2.0L ('83-'88) Excessive oil everywhere

[drummerdad]

So I think I have bad rings in my 2.0.
History- 86 ranger, 2.0 carbureted 5 speed. Was my father-in-laws daily before he parked it because he got something new, or he got something new because this was giving him trouble. Im not sure. The truck sat in his driveway since 2006. I asked about it, he gave it to me, Ive been wrestling this thing ever since.

I made it run, drove it for 2 weeks but it got milkshake in the oil. Thought it was a head gasket. So I pulled the engine, re-gasketed it, prettied it up and put it back together. Drove it another week, and noticed oil all over the driveway, out of nowhere. Im okay with a few drops, but this is excessive. I noticed (and forgot) a spot in the side of the block for what appeared to be a PCV. I thought maybe this was the issue, so I plugged it. Oil everywhere. So I figured I would vent it a little until I could get a PCV. Oil everywhere. It also almost caught fire for a brief moment. My problem is I assumed it was running okay when he parked it, but that seems to never be the case, no matter what they tell you.

I drove it today, and left it running when I got it home. Here are the symptoms: Oil all over the drivers side of the engine and engine bay (I just got it all cleaned up too), fast idle, poor gas mileage (Im not sure what it should be getting, because the gas gauge doesnt work, but it is under 18 mpg for sure. Maybe power loss- its hard to tell .Im not familiar with the truck, and everyone says they are dogs. Well, this one definitely is a dog. Im sure it would go over 70 mph on a flat surface. I also pulled the hose from the valve cover and the idle dropped, and smoke came out. Not a ton, but it was noticeable.

Im guessing its the rings. That would explain the sudden appearance of all the symptoms. It probably let one or two go when I asked it to drive me to work after laying in a grave for 20 years.

ughhh..

Oil all over the place. Its even puddled in the intake. Im guessing its blowing by the valves and into the carb as well. It might even be coming back out of the intake through the carb.

It was so clean. I had it out for the gaskets. It ended up not being the head gasket, but the intake gasket that had failed. I changed them all, even the front and rear mains.

The truck when I started trying to bring it back. Its supposed to be a little run around truck. Back and forth to work and small truck jobs. I have my car I need to be working on and spending money on. Its a 2007 Charger RT, with the road and track package. I recently replaced the engine with a new crate motor, installed a cam, headers and exhaust, 6.1 intake and a torq storm superchanger. Im just a few weeks away from finishing and having it tuned. But I keep having to fix this truck.

 

[Shran]

The PCV valve on my 2.3 (and I assume on your 2.0 as well) is under the intake/behind the distributor and if it's gone then yeah you will probably have oil vapor blowing all over. I remember it being a huge pain in the ass to get it seated into the rubber boot deal that it should sit in. I would get that working and stuff before you assume the worst about rings.......sure it could have some blowby... but the rings may just be stuck from sitting and need some run time and heat cycles to come out of it.

 

[scotts90ranger]

yeah, what Shran said, I don't see the PCV oil separator thing on your pictures though, if you have the PCV side and the fresh air side on the back of the valve cover it shouldn't be that bad but if you just have one side it could be bad... or the rings are mad but a compression test should tell that.

 

[drummerdad]

Im going to try the PCV this weekend. Im hoping it fixes the issue, but Im not very confident it will. Im starting to consider other options. Im into this truck enough money and time to fix the issue no matter what. If it takes a rebuild then I guess thats what Im doing.

My issue is this now: IF the engine comes back out, and back apart to put rings in, Im already deep inside this engine. Something broke the rings, so Im guessing there is a ridge in the cylinders, so it might have to go to the machine shop. IF Im going to take it to the machine shop why wouldnt I have them check the bearings and replace them with new? And wouldnt it be smart to also go ahead and put at least valve seals in it also? Where do I stop?

Ive had no luck finding a remanufactured engine for it. I guess we will see. This is all speculation for now. Ill know more after this weekend.

 

[Shran]

I wouldn't jump to conclusions just yet. Your rings could just be stuck from sitting for 20 years. They need to move in the groves on the piston...if they are stuck in place you get blowby...if they don't seat to the cylinder walls, you get blowby. Do the PCV thing and let us know. If it still has some blowby you can put a catch can on it too. It needs heat and some run time - you can have this exact issue with a brand new engine - my buddy had the 4.0 in his Jeep rebuilt and it used a lot of oil until the rings finally seated after a 8+ hour drive on the highway.

It could also have been parked because it was just worn out. Hard to say. I would not assume broken rings even in this case though and a ridge on the top of the cylinders won't break a ring anyway - the piston doesn't travel that far up - but you can remove it with a ridge reamer. If it's worn that bad, it probably needs to be bored out but don't assume that it is. It may look very healthy inside and just need to be honed. Very hard to say without looking inside. If you do take it to a machine shop, I guarantee they will tell you that it needs everything, because it might.

You won't find a reman engine anywhere, I bet rebuilders quit stocking 2.0's about two decades ago at the latest. I tried to find a reman 2.3 for my '88 in 2014 which is arguably an easier ask than what you have and I had ZERO luck...12 years ago... fortunately Lima engines have some aftermarket support and a machine shop should be able to get it fixed up IF you run into that worst case scenario.

 

[drummerdad]

Okay, so today I put the PCV in and started the truck with no hose on the oil filler/valve cover cap. Immediately the truck idled better and ran better. There is quite a bit of air coming out of that elbow on the cap, so I put my thumb over it, and realized where the oil is coming from. If you look very closely at the first picture on the first post, the dipstick tube is held in with a ziptie. When I started working on the truck, I noticed the dipstick tube was broken at the tack welds. I used a ziptie to hold it in place. When you hold a finger over the elbow, it pressurizes the crankcase, and oil shoots out of those two tiny holes.

I tried to plug them, but it just shoots out the bottom at the block. I added a catch can I had laying around, but it still seems to be spewing oil, just not as much. I think the engine has to come back out and back apart to see how bad the rings are. The final test is going to be a compression test. Ill borrow a tester from a friend who has one and run the test to see how bad it is.

Maybe Shran is right, and the rings are stuck. But, why did it not spew oil everywhere for two weeks? Maybe I could use thicker oil, but that seems like a bandaid, that wouldnt not work anyway. Ill hatch a plan after the compression test.