The vehicle: '07 Explorer 4.6L 3V.

Is it normal to get a fairly significant puff of smoke out of the tailpipe when these motors are kicked into passing gear? It does it occassionally when the vehicle is first started as well.

I was in front of someone the other night and as I was merging onto the highway, I kicked it into passing gear and all I saw was a cloud of smoke in the headlights of the car behind me.

Something tells me that this is not normal. The vehicle only has 20,000 miles on it so it's barely broke-in.

Thoughts?

Known issues?

 

Take it in to the dealer and have it documented since it is under warranty. You are either sucking some oil in the chamber or running rich. There could be a TSB out on it so when you take it in with this problem they may have a fix but either way you want it on paper that this problem started under warranty.

 

One of the reasons why I don't like buying used vehicles is because you don't know how often it was serviced or who did the service. I figured that since the vehicle only had 19,500 miles on it when we purchased it that everything should be fine, so I took a chance.

Case in point! Last night I changed the oil because I plan on doing some towing with it this weekend and I had no records as to when it was changed last. I use Royal Purple and K&N oil filters in all my vehicles. When I removed the drain plug I was shocked to see how thin the oil was. It looked to be as thin as whole vitamin D milk. On top of that, it had a weird color, almost like maple syrup.

I'm wondering, since the vehicle came from Canada if it had a lighter weight oil in it due to the colder climate.

 

Sounds like its had the wrong oil for a long time.

 

Dunno about the 3V in particular, but my '02 van with a 4.6 has sometimes made a puff of smoke on startup--but never has really used much oil (maybe a half quart between oil changes at 3-4k miles since new). I have noted that it will do this as a "sure thing" if the previous time I drove it, I just started it and moved it to a different spot on the driveway or something. Probably the rich startup mixture, or something about more oil remaining in the heads to run down valve stems.

A few posts down, I started a thread back in 2006 regarding a TSB on the Romeo engines of my vintage, and actually got new cylinder heads at 42k miles. Interestingly, the puff of smoke thing has not really changed with the new heads. (This TSB is not relevant to your motor at all--just saying that a brand new pair of heads didn't change the puff of smoke thing for me.) It will virtually never make the puff of smoke if I park it after a decent length drive and start it up the next day.

On the puff of smoke in headlights thing, if you just bought the car, it is possible that it was driven around *very* gently for its whole life, and I've had newish vehicles that I've just bought do the same thing and scare the bejeebers out of me. I think it's just a bunch of accumulated soot/water/steam type stuff blowing out of the exhaust--maybe even carbon from the combustion chambers, and once you nail it a few times, it may never do this again if you do an occasional healthy on-ramp acceleration thing. I'm sure it is a gutsy vehicle with the 3V motor.... Maybe do a run of Techron thru it to clean the fuel system and valves really nicely--this is the one additive I believe in (and BMW/Honda recommend it as well).

Monitor your oil level carefully for a while, but knowing how tight the mod motors are, I doubt you'll really have any problems with it. These suckers go 300-400k miles all the time in cop cars and taxis, with minimal maintenance.

I would also not use a heavier weight oil than the 5W20 recommended, and stick with Motorcraft oil filters if you can due to their superior ADB valves.

George

 

I'm curious to see what it does today when I tow my 4wheeler. It's not much weight but if there is something wrong or going wrong I should hopefully notice it then.

When I changed the oil I added a can of BG RF7 to the crank case and when I fill up this afternoon before hitting the road I'm putting a can of BG 44K in the tank. I've always had good luck with BG products so we'll see if it helps.

I always use the weight oil that the manufacturer calls for and I prefer the K&N oil filters.

Hopefully I'm worrying about nothing and it's like you said George, maybe it's just been babied up until I got it. I don't baby vehicles but I also don't abuse them either.

 

Good luck...I'm betting everything is OK. The BG oil additive increases viscosity, so your oil weight now exceeds the specs; maybe it's OK when the weather is warmer, but I wouldn't bother with oil additives at all and especially no viscosity increasers in the winter. The mod motors like a light oil so it gets up to the valvetrain quickly.

Motorcraft oil filters are as good as any, better than many, and are cheap (read some oil filter studies on the net)...plus there is no question that they will maintain your warranty.

I personally do not trust K and N air filters either.

Mod motors last a long time without using overpriced designer filters and oil....

Good luck with the new Exploder. These have to haul major butt with the 3 valve 4.6....

George

 

5w20 is pretty thin when warm. Sounds normal.

 

Like YoGeorge my 5.4 will let out a puff of smoke, if the previous start up was very brief and it was cold, probably for the reasons he gives. I did worry about it at first but no more.

 

Modulars are all notorious for sucking oil into the intake manifold via the PCV system,and it'll typically settle in an area that can be scavenged easily at startup or a snap application of the throttle. Some consumption is normal,and won't hurt anything. I'll bet the "smoke" that you saw was from a richening of the mixture when you "stepped on it" to merge combined with a "slurp" of oil from inside the intake manifold.
JL

 

Could be synthetic, sounds like my QS 4x4 synthetic stuff.

 

Made my trip this weekend and the Explorer towed like a champ. I didn't notice any smoke on accelleration or at start up. Maybe the oil change and the can of BG 44K in the fuel tank helped. Regardless, so far so good.

 

After all our conversations in the V10 forum, kennaBF250V10, I respect your knowledge and reasoning.

I am just left shaking my head everytime someone puts an additive into something before they even know if there's a problem. Should have just changed the oil and seen what it would do without the additive.

What's "BG" anyway?

 

A engine needs to be pushed hard from time to time. I would rather buy a vehicle that has been driven hard and serviced than one that was driven by grandma on Sunday.

Sounds like it was pampered and had some carbon build up in it. You are now breaking it in for your drving style.

Here's the link on BG: http://www.bgprod.com/products/fuelair.html

 

.......and I yours!

To each his own I guess. I've had good luck with BG products and continue to use them. Before I started using the BG RF 7 in my V10 it was using at least one quart of oil between changes. Now that I have been using it for a while, I don't have to add any oil between changes.

I just figured it couldn't hurt adding it to the Explorer. So far so good and no more smoke.