It is burning oil, so that means oil is getting into the combustion chambers....but im not exactly sure which piece has gone bad? or for that matter what the valve guides are in the first place. Could the lifters have gone bad too? Can someone tell me what piece is most likely the cause for the oil leak into the chambers and then a price of how much it would cost to have it fixed. When i start the car it blows a puff and then settles down and then when im at a stop light and push the accelerator it blows a puff and then more or less settles down...sometimes it keeps going for a while. My mechanic put an additive in the oil called stop the smoke or something, and i know that that causes the seals to expand...and it has helped. So. I need someone to give me an overall diagnosis and price range. My mechanic is reluctant to have me do the work, im guessing cause its expensive...but i would rather pay 1000 dollars then buy a new car.
a valve guide is basically a round tube that is press fit ito the cylinder head, the stem of the valve rides up and down inside this sleeve as the valve opens and closes. the stem seal fits on the spring end of the valve guide and seals against the valve stem keeping oil out of the guide [and running down the stem and getting into the combustion area when the valve opens] valve stem diameter and guide bore dimensions are close fitting but the stem is always smaller than the bore [very little oil is available to lubricate this area under normal circumstances] so both the guide and stem can wear [the guide is of a much softer material than the valve so it does most of the wearing] high mileage engines can have very egg shaped guide bores allowing stem movement which if not corrected will ruin a new set of stem seals in short order i hope that i have been clear on this but if you have more questions please ask,as there are several very knowledgeable people who answer volvo questions at this site. NOTE: the valve seat is concentric with the valve guide bore. due to machineing tolerances when the guide is replaced the valve seat will no longer be concentric with the new bore and the valve will not seal properly so the seats will have to be re-machined off of the new guide and then the valve faces will have to be machined to the proper fresh sealing angle of the new seat [hence a complete valve job as far as costs go if memory serves this job pays approx 9 hrs. labor,.plus machine shop work.[generallywith new guides seals resurfacing and a pressure test and cleaning about 400+ or- and related gaskets seals fluids timing componants i suspect the final bill may be above 2 grand but if you kept up with oil changes and the bottom end is't hurt your car is well worth this expense
yes we would love to help, except you gave us zero information, in order to even begin to guess whats going on, you need to explain a whole bunch of information if you want any help, like what year make model of car, engine mileage on engine, and any other things that have been done to a coar that you know of. If you have a chevy 350 it was pretty normal to get a puff of smoke out if it when it was cold, this was from worn valve stem seals, and sometimes the design of the seal was a problem, like the umbrella seal for late 80s early 90s, even new some got a few drips of oil and blow a puff of smoke, you say its smoking out the tail pipe, ok when only when cold? or all the time , or under acceleration? when, that is the first clue we need to know ok?
Do a compression test, that'll tell you exactly whats wrong. Or have a mechanic do one.
