Advice please,rings or valve stem seals

ViciousClone

ViciousClone

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Finding out for my Gf

If the car stands for the night and you start it up in the morning or after long standing periods(4-8hours) it smokes but only till 2nd gear and its fine.

turning off the engine and starting it then there's no smoking..So this is only when standing for quit a few hours or days.

Most people told me valve stem seals but i just want to make sure.

Thanks
 
How many kilometers have the engine done? Higher than 450 000kms, and it is time for new valve stem seals.
 
If it only smokes after startup it's probably the valve stem seals. It can happen below 200 000 km, as on our Pajero. If it's the rings then the car will smoke all the time.
 
What colour is the smoke? Does it smell like burning oil? Does the car use oil?

If the oil leaks past the valve stem seals you would have an initial collection of oil in the cylinders which would burn off quite quickly (smoke) and from there on it should burn clean, well that's the logic I'm following anyway. If the rings were shot you should have continuous smoke I reckon, especially on deceleration.

What happens in stop start traffic? Do you get smoke after pulling off again?

If you have access to a borescope and you can get in there you should see leaking oil on the open valves assuming it's the valve stem seals.
 
If it's valve stem seals, when you coast down a hill (in gear, under compression) and accelerate away at the bottom it'll produce a cloud of smoke for a second or two.
 
What car is it?
Could even be cold start fueling gone haywire.
 
Chevy spark 12000k on the clock.

smells like oil burning yes,as i said it uses oil a lot.

Thing is the parts are so cheap but the labor is insane cause apparently you need to remove the head
 
You need to send the car to an engineering company that does engineering on motors not a normal repair shop .
If you take your car to a repair shop they will take the head off and send it to an engineering shop to recondition your head and refit the head , at the end of the day you will be dealing with 2 company's and they both will want profit .
Try to find a place that does the engineering and fitting .
Like this place seems they do the engineering themselves . http://motormasters.co.za/
 
A lot of the well known engineering shops will actually replace those seals without even removing the head ... shop around before going with someone that wants to remove the head ;)
 
djbrendan said:
Chevy spark 12000k on the clock.

smells like oil burning yes,as i said it uses oil a lot.

Thing is the parts are so cheap but the labor is insane cause apparently you need to remove the head
Click to expand...

12 000 km? Are you sure? That is way too soon for any of these problems. After 120 000 km maybe.
 
12 000km. Just take it to the dealership and have them take care of it. Warranty will cover whatever it is.
 
Is the smoke white-grey or blueish-grey?

As a start only, oil being combusted is blueish-grey, and this typically suggest rings. Oil from the crankcase enters the combustion chamber and gets combusted in the cylinder.

It's rarer for leaking valve stems to get oil into the combustion chamber - the oil gets burned in the exhaust chamber behind the valve, and this produces whiter smoke.

On the other hand, if your inlet valves stems are really shot, the oil gets burned just like with shot rings. But the exhaust valve stem leaks would still produce whiter smoke, so check for mixed white-grey and blue-grey smoke.

This is just a start, of course.

If white smoke it could be coolant, too.
 
1-1.5 L

That is not valve stems seals. That is rings.

try this.

fill the oil up to max mark

take it out for a long run,(it does not have to be high road speed) But keep the engine in the upper rev range. i.e hold the gear for as long as possible.

See if oil consumption got better or worse.

Rings at 12000km is definitely a warranty job
 
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