. Since the cam swap the engine hasn't smoked at startup so I figure my valve seals aren't doing too bad yet.

I've been pondering the fact lately that this was an effect of bad rings but have just been hoping it wasn't The engine itself only has like 60-70k miles on it, but like I said it's been through a lot. The old cam I pulled out had one lobe with an indention on the down slope that was HUGE!!! (I had been trying to diagnose my backfiring and idle problems for a while before I found that) Then this last summer I had a FPR that was sooo bad it was putting raw fuel through the vacuum line straight into the plenum!!! So I wonder if all these troubles plus more have been putting the rings through hell or not. If you guys agree on this smoke-stop stuff, I might go and try it out, I usually don't believe in those types of things(i.e. - fuel inj. cleaner, octane booster, engine booster, etc.) but maybe I'll break down and try it.

Thanks again for the help so far, sorry this post was so long.

Kyle

PS - One main reason I can do all of that work on my car yet I can't diagnose this problem is because I am only 19 yrs old. I can do pretty much anything under the hood, I just don't have the long-term experience yet

 

that smoke stop stuff will make things last a bit longer if it is the rings, but it won't repair ring wear, so it's not a miracle solution....just fyi

 

i usually dont buy injector cleaners and stuff too often either but the stop smoke actually works. it thickens the oil so it doesnt seep past the rings guides and ect..try 2 cans of it and see how that works..make sure you let us know if it worked for you

 

what is this stop smoke stuff, and where in GA can i get it? Kyle's problem sounds just like the one i have. my 90 'bird idles rough, smokes on startup and while idling. she has over 183,000 miles on there. when the car was being worked on the other day, i noticed smoke coming from where i put oil in, but only because the hood was up. evidently when my engine is hot, the old oil smokes? i dunno. any ideas?

 

How about a leakdown test. That should tell you how much leakdown and where it is coming from. If the motor is ok then go for the seals and be happy. If not, don't waste time and just get ready for a new engine.

 

ok, what is a leakdown test and how does it work? how do you do it? as you can tell, i know very little about the engine.