momaxima92

I have several posts concerning this problem. My 92 SE DOHC (VE30DE engine) NEVER smokes on startup, however, whenever I sit at a traffic light for more that about 20 seconds, I get a big exhaust plume of oily smoke. I was actually turning the car OFF at red lights to avoid the smoke plume at take-off! Replaced the PCV valve - no help.

On last oil change I did the following, which did not seem to help:

Went to heavier weight oil (20W 50)
Added Bardahl anti-smoke (snake oil, I know! I'm desperate!!) to oil.
Went to toyota oil filter.

Again, no help. Put about 175 miles on the car. Decided it was time for something radical, so.......

Drove the car for about 3 miles down the interstate at 70 mph in 2nd gear (that's right at where it red lines, by the way)....

Smoke problem is vastly improved, virtually eliminated, unless I let it idle for several minutes, in which case I still get a good puff of smoke, but most lights aren't THAT long!!!

Any thoughts?????? Maybe I just have some "crap" gumming up the engine??

Plan on doing a compression check soon.

Thx, Mike

Wiking

That is the problem driving slow an nice.

Try seafoam or cheaper like I do is only sea...: at 3000rpm give the horses water down the throat as much as they can take. The steam cleans the engine; ...possibly drowns u cat.

momaxima92

Finally ran the compression check - all cylinders 170+ psi except for middle one on front bank, which is at 140, so no question where the problem is. Guess I'll either be putting in a new engine soon or getting a new vehicle - sucks, because it still runs almost perfectly!!!

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

I'd drop a bottle of no-smoke or rislone in at every oil change and keep going until something really goes awry

subs1000w

140 psi isnt that low yet although the difference between 170 and 140 is alot but if it still runs fine i wouldnt waste money on a new engine yet

we tested a friends K car at work the other day and it was 100psi across the board and it runs fine

Wiking

Could be broken [or burned sooty] oil ring in that cylinder. Lowest ring in the piston, and should scrape excess oil from cyl wall as piston goes down. Your pressure difference is less than 20% which still is ok.

If rings are broken, smbdy might be able to hear/diagnose that. In that case taking that piston out would be worthwhile. Possibly could be done (who knows???) below, engine on.

[in the second case] cleaning, hard drive could help.

aksansai

iTrader: (2)

140psi is still adequate compression for fire on that cylinder, which explains why the motor is running fine. However, the difference with the adjacent cylinder begs a question. Did you check to see if it was the piston ring or the valves?

Quick check is to remove the spark plug, dump a little light-weight oil (2-3 tablespoons) through the hole, and re-run the compression test. If the compression goes up - you've got a bad (failing ring). If compression is unchanged, you have a problem with the seating of your valves. Ring == replacement (yuck). Valve == valve job (yuck).

My guess is that the ring is starting to fail. At idle, the fire is not that hot and constant in that cylinder and allows oil to accumulate past the ring and on top of the piston head. When you take off, you're applying hot fire to the accumulated oil and are blowing out of the tail pipe.

It may also be a blown head gasket (still == yuck). The gasket can blow without mixing oil and water. Depending on the severity of the blown gasket, it can reduce compression and let oil bleed out of the gasket or into the cylinder. You may want to look there also. Continuing to drive with a blown head gasket is a disaster waiting to happen.

In any case, repair requires removing the applicable head (which requires, I believe, a new set of head bolts [they stretch and are not reusable] and cost a bunch of money).