I bought a new head for my 1992 pickup and installed it. I was losing coolant before, the old head was cracked. My truck is burning oil now. There is a puff of blue smoke when I start and when I take off from stop lights.

Looking around it sounds like it is the valve seals which would be annoying because it is a new head. Could the head gasket not be sealing and oil is leaking into the cylinders that way? I am not getting any oil into the coolant and I haven't seen any oil on the dipstick. I am getting ready to order another head gasket set but I want to pick some peoples brains first.

Thanks,

 

Dont order anything yet. Your vehicle is old, and these things happen. Have you tried swapping to a heavier weight motor oil?

How long since you changed the head? Could be residual oil in the cylinders.....but sounds like leaking seals to me. I wouldn't even fix it if it aint that bad.

 

run a compression test first and see if everything is good that way. how much oil is it useing? who rebuilt the head?

life begins when the kids leave home and the dog dies

 

The company that rebuilt the head was a head rebuild shop here in calgary.

It is burning a lot of oil. Probably about quart every 2 tanks of gas. I am pretty sure it is the head gasket.

It also has a bit of oil on the side of the block.

I try putting in some gasket conditioner in the oil and running a heavier wieght oil and see if that works.

 

I have to ask; the new head was properly sequence-torqued to specs?

 

Yes I torqued the head to the right amount in the proper sequence. But I didn't chase the threads in the block because I didn't have a tap to fit the threads so I just went in and out a few times with the old bolts.

Actually when I took the head off originally I had twisted off one of the head bolts and I had to weld a nut on it and take an impact gun to it. I actually mis-spoke before as well, the head wasn't rebuilt, it is a new head.

I was talking to a guy at work who has rebuilt 22Rs and he said it was possible that oil can be pushed through the head gasket into the 4 and 1 cylinders. Evidently the oil pumps up in the back of the block and is poured into the cam cavity and then drains back to the oil pan at the front of the block. I don;t remember why he explained that it is only th 4 and 1 cylinder that the oil can get into. When I had the head off I dont remember the oil flow pathway.

I still don't see how I could lose oil through the head gasket and not coolant. I am still driving the truck to work but my work site right now is less than 10 mins from my house so maybe the cooling system is not getting up to pressure.

 

it depends on the oil passages in the block but if the compression pressure is higher than the oil pressure it would go the other way, check to see if the baffle in the valve cover that covers the pcv valve has come loose, if so the valve train might be throwing oil up and being sucked into the pcv valve and burning it that way. you could just plug the vac hose and drive it a short distance to check for the smoke and also look inside the vac hose for oil there should not be more than a trace.

if we're not supposed to eat animals why are they made out of meat?

 

thanks for the advice on the pcv valve. I'll try plugging the hose and see if the smoke goes away. I was busy at work today so I probably won't get a chance to test it out for a day or two.

I'll keep all of you posted.