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Old Apr 3, 2012 | 06:17 PM
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Blue Smoke

Folks, I have might have an issue here.

After tooling around town and a complete warm up cycle for the engine I encountered a problem. The situation is this.... Had to go around a slow poke....waited untill traffic had cleared and nailed it. My truck belched out a boat-load of blue smoke from the tail pipe. Could not duplicate this on the return trip to the stealer (Dealer). Needles to say, I am worried about the health of the engine....(no codes popped, or anything else as I had a code reader hooked up) My truck did the blue cloud again with a rev up in park after a cool down but wouldn't do it again, but there was a strong smell of unburned fuel at the tail pipe. Any Ideas?
4.6L
2WD
Sport Package
 
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Old Apr 3, 2012 | 06:54 PM
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Maybe you need to nail it more often to keep it from happening J/K I have no idea. Is it still under warranty?
 
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Old Apr 3, 2012 | 06:59 PM
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Its prob from oil pooling in the bottom of the intake from the PCV system. I wouldn't worry about it, all engines burn a little oil. If they didn't, the tops rings would scorch. Ford's spec is 1 quart every 1500 miles.
 
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Old Apr 3, 2012 | 08:06 PM
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Originally Posted by 70f100longbed
Its prob from oil pooling in the bottom of the intake from the PCV system. I wouldn't worry about it, all engines burn a little oil. If they didn't, the tops rings would scorch. Ford's spec is 1 quart every 1500 miles.
Wow! I've never heard that before. I've never had a vehicle burn that much oil, Ford or otherwise. I'm not challenging you on it (especially, given your credentials), you've just got me thinking about it. I mean, holy cow, that's a lot of potential oil burned/lost.
 
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Old Apr 3, 2012 | 09:38 PM
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that's better than it used to be ... used to be 1qt/300mi.

have you ever driven behind a vehicle that uses that much oil?!?!??

anyway .... the PCV is a very likely culprit. My old 99 4.6 2v would do similar things, usually after taking off from an extended period of idling.

if it is high mileage or has tons of hours on it, it could also be valve stem seals. you won't notice the oil until the cylinder temps get up hot enough to burn it off, like when you punch it.

if it is a low mileage truck, i'd get it documented at the dealer in hopes of getting some help at the end of a warranty period. if it is a high mileage truck, i'd likey just deal with it until the oil consumption got to a point where i couln't stand it anymore.....

oil is cheap when compared to major engine work. Becomes a basic equation of ROI at some point .... does it pay to fix it or not?

not sure i can be of any more help than that, sorry.
 
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Old Apr 4, 2012 | 11:58 AM
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Originally Posted by meborder

the PCV is a very likely culprit. My old 99 4.6 2v would do similar things, usually after taking off from an extended period of idling.

if it is high mileage or has tons of hours on it, it could also be valve stem seals. you won't notice the oil until the cylinder temps get up hot enough to burn it off, like when you punch it.

not sure i can be of any more help than that, sorry.
I should have looked a little closer at the forum link because my truck is much older than '09. Anyway there is 104K on it and it is an '01(Not sure if this is considered "High Milage" these days). It is also due an oil change here very soon. Thanks for the input
 
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Old Apr 4, 2012 | 03:12 PM
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Moved to correct forum.
 
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Old Apr 9, 2012 | 06:19 PM
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Smile

Originally Posted by meborder
anyway .... the PCV is a very likely culprit. My old 99 4.6 2v would do similar things, usually after taking off from an extended period of idling.

if it is high mileage or has tons of hours on it, it could also be valve stem seals. you won't notice the oil until the cylinder temps get up hot enough to burn it off, like when you punch it.

if it is a low mileage truck, i'd get it documented at the dealer in hopes of getting some help at the end of a warranty period. if it is a high mileage truck, i'd likey just deal with it until the oil consumption got to a point where i couln't stand it anymore.....

oil is cheap when compared to major engine work. Becomes a basic equation of ROI at some point .... does it pay to fix it or not?

not sure i can be of any more help than that, sorry.
Thanks for the pointers, the PCV Valve was the culprit, the symptom has gone away.
 
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Old Apr 9, 2012 | 08:52 PM
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Originally Posted by sonar_91
Thanks for the pointers, the PCV Valve was the culprit, the symptom has gone away.
just out of curosity, is there anychance that you just changed the oil before your problem disappeared?

i forgot to mention that on that '99. the blue smoke was a sure fire way to tell that it needed an oil change. it would get about 2500-3000mi and it would start to smoke after idling. but change the oil and it would go away for about another 2500-3000 miles.

solid truck, only problems it ever had in 125k miles was the starter wire corroded off (which all of our fords did at some point), and it blew a heater hose ... shoulda bought it on the auction, but i didn't need another 2-wheel drive pickup.
 
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Old Apr 10, 2012 | 11:02 AM
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Originally Posted by meborder
just out of curosity, is there anychance that you just changed the oil before your problem disappeared?

i forgot to mention that on that '99. the blue smoke was a sure fire way to tell that it needed an oil change. it would get about 2500-3000mi and it would start to smoke after idling. but change the oil and it would go away for about another 2500-3000 miles.

solid truck, only problems it ever had in 125k miles was the starter wire corroded off (which all of our fords did at some point), and it blew a heater hose ... shoulda bought it on the auction, but i didn't need another 2-wheel drive pickup.
Yes, I had just changed the oil, and that was the when it was recommended to check the PCV Valve.
 
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