Burning oil

Devil Horse

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I've noticed lately that my 96 gt with the 4.6l 2v sohc is burning oil. I've heard some people say that it's the valves and others say it could be the piston rings. It has about 107k on it and runs fine with all of power as you would expect from this car. The engine is stock, what really got my attention to it burning the old is I had it running at idle for a good 30 to 45 minutes when I was making sure my coolant system didn't have any leaks after having installed a new radiator, surge tank and temp sensor. I gave it a little rev (maybe 3k) and saw smoke rolling out the tail pipes. I gave it a few more revs and it cleared up. Checked my oil after it cooled down for a few hours and was low by a good 1 to 1.5 quort. I only rive it on the weekend (if I'm in town) so it don't get out that much these days.

Does anyone know if this sounds like velves or rings? I've been thinking of getting the heads from a 3v dohc if it would work if it is the valves.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 

RAU03MACH

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valve guide seals and rings will Couse oil burn another thing to try is a catch can for the oil
if you remove the throttle body and see oil present thats a possible oil burnage
when you pull the dip stick are you keeping track of oil usage , check about once a week
 
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Devil Horse

Devil Horse

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valve guide seals and rings will Couse oil burn another thing to try is a catch can for the oil
if you remove the throttle body and see oil present thats a possible oil burnage
when you pull the dip stick are you keeping track of oil usage , check about once a week
I've just noticed the leak. I had been letting my nephew drive it while his truck was getting some transmission work done.
I'll check the throttle body in the morning. It maybe get driven 50 miles a month on normal occasions because I only drive it on the weekends when I'm in town from work.
 
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Devil Horse

Devil Horse

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1 to 1.5 oil leak mabe
No leaks. It's burning oil and coming out the tail pipes.
Of course the 1 to 1.5 is a guess. I only noticed it a few days ago when was doing some other work to it. My nephew has bee driving it for the last 3 weeks while his truck is in the shop getting transmission work done.
 

RAU03MACH

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if no leaks
then its burning the valve guide seals are not to hard to replace but rings on the other hand motor rebuild
 

RAU03MACH

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i would try the throttle body first with catch can
if still bad then valve guide seals
all else motor rebuild
 
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Devil Horse

Devil Horse

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Most likely it’s the valve stem seals. Smoking after extended idling is a telltale sign. It’s a very common issue with npi heads.
Maybe better just to do a head swap seeing as I wanted to do bigger cams anyway you think
 

07GtS197

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Maybe better just to do a head swap seeing as I wanted to do bigger cams anyway you think
Which heads are you going to get? Having an npi 4.6 you don’t have much piston to valve clearance. You won’t be able to go too big with your cam choice unless you notch your pistons.
 
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Devil Horse

Devil Horse

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Which heads are you going to get? Having an npi 4.6 you don’t have much piston to valve clearance. You won’t be able to go too big with your cam choice unless you notch your pistons.
I was thinking the heads from the cobra modle with the 3v dohc and going up in cam size just a little. Not much but just enough to get that good lobe sound.
 

96blak54

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Id say a combination of valve seals and needing an oil catch is compounding the oil usage.

A 96 modular definitely needs the updated valve seals and i can promise you they are most definitely leaking.

The more popular head swap is the 99-up pi heads, cams, and intake. It gives a good bump in compression and the cams are more aggressive. No tune is needed but tunes bring out all the power. Staying with a 2v swap would be far more simple than a 3valve or 4valve head swap.
 
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Devil Horse

Devil Horse

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Id say a combination of valve seals and needing an oil catch is compounding the oil usage.

A 96 modular definitely needs the updated valve seals and i can promise you they are most definitely leaking.

The more popular head swap is the 99-up pi heads, cams, and intake. It gives a good bump in compression and the cams are more aggressive. No tune is needed but tunes bring out all the power. Staying with a 2v swap would be far more simple than a 3valve or 4valve head swap.
Thanks. I'm about to go out and take a look at it. I'm going to wait to pull the valve cover until I have some new gaskets because I know the pass side has not been off in a long time. The driver one is only a few mo the old because a shop I had it at to get tires put on and a old change ended up having the tip of their oil gun blow off into my valve cover lol.
 

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