1995 Ford Thunderbird Excessive oil consumption

ROCKH1

MEMBER
1995 FORD THUNDERBIRD
V8
2WD
AUTOMATIC
120,000 MILES

4.6L

I recently purchased this car and I love it! But it is using 1qt of oil every 500 miles. I don't see any leaks, nor does it smoke on start. If I let it idle for about 15 min, it begins smoking and blows a large cloud on acceleration. After 3 or 4 accelerations, it quits blowing smoke.

I've been told that I have pull the timing chain to change valve stem seals. Is that correct? What other things might it be?

3 Replies

BLUELIGHTNIN6

MECHANIC
16,542 POSTS

Hello and thanks for donating

The smoking at initial start up is the oil leak and when this smoke happens at start up and then goes away, it is almost always a sign of worn out valve seals. If it were another seal/gasket that was leaking, the smoke would be continuous and not just at start up. If you need step by step instructions on how to replace the valve seals just let me know. You could try "engine honey" which is extremely thick lubrication that is poured into the engine oil fill opening and will help tighten up the seals. This usually doesn't help once they are already leaking though, most likely repair would be replacing the seals.

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Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 AT 5:12 PM

ROCKH1

MEMBER
2 POSTS

I don't really see the oil smoke at start up. It is only after extended idle > 15 min. Also, I don't see any smoke on acceleration whether normal or hard.

I have the procedure for replacing the valve stem seals, and I'll probably do that anyway, as Ford engines seem to need them at about 120000 miles. They're cheap. The labor isn't :-D

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Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 AT 8:45 PM

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