Burning oil

[Typrus]

So my 5SFE has decided to start burning some oil. Its not a cloud-maker, but when you fire it up, you get a little puff out the tailpipe and a puff out the broken flex-pipe. If its dark you can see the cloud in the headlights. You can also smell the burning oil slightly. It'll go through maybe 3/4 a quart in 3000 miles. She's right around 150k.
I'm going to do a BG 109 to it here before too long, and jump from the SynPower 10W-30 to maybe 10W-40 or maybe even use a 15W-40 or 5W-40 oil with gas and diesel approval (I liked Premium Blue Extreme in my old Tercel)

Any thoughts on anything to do to slow the process aside from typical thicker oil or Lucas remedies? I want to stop the issue in its tracks rather than let it carry on until I need a rebuild. Which even if I had to re-ring it I'd put Total Seal rings in.

[flyeri]

If you are seeing this "puff" after start up, expecially after it has been sitting for a little while, it is your valve stem seals. You don't see it if you have been running, shut down, and restart within a few minutes. The oil leaks down by the seals while it is sitting and burns on start up. This is not a huge job but maybe not a DIY for most. Thicker, heavier oil is not the fix for the problem.

[Typrus]

Makes sense.
Might it be a good idea to do a lifter-job while in there? New shims or whathaveyou?

[flyeri]

Yeah. You might as well check valve adjustment while you are there or readjustment may be part of the procedure. The only engine I have done this on required the valves to be adjusted to put all back together. That was a long time ago with solid lifters.

[Typrus]

The 5SFE has solid lifters

[avgguy]

Wow... I think it's still pretty good that's it's only burning a qt every 4000 miles @ 150K.... I'm a noob on here so I don't know how the Camry's do, but several of my cars have used oil at that rate.

Good luck on slowing the consumption.

[Typrus]

Yeah.. My 3AC engine in my old Tercel had roughly 225,000 miles on it and used a quarter quart every 3000 miles.

[Mike Gerber]

I would just ignore it and add oil as necessary and monitor the oil consumption. 3/4 of a quart in 3000 miles is not much at all. My 07 Camry with the 2AZ 4 cylinder engine and 34,000 miles uses about that amount, straight from the factory. The 2AZ engine uses 0W-20 or 5W-20 oil, so some oil consumption is expected.

It is you valve guide seals as mentioned above. Not a bad job to do if you have the right tools. It can be done with the head still on the engine. However, like I said, I would just ignore it and top it off for now. If it was using a quart every 500 miles then I would say replace the seals.

Mike

[BamZipPow]

Try running some Auto-RX through it...

[JohnGD]

May be High Mileage oil with seal condition will help? But others said this oil swells the seals too much. Sure, the best way is to change out the stem seals along with a complete timing belt job. But less expensive oil treatments mentioned might be your first choices.

A stem seal job shouldn't add more than 1 hour with the 4-cyl and ~$40 for a set of stem seals (Fel-Pro).

The V8's 18 hours is a joke but may include a whole lot of "removals". 4-cyl is just one bank:
http://www.lextreme.com/valve_seals.html

[Typrus]

I hate burning oil. Or leaks. Or any loss.
I use either Valvoline SynPower or Maxlife Full Synthetic. I tend to alternate or go every third change on the Maxlife.

I'll look into a stem seal change. Might have to just deal with it until then.