20v silvertop blows smoke

[nuk1ear]

Under decent load and above 4000rpm i can seee black smoke pour out the exhaust, lots. Car eats about 1ltr of oil every month roughly. Does this sound like stem seals or oil rings? Either way, up for a rebuild?

[foamy]

Valve stem seals for sure. The job can be done with the head on, but if you want it cleaned up properly then it will have to come off for a nice bath and rebuild.

[nuk1ear]

yeh thought so. Still a fair job, may as well pull it off if u pull the cams right?

[thechuckster]

having done an on-car change of valve-stems seals, it's a MFPITA job. Would not recommend doing again.

[privatealpha]

all the 20valve motors are starting to act up now, 20 year old motor and all.
I say just keep driving it and keep an eye on the oil level.

[nuk1ear]

fair enough. well its not hard to look after, just add oil in and keep an eye on oil pressure. I think the worst bit would be trying to get parts for them no?

[TERRA Operative]

I've done stem seals on a 16V in car. With the correct seal pliers, it's not hard at all.

[foamy]

The problem is that say a 45,000km 20v motor from Japan has been sitting around for a long time. The moment you start giving it regular oil changes the valve stem seals just fall to bits. Ideally if you were in the market for one, you would rebuild the whole motor or rebuild the head straight away. Would save a lot of hassle. There are a couple of very handy guides on how to change the valve stem seals out there.

[lexsmaz]

Are you sure its Black smoke as Black smoke is excessive fuel & Blue smoke is excessive oil ..

[nuk1ear]

well i cant see it perfectly cause it comes out the exhaust while driving under decent load, but its gotta be oil, im using 1 ltr per month and my fuel economy is sitting pretty steadily at about 450kms per 36 odd ltr fill. Possibly could be fuel, but then where the hell is the oil going? lol

[foamy]

Get somebody to follow you down a hill with the engine under load (i.e at 5000rpm). Other option is to do a compression test. If a cylinder or 2 is down on comp your rings might be worn. But knowing 20v's it's pretty likely to be valve stem seals.

[banana_socks]

Definitely sounds like you're burning oil then. Do a compression test, dry then wet, and that will narrow down what cylinder/s are having problems, and whether its the rings or the valves.

I'd much rather be changing stem seals than piston rings.

[bajallama]

does it smoke on startup? thats a common sign of valve seals, pooled oil drains into combustion chamber while sitting.

[mattysshop]

are you using stupidly thin oil?

[BLK_20v]

VRS kits are still in plentiful supply from toyota... Last time i got one it was cheaper for the entire rebuild kit than just the VRS