New to the forum and recently purchased or first 80. God, I love this thing! I'll make a long story short. We bought it ultra cheap because it supposedly needed valve work. (It had a bad miss and fuel was dripping or of the exhaust) took it to a local shop because I didn't have time to tear into myself. I had to leave town for work. Got it back and ran great according to my wife but the oil light came on, so I had her take it to valvoline for an oil change. $60. They told her it only had about 3 qts in it. She got an oil change and came to visit me for the weekend. I'm 220 miles from home. Half way here. The light came back on. When she arrived, I noticed the oil pressure gauge wasnt moving and was on low. Checked the oil and nothing on the dipstick. Put two quarts in, and still nothing on the stick but the guage was working. I decided to do another change. Only 4.5 quarts drained out. We had driven 11 miles since I added 2. Do the pricKS never changed the oil. How much damage was potentially done to my motor from this? Roughly 70k on the motor. It's also throwing a grayish cloud now when you rev it up high in neutral. Is that possibly related? There's a tinge of burnt oil smell in the exhaust but no blue smoke. I thought grey/black smoke was always fuel related. Looking for some insight. TIA
What's my issue?
- Thread starter TheMoose
- Start date
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Occams razor would suggest you're loosing oil rapidly. Probably engine issues, not the lube places fault.
Congrats on your purchase and welcome. You are brand new wih this rig and don't know anything about it for sure. You are going to have to keep driving it while keeping close tabs on the oil level. The oil light is there to prevent engine damage so my concern would be finding out if my engine has a leak or is using oil.
Hg probably toasted.
hows rad fluid overflow look? empty/ full / green or murky green? oil fill cap bottom look milky white?
my guess......hg letting some oil and water into cyl. would explain low oil pressure/ loosing oil/ and gray smoke would be combo of water n oil smokin out of the pipes
hows rad fluid overflow look? empty/ full / green or murky green? oil fill cap bottom look milky white?
my guess......hg letting some oil and water into cyl. would explain low oil pressure/ loosing oil/ and gray smoke would be combo of water n oil smokin out of the pipes
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- Thread starter
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Also just noticed a decent sized of puff of blue smoke on start up
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- #7
They told me they put 7.8 in, but I have a hard time believing I burned 5.5 quarts of oil on a 220 mile trip without it smoking continually and a lot. I don't think they actually changed it. I calied them and they're refunding the oil change.
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- #8
I have not yet checked the coolant. I did notice the overflow was above the full line, but didn't take the cap off. I don't seem to have any power loud and it doesn't stutter or hesitate in the least. The culprit with unused fuel in the exhaust was a smashed sparkplug. Smashed as in there was no gap so that cylinder was just puking fuel out of the exhaust. Had a compression test done at the same time because we thought it was a bad exhaust valve. Compression test came back perfect. It either didn't actually get an oil change, or the oil is magically disappearing. I thought about it escaping into the coolant, but wouldn't that have shown up on a compression test?
A failing HG may or may not affect compression.
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Just checked both the overflow and the radiator. No oil in either that I can see. It looks abnormally clean, but a new water pump was installed not that long ago. I have driven about 75 miles since I changed the oil last night, both in town and on highway. No smoking aside from a puff on cold start up and a grey one on high rev in neutral. It doesn't look like it's burned any....maybe a tiny bit. Any other possibilities? If it was burning oil that badly, I would think it would be very noticeable.
you can do a leak-down test, that will tell you if your HG is done. since the oil change is suspect and youve done some work I would continue to drive and monitor it.
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- #12
Wife drive back to KC last night. Engine burned 5ish qts in 220 miles again. I'm at a loss.
More like your wallet is at a loss!
But don't feel like the Lone Ranger Mr. Moose. Test the coolant for signs of engine exhaust. A kit for this purpose can be found at the local parts store or, if you prefer, takes it in for testing but it sure does look like the HG may be going south.
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- #14
Wouldn't there be oil in the be oil in the coolant? I mean, it's missing 3 gallons or so now in 500 miles. Wouldn't that much oil in the coolant be visibly overflowing?
If it's not in the coolant, it went out the tail pipe or on the ground. All you can do is start the process of elimination unless your cruiser came with a warranty that the rest of us didn't get. I will be interested to see what you find.
So you had straight unburned fuel in one cyclinder while running? Yeah...that's no good at all.. That gas washes the cylinders dry and causes wear really fast. You're probably burning oil in that one cylinder if I had to guess. Get a NAPA head gasket leak tester and test it that way. Run cold compression test on it. Cylinder pressure shouldn't be more than 10% off from highest pressure to lowest. Also, if you're not burning the oil, a f'd up cylinder can be causing internal crank case pressure and pushing past your rear main seal. It would leak into the trans bell housing, spread around via the flexplate and the rest would make it out the trans and along the whole underside of your rig...would t necessarily see a drip, I never noticed one... Just a thick nasty oil slick like I mentioned.
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No warranty. I read the bell housing bit another place last night. Going in the shop tomorrow. Fearing the worst, Hoping for the best. Thanks for the input guys. I'll keep you apprised.
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- #18
Took it to the shop this morning. They ran a compression test, leak down test, and checked for visible leaks. Nothing came up. They are stumped. Pulling the head tomorrow to see if the baffles are plugged up.
The puff of blue smoke on startup is almost always leaky valve stem seals. If bad enough they could be responsible for most of the oil loss. It is not always easy to find leaky valve stem seals on a leak down test. However if they are pulling the head, I would fully expect the seals to be replaced with the head overhaul.
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- #20
They said they were replacing the valve seals. I just can't believe 3 gallons of oil could burn through an engine in 500 miles and not smoke like a chimney. Thanks for the input