tonyk72

I just recently changed my oil & spark plugs...First time since I had the car. I used Quaker State 10W-30 (for higher mileage engines). And I used AC Delco R44T's & gapped them at .035 (as per factory specs). The next thing I notice was bluish smoke coming from the exhaust...Why?
About 1 week prior to that I had my carb rebuilt. It may have been smoking since the rebuild, but I'm 100% sure. It definatley didn't smoke prior to the carb rebuild.

gdh

A few of the real engine and oil gurus on this forum once told me never to use that high mileage engine oil as it swells the seals and causes other problems. Hopefully MountainMotor and Ganey may kick in and 'splain more on it.

Captain_Kaboom

I wouldn't trust it, either. My Bronco has 143k on it, runs just dandy on 10W30. I don't see how adding stuff to gunk it up is going to make it run any better.

tonyk72

I think I may dump the oil tonight and switch to just regular 10W-30...I hope it will stop smoking...but this raises an interesting question. If the high mileage oil tends to swell the seals, do you need to maintain continued use of that kind of oil to keep the seals swelled up OR are my seals swelled forever now that I have used the higher mileage engine oil and it won't matter if I use regular oil?

Actually, before I do that...would a spark plug gap that is too close produce similar symptoms?


[Modified by tonyk72, 9:58 AM 9/9/2003]

68shark

I can't think of any other explanation than the old oil was of a higher viscosity rating (like 20W50?) than you are now using. Seeing this is your first oil change, it is possible that the prior owner put the "heavy" oil in to reduce smoking. No other reason for a car to suddenly start burning oil after an oil change. None I've heard of! Your plug gap should be .035 but no, it wouldn't cause oil consumption just improper firing.

tonyk72

Problem solved. I brought the carb back to the rebuild shop, they found nothing wrong with it...they just readjusted it to factory spec...(I never touched anything on it except for the idle) In the meantime, I tightened the bolts on the intake manifold to 30 ft lbs...they were tight, but not to spec...
no more smoke...
After that, I dumped the QuakerState and put in some Castrol GTX...


[Modified by tonyk72, 6:25 AM 9/12/2003]

Aflac

:iagree:
I used Valvoline max life in my pickup and it pushed my oil pan gasket out by swelling it... went back to Valvoline 10-30 and never had a problem since