Lowtryx

After idling for anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes, upon driving smoke is emitted heavily from the engine (Both banks) out of the exhaust.
After poking around at work (Ford dealer) apparently older crown vics and other 4.6's had a problem with Oil pooling at the valve seals on idle, causing it to burn under load.

The longer the engine is idled, and it seems the lower the temperature affects the amount of smoke emitted, and thus oil burned. The engine will burn oil if driving at WOT while *****-cold, however it will burn without smoking, or at least without smoking noticeably.

Can anyone offer any insight into my situation? NPI 2V with PI Intake and Cold Air Kit. No other mods. 201,000 KM's
I'm considering pulling the old NPI and replacing with a PI, found one at a yard in a wrecked 2000 GT for 1200, however I can obtain a fully Refurb'd PI 4-6 from Work with a 2 year warranty for roughly 3,000.

Comments/Ideas?

mustangman281

Leaking valve seals smoke after start up. Oil coming thru the pcv smoke after idle and left hand turn. Bad rings smoke all the time. I bet it has nothing to do with your valve seals. If you pull your plenum off and look in the intake I bet there is a nice puddle of oil in there. You need to repair the pcv system.

Lowtryx

Thank you for the reply.

Can you be more specific, as I have already replace my PCV.. (At least, the elbows and tubing).

Lowtryx

The smoking has somewhat progressed.. Now, if I lightly tap the throttle (Rev to about 11-1200) Smoke is emitted. This is after sitting at even the shortest of Street Lights.. 30 seconds or less. The smoke is much less in thickness compared to longer idling, however it's concerning.

95crownvic

contrary to what mustangman281 said, valve seals do leak after idle for a while, but i am not saying that is the problem, could also be a blown head gasket, cracked heads, do a compression check to see.

96_LAstang

Hi, i believe i have the exact same problem, I almost positive mine is valve seals. If i let it idle for a while it will start smoking a little bit, then when i start to take off it lets out a decent amount of smoke. Mine has 157k miles and i'm just going to hold off until i can do a rebuild.

mustangman281

Its very easy to find out what it is.

Unhook the PCV from the the intake plenum and intake tube and plug them. If the smoke stops then its the pcv. If not then do a compression check. If its getting worse then it is probably the rings.

Lowtryx

I've done a relative compression test and the cylinders were green across the board.
I changed my plugs about 400 KM's ago, and none were fouled what so ever, so I'm doubting it's a head gasket.

yamanx

The plugs didn't have any oil burn on them...?

Lowtryx

No, the plugs were perfectly clean. All 8. Despite being about .060
I installed the new plugs and set them to .054 and it runs much nicer, yet still smokes.