Ever since I had my bent valve replaced , I have noticed this year that when my car first starts up I get a little blue smoke come out the tail pipes. The only other time I can get the smoke to come out, is if it rev it up in nutrual over 3k, but it only comes out once I let off the pedal. I have talked to others and we think its probably a bad valve seal. Maybe the shop never replaced it? Well I purchased my heads and cam allready, they will go on in Jan or Feb. But I wanna be pretty sure that its the seals, and its not a piston ring.

The car has no loss in power and it doesnt smoke at WOT. So does this sound like a bad valve seal or more like a bad piston ring? And if I get a compression test, will it show if its valve seal related or piston ring related?

Thanks..

Mike

 

any1?

 

Since you haven't lost any power, I would say valve seal. I think if it was a ring it would probably smoke pretty much all the time.

 

Compression won't tell you anything. do a leak down test. If nothing shows up it's probably seals.

 

what is a leakdown test? And how hard is it to do?

You mean the compression test wont even tell me if the rings were bad?

 

If it was a piston ring, it would smoke all the time... A piston ring wouldn't cause oil build-up after the engine is *off*.... Whereas a valve seal, the oil can leak down while the engine is off... then you crank it, and it smokes a lot while it burns it off....

Sounds like that's it to me, but if you're about to sink money into it, then a compression test would be in order.

-Michael

 

ty guys. I really hope its only the seals too. It pisses me off cause I spent alot to get it fixed. But oh well, now i get to make my vette killer lol.

 

After I had my intake oil leak fixed,there is no more smoking after startups here.Seems the intake bolts were loose when they pulled the intake off .May just need to torque the intake manifold down.Hope this helps.(do the cheap stuff first.)(for a long time I had the #8 plug covered with oil and crap,thats gone now,thought it was valve seal but wasn't).My02

 

ill check it out.. ty