dwb

ES300 ,2003 , About every 2-3 days I get a puff of oil smoke out of tail pipe, then it clears up and is good for a couple days then it does it again . Using about a quart of oil every 3 weeks approx. Does this sound like valve guide seals/ or maybe a clogged PVC valve. Was told awhile back this engine has been known to sludge up/ oil has always been changed on shedule. Any help would be great . thanks Dean

mdbrown

Would start by checking/replacing the PCV valve. If it does not change, then I'd say valve guide seals are likely the culprit.

dwb

Thanks for reply back !!!! I sure I'm hoping its the PVC, I needed to hear it from someone else. Thanks again .

LEXTEK1

Pull the rear valve cover, clean the sludge out of the PCV valve baffle by soaking the cover. Or, take it to a machine shop and have them tank it. Clean the two oil return holes in the center of the head leading back to the oil pan. Pull the oil pan and the pickup screen and clean all the crud you shoved down the oil return holes. The problem is those return holes are partially blocked. This allows oil to pool in the rear head and the PCV system picks up the oil and pulls it into the intake. Do oil changes every 1k miles for 5k miles to clean up all the sludge in the engine. DO NOT use a chemical to "Clean" the inside of your engine.

It is possible that you have damaged the valve seals but, your oil consumption is way to high to be seals alone....
Pull the front valve cover since it is easy to check for sludge evidence there first.

Change the oil every 5k miles. The reason your engine is sludged is pure and simply neglect somewhere in your engines past!

yeskay

Lextek:

i too see blue smoke at start up which i am attributing to valve seals. will high mileage oil fix it.

Thanks

LEXTEK1

Probably not. In the case of high oil consumption pulled from the PCV, oil coats the inside of the intake manifold. The oil will migrate to the lowest point of the intake system. Usually that is on top of an intake valve and when the car is started, the first gulp of air for that cylinder is a quantity of oil. Valve seals usually don't come back if they are leaking and if your smoke is NOT accompanied by high oil consumption, it is probably your seals. This information is relevant only to the V6.