'93 GM Blowing Oil Smoke

[Mercury93]

Oh boy.

[Spaz]

my '94 grand marquis has 186K mi. and has the valve seal leak. i never see big plumes it burns about a quart every 1000 mi. just check the oil every tuime you fuel up. I'm still on my original cats. what type of oil do you use?

[Mercury93]

We use Valvoline 5w-30 in all of our cars except for the Beetle, which gets straight 30 weight. This was the first time that I've seen big plumes of smoke coming out of it. Well, that was the first time I've seen it trailing smoke continously too. Usually I can expect a small amount to come out when I hit the gas after idling for a couple of minutes and that would be it.

[gadget73]

yeah your valve seals are bad, you're describing all the typical symptoms. Eventually it will contaminate the O2 sensors, but they're only good maybe 60k anyway before they start to react slower and less accurately so its not as if its a big deal. They're probably in need of replacing at this point anyway.

[lil9er]

my 93 has 200k+ little puff when u start up uses quart ever 1000 or so. Chek engine lite comes on almost immed when i start up, Still gets 24+ mpg hiway not worried about it

[Lincolnmania]

my 95 thunderbird burns oil and the check engine light is on from bad o2 sensors.....still gets 25 mpg highway

[Mercury93]

I'm not worried about mileage going down, I just hate leaving that damn smoke trail behind me! At least I can blast the Ted Nugent song "Smokescreen" with a sense of purpose.

[Grandmarchris]

You still wanting those seals scott?

[87_crown_vic]

during the warmer months of summer, you may want to use 10w30 or 10w40 oil to help with the issue of your engine.

[Mercury93]

Thanks!

[Mercury93]

The amount of smoke seems to have died down. Maybe just a false alarm? I guess we'll just have to find out.

[95crwnvic54]

during the warmer months of summer, you may want to use 10w30 or 10w40 oil to help with the issue of your engine.

That would be a great idea in the old windsor engines, but not the modulars. Most importantly why the modular use the lower weight oil is less resistance. So the valve lash adjusters were designed and made acordingly. The higher weight oil will get into them and will actually pump up and lift the valves off the seats.....all of them.

Excelent idea for the older engines, but not the new ones.

Find a nice low milage set of nPI heads from a Mustang, Vic, or Thunderbird and a set of PI cams. Break the heads down, clean them up, lap valves in and install new seals with the new cams.

All together you are looking at about $300 for parts.
$40 for seals
$75 for cams
$maybe $50 for the heads, people think they are useless and scrap them out
$150 for a head swap gasket kit.
$50 for the intake gaskets

Ok so that was over $300, but just start collecting the stuff and you will have it in no time at all and you will not be down on your ride. When you are ready to swap, you may be down a couple of days.

If you do this, contact me and I'll coach you through.!

[Mercury93]

Thanks for the info, but that's more than I can handle. The range of my mechanic skills at this point is limited to simple things only. Bigger projects usually end with me getting frustrated and throwing something across the garage.

[Mercury93]

I think I've got another problem now. At least my dad thinks I do. Should I be able to steer with one finger when going down the highway at 70mph? I know these things have rediculosly overboosted steering, but isn't it supposed to firm up at speed?

[91waggin]

Mine has been like that as long as my family has owned the car, and I'm pretty sure that the early aeros like you have have the same steering setup (am I right, anyone?). I don't think it's a problem, just the way the steering setup is designed.