Gizm0

iTrader: (1)

My car burns about a qt every 600 mi. using Mobil 1 synthetic 0W40 (it burns a qt every 400mi with 10W30)

All this time, I thought my oil burning was because of the piston rings being shot, because of what I’ve read on the .org... but now, I'm more leaning toward the valve stem oil seals.

Why?

- Upon cold start in the morning, or after letting the car sit for several hours, I get blue smoke out of the tail pipe for about 30 seconds. Once the car is warmed up, no smoke whatsoever. I can rev the $h!t out of it when the engine is warm, and no smoke at all coming out of the tail pipe.
- I put an oil catch can on the PCV line, and it caught only a few drops of oil over a 4 month period, so I took it off. If the piston rings were shot, I would have significant blow-by and catch a lot of oil in there...
- On several occasions, I had to drive the car for over 10 hours a day, so no time for the engine to cool off. During these times, my oil consumption was close to zero.
- No power loss... Burning 1qt of oil every 600 miles through one or several piston rings would probably create major compression loss, hence major power loss I believe. However, my car runs just as strong as ever.

I’ve done some research on how to replace the valve stem oil seals. Replacing the oil seals doesn’t seem too complicated. Jim Wolf Technology makes a tool that will allow you to remove the valve springs without removing the heads: http://www.jimwolftechnology.com/cus...asp?PartID=485

The hard part is how to get there… I’d have to remove the timing chain in order to remove the cams, and that’s what scares me the most. I’d like to do it with the engine in the engine bay, but with a FWD configuration, there’s not a lot of space to work with to get the timing chain cover off/back on, and mess with the timing chain. I’d probably be looking at (at least) a two/three day job if everything goes smooth…

I was quoted $1850 parts and labor (20 hrs) by the local Nissan stealership to do the job… Now that’s just too much IMO. I’d be willing to pay as high as $1200… A smaller garage could probably do it for cheaper, but most of them are used to work on much easier “raw” engines… The VQ isn’t exactly the easiest thing to work on when it comes to internal parts… Would you trust a smaller garage to do this kind of work and not **** up your engine?

Gugs

Confirm you didn't have any oil inside the intake manifold runners?

zero2sixtyZ

iTrader: (30)

Subscribed.

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

You're always going to have it with decent mileage unless you clean it out. Unless it's a giant puddle lol.

But he had a catch can and that's where the oil comes through, so it's not relevant to check, really.

RR5

iTrader: (6)

Find a friend who can pull the motor and either send it out to get the work done or do it yourself. If you need the car..well then shop around for the best quote.

Gizm0

iTrader: (1)

Well, I removed my BOP to check inside the IM, and there is a puddle of oil…. Not a small film, but a rather large amount of oil in there… There is only three ways it could get in there:

1) Through the PCV valve (which I replaced a few weeks ago and didn’t change anything), but the weird thing is that the catch can didn’t catch much over the few months it was on… but that was last summer.
2) Through the intake breather tube, but I checked, anything upstream of my throttle body is dry… no oil, so it's not going in through there.
3) Through leaky valve stem oil seals. But the question is, how would the oil go up from the valves into the IM? That defies gravity…

Let me know what you think about this idea: I’m either going to 1) remove the breather tube b/w my intake and the front VC, remove the breather tube b/w the PCV valve and the IM, and put two breather filters on there, or 2) put a breather filter on the front VC only, and put the catch can back on b/w the PCV valve and the IM. Which solution would you recommend?

* Note that these two options above would just be in an attempt to reduce oil consumption from blow by in case my piston rings were at fault. It wouldn’t help if the reason for the oil was bad valve stem oil seals…

morris369

iTrader: (1)

I would throw the catch can back on and see if it catchs any. I put mine on with a fuel filter between the can and the intake as a secondary check. My oil is definately coming from the pcv now. I haven't checked the intake since I put it on but it definately had a good amount of oil when i did my plugs. My little site gauge on the can isn't showing any oil in it though, kinda wierd.