87droptop

After Fighting the ECU problem. Had my mechanic tell me that my car is burning oil. Im looking at rebuilding or buy a whole new motor but we know money doesnt grow on trees. What are my options??

88 orangepeel notch

First thing is do a compression test to get an idea of the condition of the rings. Do you notice smoke at startup​, then it goes away while engine warms up ? That's just the valve seals which isn't a bad job at all.

You gotta narrow down how your burning oil. Your motor may be just fine.

dawson1112

Change the PCV valve, check the PCV screen and make sure its not all caked up with crud. A faulty or malfunctioning positive crank ventilation system will cause excessive oil burning.

If that doesnt solve the issue, then I agree with OrangePeel, compression check to check condition of rings, if all is good there then it is most likely valve seals. Very common.

Derf00

Agreed that a shot motor is the least likely scenario. If you lean into the motor and the smoke gets worse, it could be piston rings but, if the smoke is the same or diminishes as it warms up, more than likely it's the valve stem seals like Dawson and Orangepeel already mentioned.

88 orangepeel notch

Just as an example, my car was going through a quart of oil every 400-500 miles. No leaks, but a little smoke at start up, and I could see a constant, faint hint of smoke in my rear view mirror at night when there was a car behind me. His headlights really made the smoke noticable. Daylight I couldn't notice it.

I replaced all valve stem seals (took me about 6-7 hrs being it was the first time I've ever did it) and now I use maybe 1/2 quart in 3000 miles. And no more embarrassing smoke.

It's a tedious, time consuming job that you have to take your time with, but if you can change your spark plugs, you can replace the seals. YouTube has a bunch of step by step videos.