Im stumped...please inspire me!

[96Greenster]

Well ive owned this truck for 1 month and im already tired of spending $$$ on it. My worry right now is that my 4.0L is consuming 1qt of oil every 500 +/-miles. Is this normal? I have no leaks, no smoke, pressure guage is normal. Every thing seems normal exept the motor oil consumption... Please help.

 

[pappy_308]

i don't think so dude i check my oil every 2 weeks, get i changed 2500 miles and i have never had to add oil between oil changes get i checked out man before u have a real problem your engine should not be doing that at all

 

[michowski]

Sounds like you need new piston rings. Take out your spark plugs to verify if its burning oil or not. If theres no drips or leaks, and your losing that much oil in with that few of miles then it has to be burning it. Rule of thumb I was always told is every oil change your allowed to be a quart low. So thats every 3000 miles at least is normal.

 

[96Greenster]

I indeed checked the plugs and plug #4 has some oil residue in it... what does this tell me? and what should I do about it? Thanx in advance

 

[michowski]

Well only way to fix it is to remove the engine, get some new pistons and rings and replace em all. Remove the crank, pistons, rods, heads. Hone every cylinder and double check all clearances for everything. I would get all new bearings as well since there cheap enough and go that route. All in all id say 200 dollars in parts roughly, then just the time it takes you to do this. Thats the way you properly fix this and only way. You can run thicker oil which will slow it down some but it will always burn the oil untill you get new rings in the motor.

 

[96Greenster]

Wo, alot of work. Ill leave it like it is for now. Ive been using lucas oil stabilzer and it does slow it down a bit, but still needs oil every 500 miles or so. Would it get worse over time?

 

[Big Jim M]

What we have here is an engine badly in need of valve seals. If the rings were worn that bad you would have a great deal of blowby and the internal pressure would be squirting oil out the seals.. There would be a puddle of oil everywhere you park.
Big JIm

 

[96Greenster]

What we have here is an engine badly in need of valve seals. If the rings were worn that bad you would have a great deal of blowby and the internal pressure would be squirting oil out the seals.. There would be a puddle of oil everywhere you park.
Big JIm

Thanx Jim. Yeah, I dnt have any leaks what so ever, engine nice and clean from under. The only thing i saw was the plug with some oil on it. So Jim, In a scale of 1 to 10, How hard would the job be???
Forgot to ask, If the problem are the valve seals, wouldnt the engine smoke on start up or while reving?

 

[MountainMike]

I think my Ranger may need valve seals, it just coughs up a little smoke on start up. What happens is when you shut off the truck, oil rest on the top of the valve. You start the truck and oil goes into the cylinder and burns up. To change valve seals you find when all the valves are closed in that cylinder, used compressed air to hold the valves up. Remove the springs and such and replace the seals. Not to bad but you want to make sure that valve doesn't fall into the cylinder.

 

[Toms01PSD]

I think my Ranger may need valve seals, it just coughs up a little smoke on start up. What happens is when you shut off the truck, oil rest on the top of the valve. You start the truck and oil goes into the cylinder and burns up. To change valve seals you find when all the valves are closed in that cylinder, used compressed air to hold the valves up. Remove the springs and such and replace the seals. Not to bad but you want to make sure that valve doesn't fall into the cylinder.

You could remove the heads and have them resurfaced, have a valve job done, and replaced valve seals. My new 4.0 had two cracked heads upon inspection and I paid $450 for two new heads plus valves and valve springs being swapped over and a valve job. When I pulled my heads I poured varsol over the valves from the head side to see if I had any valves leaking and it went straight through on two valves. They only had 114k miles on them.

 

[MountainMike]

Looks like Tom knows the score with valves. I'm gonna tough mine out for a while, it isn't too bad, I just buy an extra quart when I do an oil change and it is enough for a while. Just a characteristic of worn seals. They will dry out eventually.

 

[Big Jim M]

Howdy Mile.
What Tom didn't tell you is that a "valve job" is plain & simple just a lot more wear on both the valves and the head itself.. If the head is working, by all means, leave it alone!
Those bad valve seals discussed above are prolly the result of overheating.
Big JIm

 

[Toms01PSD]

Easy, yes. But it stills requires the removal of the heads. http://autos.yahoo.com/maintain/repairqa/engine/ques054_1.html

 

[96Greenster]

Howdy Mile.
What Tom didn't tell you is that a "valve job" is plain & simple just a lot more wear on both the valves and the head itself.. If the head is working, by all means, leave it alone!
Those bad valve seals discussed above are prolly the result of overheating.
Big JIm

Well I bought the truck with a cracked head. So I got that fixed, the mechanic replace one of the heads and got both resurfaced. Should he had known the valve seals are messed up while the build?

 

[Toms01PSD]

Well I bought the truck with a cracked head. So I got that fixed, the mechanic replace one of the heads and got both resurfaced. Should he had known the valve seals are messed up while the build?

He should have magnafluxed both of the heads to make sure there wasn't any cracks. The 4.0 heads like to crack in between the intake and exhaust valves. After making sure they weren't cracked, he should have checked the valve seals. If he didn't test the seals then there's no way he knew whether they were good or not.