gump

Hello all. I've been driving my car around a lot, I've only put on about 4000 miles on it now since I bought it, however, I'm a bit worried about how much oil it uses and the blue smoke from the exhaust. It really smokes quite a bit while the A/C on. Usually dosen't smoke when the A/C is off, unless i'm idling for over a minute, then it seems to come out in clouds a bit. The car has 140,000 miles on it. It uses about a quart of oil every 500 miles. I know thats more then what the owners manual says it should use, but it's got a lot of miles. Should I be worried??? Is this signs of an engine about to go bad?? The engine is plenty strong, no lack of power. I guess I'm just trying to get an idea of how much time I might have left. Could a bad O2 sensor cause excessive oil consumption or a lot of smoking? I'm just a worried owner because I depend on this car for my field service job, I'm doing a lot of driving. I just need reassuring that i'm not going to blow the ol 13B up Thanks
Matthew

JIMMY54

iTrader: (2)

One thing that it could be is your oil is too thin.
Try somthing like 20w 50. I notice that when i use thinner oil my car tends to smoke also


pics @ www.portugesethug.homestead.com/jim.html

speckamp

while this is usually a sign of oil seal failure, it doesn't mean the engine's on it's last legs... try thicker oil, that'll prolly reduce the problem. But I'd start saving, cuz I bet in 6 - 8 months you'll be looking for a rebuild.

500miles / qt is ALOT.

good luck, hopefully I'm wrong.

--matt

P.O.S. Racing

Gump, what weight oil are you running in it?

What do you guys think would this be a good candidate for marvel mystery oil?

Would MMO help reduce oil consumption?

gump

lol, P.O.S, it's funny you mention that because I see that Marvel Mystery Oil coming up in many messages on this forum, I was in Auto Zone today and I picked up a bottle. I'm going to give it a shot. I've been running 10w30 Pennzoil since I got the car. If you guys think it'll handle 20w40 without negative effects, I'll give it a shot real soon. I just added a quart today, so I"ll have to wait a little before I add the Mystery Oil. I am hoping.

P.O.S. Racing

I’m just going by page 13 of the Haynes manual. It shows using 20W50 for 15 deg (f) to 120 degrees (f). That pretty much covers my climate, in Ft. Worth, Texas.

My original question still stands : What do you guys think would this be a good candidate for marvel mystery oil?

Would MMO help reduce oil consumption?

Audio Science

I was under the impression that the mmo only helps to lubricate better for like freeing up the apex seals and springs and such. If the oil seals are bad I don't think that would help. But I know next to nothing. I bet Denny would have an opinion on that. He uses mmo all the time and he has several 7's.

Rotary-MG

iTrader: (1)

Almost all of my smoke disappeared when I recently replace the O2 sensor.

What color is the smoke?
Are oil and water different colors out of the tail pipe?

Maybe someone else could elaborate on the smoke thing.

I used 20W50 in my '85 GS for a number of years without a problem, and I'm in temperate So. Calfornia.

P.O.S. Racing

Isn’t it white smoke is oil, or water, and black smoke is fuel? Then their the red sky at night …something…something…something….

Does the car stink like gas when it’s running, and make your eyes water? Mine was doing that when it was running too darn rich. The O2 sensor helped that problem a bunch!

gump

ok, i went out and got an o2 sensor over the weekend. Haven't put it in yet, didn't have the 7/8th's wrench. Should be going in this evening once the car cools down. I put the MMO in. It smokes a light blue color. Does not smell like gas, it does smell bad though probably because I have no cat and a presilenser, the fumes are probably killing me at long stop lights. It's not one of those cars thats billowing smoke as they drive down the road, it's just when I start the car (normal) and after idling for about 30 seconds, I start seeing some small light blue clouds drifting across my rear view mirror (no i don't do any drugs).
Rotary-MG, you mentioning the smoke dissapearing after installing the o2 sensor gives me hope that it will help.

On a side note, I did clean out, as far as i could reach, the throttle chamber with carb cleaner / paper towels / q-tips, Holy carbon!! I just kept pulling out one q-tip caked with black after another! It made a noticible difference in throttle response and pulls stronger up to redline. Also, for the first time since I had the car, when i started it this morning, the rpm's went up to 2000 and slowly came down to 800 as the car warmed up. Every other time it would start at like 1200 and work it's way down. So i'm happy about that.

take care.
Matthew

Rotary-MG

iTrader: (1)

Yup the O2 sensor made a big difference, and it also smoothed out my idle and took away much of the stinko.

I'm not running the -SE on long trips since I'm still working out some stuff, so the gas in the tank could be a year old. I should take more time a try to clean out the throttle chamber like you did. Maybe that'll get me to 100%. Right now I'm around 96% there, so I'd consider that very streetable. Some roughness when cold and light pops from the tailpipe. But plenty of Smooth power.

gump

Thanks everyone for your input into this problem of mine. I changed the O2 sensor this evening. Drove around 30 miles afterwards, it does seem to smoke much less, and when it does, the smoke is clearer, not as blue. The old o2 sensor I took out was completely clogged with white stuff?? The car ran well, while I was there I took the ACV off the left side of the intake and cleaned it out, as the bible, I mean, as the paper on Solving GSL-SE Idle Problems states. Then I checked the spark plugs, to see how they were fairing after 4000 miles, which leads me to my next post. Thanks again.

Matthew

P.O.S. Racing

Great News, glad you’ve cut down on the smoking gump!