04 2.3l valve seals

wv_snranger · Feb 6, 2012

My 2004 2.3l Ranger has about 93,500 miles. It has puffed a little bit of blue smoke on start up for a good year now, but haven't experienced any significant oil loss between oil changes.

Last time I changed oil I discovered I had lost about 2 quarts in that 4,000 mile interval. Now I lost about 2-1/2 quarts in the last 1000 miles. The truck still runs great, does not always puff smoke when it starts up (usually only on colder mornings) and doesn't leak (already checked it over good twice this week). The puffs of blue smoke at start up, oil loss and black watery discharge from exhaust seems to be the hallmarks of valve stem seals gone bad, at least from what I have found.

I have an appointment with a local shop on Friday to look it over and give me an estimate. Expecting to have to pay in the $1000 area if that is the only problem.

So I have two questions... Hard hard is it to replace valve stem seals on a 2.3l Duratec?

Is there anything I can do in the future to help prevent excessive wear to valve stem seals?

Tractorman86 · Feb 9, 2012

What kind of oil, filter, and are the intervals always 4k mi? Do you run any additives? Start off by pulling your spark plugs and see if they are getting oil fouled? Just my $.02

wv_snranger · Feb 9, 2012

Using Motorcraft Synthetic Blend 5w-20 with a regular Fram filter. No additives, spark plugs don't seem to be unusually dirty or oil fouled.

Intervals usually 3000 to 4000 miles.

wv_snranger · Feb 10, 2012

Mechanic took at look at it and seems to think the valve cover has been leaking. New valve cover gasket and rear differential spindle seal (not related to oil leak) installed for $285. Hope it does the trick.

wv_snranger · Mar 22, 2012

Work set me back $308 bucks. Now, a month later I am still losing oil. Looks like I might need to do the valve seal replacement myself since two mechanics couldn't find anything wrong other than a valve cover leak.

press 1 for english · Mar 26, 2012

wv_snranger said:
Using Motorcraft Synthetic Blend 5w-20 with a regular Fram filter. No additives, spark plugs don't seem to be unusually dirty or oil fouled.

Intervals usually 3000 to 4000 miles.

With all the quality problems with Fram oil filters discussed on this forum and every other forum, why are you using one? :icon_confused:

wv_snranger · Apr 3, 2012

back before I bought my house I usually went through one of those drive-through oil change places. Didn't know any better then, I'll never do that again. The first oil change I did myself, I found a "Mighty" brand oil filter on my truck that was made of plastic so thin I could squeeze the casing like a ketchup bottle..... scary!

I went with Fram because I didn't know any better.

Switched to Purolator on this last oil change. It was $3.50, thought about a Bosch, but they were almost $12 each. Still losing oil somewhere, but the truck doesn't get a lot of miles on it these days. Keeping an eye on it and I'll look at it again if I have a dry garage floor this weekend.

dla · Apr 25, 2012

wv_snranger said:
My 2004 2.3l Ranger has about 93,500 miles. It has puffed a little bit of blue smoke on start up for a good year now, but haven't experienced any significant oil loss between oil changes.

Last time I changed oil I discovered I had lost about 2 quarts in that 4,000 mile interval. Now I lost about 2-1/2 quarts in the last 1000 miles. The truck still runs great, does not always puff smoke when it starts up (usually only on colder mornings) and doesn't leak (already checked it over good twice this week). The puffs of blue smoke at start up, oil loss and black watery discharge from exhaust seems to be the hallmarks of valve stem seals gone bad, at least from what I have found.

I have an appointment with a local shop on Friday to look it over and give me an estimate. Expecting to have to pay in the $1000 area if that is the only problem.

So I have two questions... Hard hard is it to replace valve stem seals on a 2.3l Duratec?

Is there anything I can do in the future to help prevent excessive wear to valve stem seals?

You don't have to use 5w20 oil. You can use a heavier viscosity and you'll likely see less oil consumption.

Personally a little puff of blue is not a big deal.

wv_snranger · Jul 19, 2012

Switching back over to regular (non-syn or blended) 5w-30 this weekend. Seems the blue puffs got worse after I switched to the synthetic blends over last winter.

My wife's '07 Focus has a 2.0 in it and I've been running the same oil and filters on both, probably go back to 5w-30 on it too to keep it simple.

04 2.3l valve seals

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