96 vienta touring blowing white smoke

[Ashy]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here.

I have a 96 vienta touring that will sometimes lose power and blow heaps of white smoke. I can smell fuel when this happens and it seems like it's misfiring.

She's done 460k kms so she's an old girl. Engine is a 3VZ-FE. I'm trying to keep her going for another 6 months to a year if i can.

Me and my mate who's a diesel fitter did a bit of work on it last weekend to try and fix it. Changed the spark plugs and leads, front rocker cover gaskett (it was leaking oil a bit), oil filter, fuel filter and air filter.

The fuel filter was filthy as crap, ran some water through it the way the fuel goes and it came out black and silty. My car ran sweet after this for about 2 days (better than it ever had).

But now (a week later), it's back to blowing smoke fairly often. Driving to work this morning it blew heaps of smoke and I went from 3/4 full to just over half a tank of fuel in 10 minutes of driving. Then today at lunch time I drove it a couple kms down the road and back and it was fine.

My diesel fitter mate thinks that the valve seals are gone and oil is getting into the chamber and causing it to misfire. There is what looks like oil leaking out of the exhaust manifold at the front (i'll get some pics if i can) which seems to support this theory.

Another mate of mine who knows a bit about cars thinks it could also be a sticky valve. When it happens i go through so much fuel that it seems like it's just constantly dumping fuel in. He thinks the "oil" coming out of the exhaust manifold could be fuel mixed with crap out of the cylinders (judging by the old fuel filter there could be heaps of crap in there).

I bought some Morey's Heavy Duty Oil Stabilizer today which hopefully will stop oil getting past the valve seals (if that is the problem).

Does anyone know what could be causing this?

I'm really hoping the oil stabilizer works and I can just keep changing the oil and putting that in every month or two for a while. If that doesnt fix it, would it be hard to fix a sticky valve?

cheers,

Ashy.

[lateralus]

i believe white smoke is actually coolant leaking into the combustion chamber, also the fact that the head gasket could be blown (explains loss of power)

[Guest]

its gonna be either oil or coolant

is it over heating? is it using oil?

cheapest easiest fix (if the gasket is only gone) is new head gasket...

if the heads are f*cked , get some ones from the wreckers and throw them on... esp if you only need the car for another 6mo.

if you are in bris/gc go to wacol wreckers to get the heads.

[Whip Cracker]

Sounds like blown HG... but I'm sure you lot would know if the temp was rising or not?

Can you run some thicker oil in it? 20w50 if it can??

[Ashy]

Cheers for the replies guys.

Initially I thought it was the head gasket but it happens intermittently.

Sometimes it will drive fine for a day or two (10-30km) with full power. If it was the head gasket wouldn't it be all the time? Also it doesn't seem to matter whether the engine is cool or hot as it plays up sometimes from a cold start and sometimes runs fine from a cold start.

I'm in townsville so wreckers might be a bit more limited here.

It's not using oil or coolant and it doesn't overheat either. Even when it's been blowing smoke for like 10kms.

It does really chew through fuel when it's blowing smoke though. Like this morning when i used nearly a quarter of a tank to go about 8 kms.

I guess with this many kms on the clock it could be a number of things all at once too.

Edit: Just saw your post Whip Cracker.

I'm pretty sure I'm running 20w50 at the moment and im gonna drain it this arvo and put Morey's Oil Stabilizer in along with some new oil. So that should definately be thick oil then. But I put fresh oil in it on the weekend (with a fresh oil filter) so I'm not sure that's going to fix it.

Edited November 13, 2009 by Ashy

[Sanctuary]

With 406K on the clock mate you have to replace all your rubber seals/valves...also u might want to look at you fuel tank and see whether the dirty fuel filter problem originated from there. As far as fixing seals and valves I dont know much about it but i do know that you will need some serious equipment and tools so that might be more of a problem than actually fixing it.

[Ashy]

So I put some Morey's Oil Stabilizer in it and some fresh oil and it seems to be running ok again now.

Hasn't blown smoke since then and isnt chewing through the fuel anymore.

So hopefully this fixes it for a while and I can just keep replacing the oil and stabilizer to keep the old girl going for a few more months :).

cheers for the help guys

[Aquaman]

Did the thicker oil work ?cause mines doing the exact same thing. 260000k 95 vienta.