Burning oil/valve seal/piston ring/ head gasket help/advice. (1 Viewer)

[Razorbackcruiser]

Ok. I feel like an idiot but I’m gonna put my pride aside and ask for help even though what happened was because I was lazy.
Now that I got that out of the way, I’ve got a 3Xlocked 1997 with 230k that I picked for a steal about 5years ago. It’s my second 80 but the deal was so good I couldn’t pass it up. Anyway, it hadn’t been taken care of so I was fixing things as I had time. The rig was burning oil pretty bad (about a quart every 500 mi) and consuming coolant slowly. I knew the head gasket was going (or gone) but I kept thinking “I’ll get to it”. Well I didn’t.

Couple nights ago the wife was driving as we pulled into the garage and it started lurching bad. I told her to shut it down and I checked the fluids which were all good. When I got back in the thing was locked up. Wouldn’t turn over and it sounded like the starter was hitting solid metal. On the 3rd or 4 try it let go and started running, with coolant coming from under the manifold heat shield and blowing white smoke out the exhaust.

I’ve been on this site long enough to know what happened but here’s where I’m stuck. I can do the head gasket myself but as far as I can tell I can’t check and see if it was burning oil from the valve seals or the rings since it’s not going to hold pressure due to the blown out head gasket. I’ve read where these engines hardly ever have the rings go bad but with my luck I’ll fix the head gasket and valve seals, get it all back together and it’ll still be burning oil because it was the rings.

I’m probably missing something so any advice or help is much appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[flintknapper]

For certain you are losing oil past the valve guide seals to one degree or another. They get rock hard and wear with time. Once you remove the head you'll be able to examine the cylinder walls and see if still have cross-hatching....or if they look more worn than that. You can check for a ridge at the top of each bore (an indicator of how much wear). You can measure the bores for roundness if you like.

At your mileage....chances are excellent your lower end in fine and the pistons, rings and cylinders as well.

Mine were still good a 316K when I replaced my HG.

 

[BILT4ME]

My concern from your description of how you restarted it and didn't pull the spark plugs that you may have hydrolocked the engine and bent a rod. You'll find that when you remove the head and one piston doesn't come all the way to the top.

 

[Razorbackcruiser]

My concern from your description of how you restarted it and didn't pull the spark plugs that you may have hydrolocked the engine and bent a rod. You'll find that when you remove the head and one piston doesn't come all the way to the top.

Yeah, I didn’t even think of that. So obviously I’ll need to hand crank the engine and watch the pistons rise? Making sure they all come to the top evenly? I imagine #6 will be the one to worry about.

Thanks.

 

[Howard705]

I read every oil consumption thread I see. Valve guide seals- oil pump cover leak Dist O ring leak.

 

[BILT4ME]

Yeah, I didn’t even think of that. So obviously I’ll need to hand crank the engine and watch the pistons rise? Making sure they all come to the top evenly? I imagine #6 will be the one to worry about.

Thanks.

Yeah, once the head is off, you'll have to do a piston top to deck clearance measurement to make sure it is the same as or at least within tolerance.

I had this happen on another make and I paid for it dearly.