Lots Of Blue Smoke..All Of A Sudden..?

[solaris=amazing]

So like a week and a half ago, i change my plugs..air filter, clean the carbon off my throttle plate, and clean my engine with some degreaser and shine her up nice.

After that, i got my oil changed at Avis...just to make sure my "day off" was spent on my car, i also got my fuel filter changed that day. Now, the next day i noticed that when i sit at idle for like over 2 minutes, then rev it to like 2K i get ALOT of blue/white smoke, which ALSO smells like burning plastic-or burning oil.

That actually happened at dunkin donuts, and it scared the f*ck out of me, lol...i got down on my stomach and was looking for like burning plastic bags on my exhaust...NOTHING. I wait 5 minutes, rev it at the throttle body and see the damn smoke again. Now, i got the attention of some guy, he came over and asked what was wrong..i showed him.

He said it's most likely worn valve lifter seals (or valve seals) OR worn piston rings, he told me to use thicker oil, or even a lucas additive for smokey engines.

Ok....i did my research, and it's apperently very common with ford 4.6L engines, especially the engines like whats in my car, a 95 ford thunderbird with the 4.6L...with 131K miles.

If you guys can, give me the bad on all this.... Whats the damage being done by worn seals, or even piston ring seals.... COULD this be a result of TOO MUCH OIL in the engine...? I check my oil, and it's at the full mark, but that can mean it's perfect, or that it's over a quart.... I didn't pull my plugs yet, but i got the feeling oil is on them.

PS, other then that, the car runs fine. Just a good smoke cloud when i take off at a light.

[solaris=amazing]

The best way to describe the smell of the smoke, is LITERALLY like when you do burnouts, and you smell the burning rubber-thats what it smells like.

The color is like a bluish-white.

[Zgringo]

You used the statement, "all the sudden", which tell me it was fine before. If this correct, chances are you've broken a oil ring. If this isn't correct and has been getting worse slowly then it could be rings, valve guides or valve seals or a combination of the above.

[curtis73]

Yep, sounds like a cracked ring to me. I guess it could be a cracked valve guide or seal but that is pretty rare. Make sure it doesn't smell sweet like cotton candy. That would be coolant.

Driving it will cause it to foul plugs on that cylinder, it might clog up the PCV valve, and your oil will get pretty yucky pretty fast from blowby. You might have excessive detonation under part load.

[MagicRat]

I agree with the others. A ring has gone bad. If you drive it for a bit you can identify the bad cylinder by pulling the plugs and looking for the black and greasy one.

If you cannot find one bad plug, or if all the plugs look black and greasy then you have another problem, like bad rings on all cylinders.

If the rest of the engine is sound, you might get away with pulling the engine and repairing that one bad cylinder. Otherwise a rebuild, or at least honing and new rings is required.

Eventually that plug will load up and stop sparking. Also, huge amounts of burning oil might foul your converter and O2 sensor, which will just make your repair more expensive.

[solaris=amazing]

Smoke GONE....

Weird. I really don't get it, all i described on the above post, is totally gone. How can that be..? I let my car idle in park for like 10 minutes, then rev it up to where i used to get ALOT of smoke, no smoke..?

This has really got me thinking, especially being that all the smoke happened a day after i got my oil changed...???? BTW, the only other symptom i got, is that my oil smells burnt. If i take off the filler cap, and smell the cap, it smells burnt. I didn't pull any plugs cause honestly i'm pressed for time, but the car runs fine.

[curtis73]

Could have been overfilled oil, but I'm not sure why it wouldn't burn oil all the time instead of just while revving it.

Puzzle. Well, so far you've had a few of these temporary problems and you haven't had any trouble just driving it after the problem went away Maybe you're just jinxed

[solaris=amazing]

Jeez...now i feel like a nagging wife.....lol..

Well, the problem is still there, just when i thought it stopped...

I'm just gonna hope my car goes on fire while i'm doing 75mph.... Thanks everyone, lol..maybe i am jinxed.