Blowing blue smoke
 

My 95 montero is blowing blue smoke out the exhaust and wanting to know if there is something out there that could help lesson the smoke? And about out much to rebuild?

Yikes, that's never a good sign. Usually that's a sign of leaking oil into the cylinders where it gets burned, either up from the rings or down through the valve guides. I'd think the valve guides would be a better proposition, seeing as how you could do that with the engine in-situ. I'd say you're looking at $1500 or so, but my dealings with mechanics have not been recent ones, so I may be way off the mark.

A thing you could do in the meantime which may help is to yank your oxygen sensor and replace it with a new one, especially if you know that it's been neglected for a time. Having all that gunk flying past it is certainly not going to be doing it any good, and as it's efficiency goes away, the amount of gas that your vehicle's computer pours into your cylinders increases, adding to the unwanted junk coming out the end of your tailpipe. You could do it yourself and save some $$$. It's right on the exhaust pipe before the catalytic converter. Unscrews like a spark plug and disconnects to an electrical plug. Just follow the wire. It'll give you peace for mind for 60,000 miles.

Another simple thing that forces oil where it's not wanted is the PCV and EGR valves, which both regulate pressure inside your engine. Make certain that those are working and that all their connecting hoses are clean and clear. If not, the internal pressure has to go somewhere, and it can work its way out by way of the gaskets or seals, causing leaks and big $$$ trouble.

How many miles on your Montero? These things gobble up a certain amount of oil just as a matter of course, so perhaps some blue smoke at start up is something you can live with, or is it more or less a constant thing?

Mothman, you're no dumbass.

Can't fault your advice. Stick around, we could use you around here.

Thanks. You must have got me on one of my "good" days:)

I have a 98 and after idling it will start to smoke, white smoke though. I have 216k. I run Lucas fuel treatment and tried all the motor oils and found that Castrol works the best. just FYI

Hey, 98. Thanks for the advice! Let's hope MonteroMama is still checking in.

I always thought that blue smoke meant oil and white smoke meant coolant. So is coolant seeping into your cylinders from somewhere? Is this just at startup or more? Is it enough to worry you? Am I asking too many questions?:)

valve stem seals are bad i rent the tool set to replace them on the car

I'm back 'mothman52' had some issues come up.

anyway bought a PCV. wow, nightmare to change out. remove wires, cables and the plenum then you can get to the PCV! :eek:

Hubby is trying realy hard to have me to give up my montero but I love it too much. He has even said we can get the same year just with no motor issues. I said, 'but what if the motor gives out just after we get it?'

Our montero needs to have the motor & frontend rebuilt, front seats need recovering and I have to take the dash apart because the plastic lever, between the firewall and dash, that changes from heat to cold BROKE. :mad: Is it realy worth us fixing it up? What is the motor rebuild running now a days?

MonteroMama wrote:

...anyway bought a PCV. wow, nightmare to change out. remove wires, cables and the plenum then you can get to the PCV! :eek:

I hope you meant the EGR valve maybe because the PCV valve is right on the front of the left valve cover, at least on my beast.

I can certainly understand wanting to keep your Montero, although I thought at the beginning of the thread you said it belonged to your husband :). Maybe I got that wrong....

Anyway, to your question: Is it worth fixing up? Wow, that's a real philosophical can 'o worms you're opening there. It depends on how much money/time you have on your hands vs. how much you're going to enjoy the end result. As you know, there are plenty of folks who'll find a scrapyard junker and restore it to showroom condition, never even expecting to meet a break-even point; they do it because they love it, the thing itself as well as the process they create in order to see it done to begin with. Ask them if it was "worth it" and they'd probably laugh, because the question doesn't fit in with their experience.

OK, enough dimestore navel-gazing. I'm assuming your needs are much more prosaic, like "If I sink $5,000 into this vehicle, is it going to blow up the next day?" But first, let's go back to your original issue, which was blue smoke. How did you determine that you needed a complete engine rebuild? That's one issue. A big one, but just one issue. Elsewhere in these parts a guy from Texas was looking at replacing his engine and was turned onto a craigslist ad for someone parting out a similar-year Montero. The cost was around $600 I think, and then maybe, what, seven mechanic-hours of work at $110 a pop? So you'd be looking at $1370 total if you went that root. My point is, if you only need a valve job, you could get away with a lot less than that.

A second issue is a front end rebuild. Again, what specifically are you looking at? Some bushings you could probably do yourself, but what exactly are you looking at?

Third, seatcovers. A real deal-breaker, especially for those expensive faux-sheepskin ones;).

Fourth, your heater linkage. Removing the dash is no fun, but not impossible for the home mechanic, provided you follow it in logical steps and put everything back the same way. Nothing exotic involved beyond a steering wheel puller. The rest is nuts and bolts and the time involved. Are you sure you can't access this linkage any other way?

Of course I'd like to see every Montero owner as happy with their ride as I am with mine; I hope you decide that keeping it is worth the effort. Plus, once you've put a certain amount of yourself into a vehicle, it makes it all the more difficult to start all over again with a stranger.

Dang, I'm philosophizing again....

you are correct mothman, oil=blue smoke
coolant=white smoke, could be leaky headgasket as well. oil journals could be seeping into the pistons causing the burning of oil
same happens with coolant, hopefully it gets changed before engine is hydrolocked and a 150$ head gasket DIY job will cost you alot more in engine rebuild money