caleba1

I have a 1996 lexus es300 if u want to look at my first few posts i think i have a thread with pics of my car nothing to great.... but lexus is awesome
soooooo im at 235,XXX miles on my car and i just had to replace a knock sensor all went good and car was running back to its oldself...

untillllllll in the same week that i fixed it i got a seal leak (i believe not 100% sure) in my cylinders .....
when i start car up after stitting for hours i get grey smoke out of tailpipe and sometimes when i take quicker starts i see a little smoke left behind.

which leaves me to. is it worth fixing ??? or should i try and sell if someone gonna be crazy enough to buy lol and get me a SC300 or 400 (btw not asking if they better just asking if i should get rid of the es300) or any other ideas.. ??
never tried doing work on this specific thing on my car or any car so not sure how hard it is and if anything can go wrong while fixing it.

dewinks

I wouldn't do anything until you do a compression check on each cylinder. When you pull the spark plugs to thread in the pressure gauge, look at each plug. If you are burning significant amounts of oil the plug will be coked with carbon most likely. If you are burning coolant sometimes there is a chalky powder like substance left on the plug, but not always.

I think each cylinder should push somewhere between 130 and 150 PSI. Not 100% on that, so maybe someone here could verify that. If you have one or more cylinders that are very different pressures (i.e. lower) from the rest, you may have a blown head gasket. If the pressures are all fine, and you're definitely burning oil (smell smoke - usually a blue color) it could be the valve guide seals, which would cost you too much to fix if you're not a big job DIY'er.

If the smoke is from coolant you most likely have a leaking head gasket, which would also cost you a pretty penny. I'm not sure how much a shop would charge for replacement of the HG's, but it's a pretty big job with the engine in the car. I just did a set with the engine out of the car, and it's very time consuming.

If the smoke doesn't get worse, and there's no power loss, you could gamble and just keep driving it, but definitely get the compression check done. I guess it depends on how attached you are to the car. I tend to keep cars forever and fix just about anything, but I also do it all myself so it's affordable. If you have a friend who is a mechanic, and truly understands dual overhead cam type heads, the head gasket job is do-able in the garage.

Hope that helps.

caleba1

yep thanks ill look into i like working on it myself its just im not a pro so i was wondering how the job is for a random person that knows some about mechanics but not all to much :/..... all I go off is the guide i purchased and wasnt sure on how it is to fix things like that and if i try and fix if im risking hurting something else on car that could keep it from running