Old PCV valve...

[BoyYota]

Noticed I was losing a quart a week and blowing smoke at high rev so I decided to Internetz the problem. Google said replace the PCV valve. Bout to go for a run (I know I may not notice immediate effect). Sorry the quality sucks, but you get the idea:

[cipher93]

In general, if the PCV valve is clean, it should rattle when you shake it. If not, I think you can clean it in carb cleaner but I am not 100% on that.

It loosing a quart a week is probably not a PCV Valve issue anyway; that much oil loss points to a serious head gasket issue. Pull out your spark plugs and inspect them; if the car is burning large amounts of oil, they're likely to look black and have an excess of carbon and oil residue. You may also have oil in your coolant, but don't confuse it just for worn coolant which looks brown when it gets old, especially with the Orange coolant these cars used for a long time.

Older cars also typically will put out a little carbon out the exhaust when you rev them hard, but if you're leaving a smoke screen you either have a head gasket or maybe a piston ring issue. If you also are burning large amounts of oil the car will smoke all the time as well.

[BoyYota]

I don't know if you are a mechanic or just sharing some knowledge, but if you research PCV valves and oil loss you will get a totally different perspective. PCV valves can cause a LOT of oil to be burned up and lost as it is forced through the seals of the head. A clogged PCV valve can blow out your dipstick on cars that are powerful enough. This wasn't happening here, but I did notice that the dipstick had excess oil shot up the shaft. After driving it hard for a while the smoke seemed to clear up quite a bit, and it no longer hits a 'rough' spot when climbing up the RPM band. Only time will tell if this was the issue or one of the issues but for now it's looking like it helped. Coolant is nice and clean, only the reservoir has brownish residue at the bottom but it's clearly from age.

[1jzdreamer]

Id do an engine flush using seafoam or such a product, a little down each cylinder (spark plugs removed) and let it sit for a while, to seep down through the rings. Turn it over a few times before putting the plugs back in.
I was burning near a quart every 1500 miles on my old 4afe and it was due to the oil rings being seized up due to lack of proper oil changes and maintenance by the previous owner.

[Kiwi-Corolla]

I've never had problems with my PCV valve in my Corolla, but about 2-years ago my brother owned a 1996 Toyota Starlet Glanza V (4EFTE engine) and it used to smoke faintly on idle. There was a lot of speculation around what was causing the problem, but I decided to start with something simple and replace the PCV valve. Sure enough, the problem was solved and we didn't see another hint of smoke again. So it is entirely possible that a defective PCV valve was your problem, but like you said yourself, time will tell .

[NDR008]

I have a 4E-FTE and modded many of them too (they're on our maltese club site www.kyokudoracing.com) Mine is the EE90/AE92 type liftback. You were lucky, most of the times I found it to be turbo seals gone...

[cipher93]

Originally Posted by BoyYota

I don't know if you are a mechanic or just sharing some knowledge, but if you research PCV valves and oil loss you will get a totally different perspective. PCV valves can cause a LOT of oil to be burned up and lost as it is forced through the seals of the head. A clogged PCV valve can blow out your dipstick on cars that are powerful enough. This wasn't happening here, but I did notice that the dipstick had excess oil shot up the shaft. After driving it hard for a while the smoke seemed to clear up quite a bit, and it no longer hits a 'rough' spot when climbing up the RPM band. Only time will tell if this was the issue or one of the issues but for now it's looking like it helped. Coolant is nice and clean, only the reservoir has brownish residue at the bottom but it's clearly from age.

I probably should have asked how many miles you drive a week. And I know PCV valves cause issues, that just seemed like a lot for me based on dealing with my car and other vehicles my family has owned (last PCV valve issues was one going out in a Suzuki XL7 a year ago. I would think more like half a quart, but I've never had a major PCV issue on one of these cars. Still, glad it seems to be fixed.

[BoyYota]

Thanks everyone for your input. Seafoam treatment was already planned for this weekend, so it's definitely comin. I did it the first time ever on the last vehicle I had (94 Ranger 3L) and it made a big difference. After that I will do a restore treatment on it with the blue stuff.

[speedy25]

Also check the other end of the hose. Sometimes enough sludge builds up where it goes into the intake that it gets blocked. Same poil sludge problem also applies to EGR plumbing.

There are LOTS of reasons for excessive oil consumption. PCV is definitely the cheapest one to fix, so thats where you start! Next is engine oil leaks. If it has high miles valve stem seals are a major culprit along with worn piston rigs.

Take your pick of how much you want to spend or how much work do you want to do to tame the problem.

-SP

[BoyYota]

Originally Posted by speedy25

Also check the other end of the hose. Sometimes enough sludge builds up where it goes into the intake that it gets blocked. Same poil sludge problem also applies to EGR plumbing.

There are LOTS of reasons for excessive oil consumption. PCV is definitely the cheapest one to fix, so thats where you start! Next is engine oil leaks. If it has high miles valve stem seals are a major culprit along with worn piston rigs.

Take your pick of how much you want to spend or how much work do you want to do to tame the problem.

-SP

I'm not going to do anything in the engine/head itself to stop some oil burning. I'm going to do some oil treatments (Seafoam/Restore) have a look at the EGR valve and FPR, but there's no couple hundred dollars sitting around to get that done so they'll have to wait to be replaced. It runs pretty good as it is. This weekend mostly an oil change, some new headlamp bulbs and quite possibly a set of speakers coming.

[Greasewrench]

u can also look into cleaning out your throttle body real good. very easy and cheap to do if u haven't already done so.

[BoyYota]

Originally Posted by Greasewrench

u can also look into cleaning out your throttle body real good. very easy and cheap to do if u haven't already done so.

Yeah I'm gonna do the throttle body cleaning too.

I was reading stories about Seafoam's effects on older Lexus models and they said that they actually didn't have any blue smoke until after they Seafoamed (here).

Bardahl No Smoke & Stop Leak came highly recommended in these discussions (quote from the PAL guy "I have tested many of these products, and for the old clunk with worn valve guides and rings, Bardahl No Smoke is the best treatment/additive I have ever run across") so I went for it.

Picked it up on the way to my night class, added it to my crank case, and pushed it hard to school and back. The smoke was present but much less at first and now I no longer see a smoke cloud behind me when I am ripping through the RPM band . So chalk me up as another Bardahl believer.

[fast68]

oil consumption typically means excessive ring or valve guide wear

almost always one or the other, or both.,

a clogged up PCV would definitely help cause blown gaskets and seals all over the engine since there is usually no other place for crankcase gas pressures to escape from


always replace it at least once a year.


no one ever does though

and then if it clogs up then you have a engine with no oil left in it either shortly, or over a longer period of time..


good luck....

[BoyYota]

Originally Posted by fast68

oil consumption typically means excessive ring or valve guide wear

almost always one or the other, or both.,

a clogged up PCV would definitely help cause blown gaskets and seals all over the engine since there is usually no other place for crankcase gas pressures to escape from


always replace it at least once a year.


no one ever does though

and then if it clogs up then you have a engine with no oil left in it either shortly, or over a longer period of time..


good luck....

Yep well at this time I can tell you guys that it is still smoking. Not as much as before but I am still leaving behind quite a nice little cloud as I put the pedal to the metal. There is less actual oil LOSS but only a couple days after that Bardahl treatment and the oil is practically all BLACK . I guess the engine in this one was as poorly taken care of as most of the other mechanical parts. I will just do the valve cover gasket, put fresh oil and a new oil filter, and continue performing oil and gas treatments hoping that the engine will gradually consume/burn less oil.