CoryMiller

Bad piston rings would cause constant smoking...I haven't pulled the fron VC yet, I have been crazy busy. I bought the car from a dealership but ofcourse you know, no warranty, as-is BS. Ugh, I was hoping to not have to worry about this, just change my oil every 3k miles and drive it. I know changing the valve stem seals is a job and I have already mentioned it to my dad so we are going to do that when it gets a bit warmer. I just keep an eye on my oil level and add accordingly.

88Legend

Hmmm maybe valve seals. The second generation Legends had this problem. The valve seals would go bad and then the car would blow out blue smoke out of the exhaust. But it didn't affect the performance/driveability at all. People just replaced the seals and the car didn't burn any more oil.

Are your spark plugs fouled?

Edit: I didn't see you already mentioned the valve seals. But there is a DIY on the Acura Legend website if you are interested.

CoryMiller

okay, so my dad looked at it last weekend and he says it is probably sludged up. He took the oil cap off and saw sludge in there, stuck his finger in and pulled it out and there were sludge on it, so Idk if that is better than bad valve seals. I hhave never dealt with this before and I have not treated cars well in the past.

On another note, I find it ironic that my car was originally sold in Las Vegas, I buy it here in Tennessee, and 3 weeks after I get it, I get approved for a transfer at work and will be moving back to where my car is originally from. So in 18 days I will be driving cross country to move to Las Vegas. Gotta stop in TX and get this sludge problem taken care of also, as well as timing belt/water pump, spark plugs, typical 100,000 mile maintenance.

PFB

I don't understand how your father removed the Oil cap and was able to determine that the engine has sludge. Because of the baffle that is under the cap, there is no access with the fingers, nor is there any visibility to the valve train. Can you post a picture of what your Dad found.

As I mentioned in my earlier replies to your post is that your engine may indeed be full of sludge, but that only way to determine that is to remove the front valve cover and inspect. This is an easy and quick job.


Phi

CoryMiller

THere was evidence of sludge on that baffle...it was just an educated guess on his part. He will know more when I take it to texas in a couple of weeks.

PFB

Even if you do have Sludge, it will not normally be visible on that baffle. So I doubt very much that that is what he saw. It may have been Varnish which is No big deal.

So before you do anything else, or drive the car much longer, It is VERY IMPORTANT that you remove the Valve Cover and inspect. PLEASE.

Phil

ckoax

As stated above; pull the valve cover, then you'll know about the sludge factor. As far as Toyota rings or cylinders wearing, uh uh, not unless extremely abused, worked on alot of Toyota engines, they just don't get cylinder wear, never seen it bad enough to burn oil. Have seen alot of bad valve seals though. Usually after that freakin rubber sealed coolant thermostat has stuck a few times, love Toyota, hate the rubber seals on the thermostats, the rubber swells and it starts sticking. Having been a victim of this myself, I change it every year. If turns out to be valve seals, just drive it, may be a little embarrassing at start up, and probably not every start up, but it won't hurt anything.
That doomsayer scares me

CoryMiller

tell me this isnt sludge...

MikeLex

Frankly, this is not conclusive for a normal engine, let alone for a 100 K engine with blown valve seals. As others have said above, pull the valve cover and you'll know for sure. As for reliability, the Toyota MZ engine family is very, very reliable when proper maintenance is observed.

CoryMiller

I have never seen this occur NORMALLY on any engine I have ever worked on...if it isn't sludge, what is it? That is just stuff a scraped off sticking my finger in the oil fill hole...

willhickey

iTrader: (1)

that llcoolpass know everything huh? dang that sucks for the people on here trying to diagnose problems and get CORRECT answers ..... Im glad i stay mostly in the ls sc parts. Valve stem seals for the lose

CoryMiller

engine is sludged up pretty bad. At least its the worst I've ever seen. Although my dad says its not bad enough to cause my smoking that I am having and before you ask yes I have pulled off the valve covers. No I don't have a picture because I just have not had a chance to really snap one.

Almond

I have a 2000 ES thats doing the same thing as Corey's ...unfortunately I believe I caused this by missing a cpl oil changes (what can I say times got a lil hard) any how, I have a small amnt of smoke on startup and adding oil about 1 or 2 quarts biweekly. someone told me to get some "asoil" or someting like that and clean the sludge out. I checked into it and was told that if I use that it could expose leaky gaskets and I would have a bigger problem and less time to repair. I hear getting to the valves is hard. I plan to get the valves checked and fixed but cant do it for a cpl months.....please help

yeskay

you should contact lexus customer service about the sludge issue. They may even honor the sludge warranty and replace the engine. worth the try.

OceanView

My 98 ES300 has 290,000 miles and no sludge problems it may be due to using mobil 1 synthetic oil, however I do have an oil leak so it's kind of a no win situation. The leak is not big enough to justify changing the gaskets but the puddles are getting ugly and irritating.