my car has been smoking very badly recently, and consuming a LOT of oil. it smokes the most when i am idling or when i take off. my friend said it may be bad valve seals? any ideas. and in a totally unrelated question what is the easiest way to uninstall my door lock actuator so i can replace it? i have the door panel off already.

 

It does sound like the valve guide seals. Oil makes its way down through the valve guides when the motor is off, then gets burned on startup. On idle the engine is moving slow enough for the oil to seep down as well.

It's a lot cheaper than replacing rings.

 

Yep a ring job is needed. Just stay away from the those oil additives you see in the stores that claim to help your car stop smoking. They help a little by keeping the compression high by sealing the spaces between the vales, piston rings and cylinder walls but in the end your car will keep smoking until the rings are replaced.

 

Well, we have two conflicting opinions. You can check the rings by getting a compression gauge from an auto parts store for just a few bucks.

You remove a spark plug, screw the gauge in, and crank the engine over five times. Compare the readings. If one or a couple of cylinders are more than 10 pounds below the average of the others, you either have worn rings on those cylinders or leaky valves (which you probably don't have, judging by the smoke).

Squirt a bit of oil into the low-reading cylinders and get another reading. If the compression increases, then you have bad rings. If not, your valves are leaking through the valve seats.

However, if all of the cylinders are near equal in compression, then your oil burning problem is the leaky valve guides.

 

it is the piston rings. i have another 302 5.0 engine that im gunna put in my car until i can put the new rings on the other engine. its necessary for the engine to be pulled to replace the rings right?

 

it is the piston rings. i have another 302 5.0 engine that im gunna put in my car until i can put the new rings on the other engine. its necessary for the engine to be pulled to replace the rings right?

 

Yeah you gotta pull it.