2002 4.7L V8

Hey there...been a while since I have posted. Up to 137,000 miles and trying to go further but I have hit a snag. I am blowing a whitish/bluish smoke out the tailpipe. Not on start ups. But after stepping on the accelerator after sitting at a red light or something similar. There is a couple table spoons Id say of that white goo under the oil cap but that can be common moisture from not letting the engine heat enough. I do make short trips sometimes. There is no white residue in the oil/ dip stick that I can tell. The coolant level is at the top but it is a reddish color. It has been a year since I have flushed it but still dont think it should be reddish. Correct me if I am wrong please. It has lost 1-2 miles in miles per gallon in regular driving. I am burning about 2 quarts of oil every 3000 miles along with everything else. Engine sounds good. No hickups. A little throaty sometimes. It idles well accelerates ok, but think it has gotten a tad bit sluggish. I am about to pull the plugs and replace as its at 30k for this and also start thinking about a 30k maintanence all around. When I pull what am I looking for? Overall, what should I be looking for?

Could use some serious advice here. I am worried its a head gasket issue. Though there is no water in the oil, not overheating, and oil pressure is always good. Is it valve seals as I know these symptoms are similar. Or, can blow back be SO bad that you lose THAT much oil and gas due to bad firing of cylinders??? I am a single father, college student who does as much work as I can on my vehicle but dont know if I can afford the worst. Thanks for the help.....truly. Everyone here has always helped me a ton.

 

Well if your antifreeze was green when it was flushed and is now red you are more than likely getting tranny fluid into it from a bad radiator. Some one with more experience with 4.7l's will chime in on the oil consumption.

 

You're definitely burning through more oil than I ever have, and I'm running an 03 4.7L. I don't know what brand but factory for 01-03 was Pennzoil, which I've always used and I only burn about a quart and a half every 5,000 miles, at 104,000 now.

I'm not an expert on engines or anything but it seems to me like you're burning a bit much.

 

Sounds like your valve guides have seen better days to me.2 Qt's of oil per 3000 miles is a bit stiff. There could be other things like blown intak manifold or other, but something tells me you are in need of a rebuild.

Have you done oil changes every 3K-5K in it's life and others?

Have you had a shop take a look at it, or do hydrocarbon testing on the coolant?

 

No Hydrashocker, I have not had a shop look at it yet as I am a bit short on cash to even may for some testing at the moment. May have to wait on that a bit. I changed the plugs out a couple days ago and the only one that had an issue was the rear plug driver side. It had a bunch of carbon build up around the coil tube and the top portion of he spark plug. Smelled like fuel as well. the actual copper portion was just a bit yellow and brown. The others were worn as per 30k and seemed fine. It seems a bit more peppy when I step on the gas, but still blowing bluish smoke and the mpg does not seemed to have been helped with new spark plugs. Will know here shortly when I fill up. This vehicle was rode a bit hard I think when I purchased it at 103K miles, but I saw that all she needed was some love. Which I gave...and now I dont think I can afford the love needed for a rebuild. Thats rather pricy isnt it? Someone told me once that it could be the rings which is something I expected as well as valve seals. He mentioned pouring a bit of ATF in each spark plug hole then cranking it a few times and letting it sit. Then put them back in and starting it up. The idea being that the ATF would loosen up some carbon on the rings and help them expand once again. Is this a serious idea? He didn't smile when he told me lol. I have heard of ATF right before an oil change to deal with this. Is it a myth?

 

That is an old school trick, however back then you unhooked the coil and cranked it over and poured just a little ATF in each cylinder. To do this you would have to remove the plugs in these engines.

Anyway, yes ATF is a great cleaner, and if something is stuck in the rings it would help to lossen it, however some would end up in the oil. Also something that might happen is that you remove all the deposits on the rings that is actually helping keep compression and oil out of the combustion chamber. So this could actyally help the engine burn more oil if it is fact a bad ring or rings. It would slightly help the piston face and valves, yet it might not.

If it isn't broke then don't fix it, however if it is broke all your going to loose is what is already gone. It's like a catch 22, you just don't know what your going to get.


Back in the old days people would also take their truck out to the desert and gently pour ATF into the intake with the RPM's rev'ed to about 2200-2500 RPM and gently, and I mean gently drizzle ATF into the carb. When you do this it burns/combusted and gets REALLY HOT and burns and cleans what was in the motor, but it smoked like hell and people blew motors as well because they got it too hot. But for the people that did it right, well they lived by the old back yard mechanic trick.

 

So I after swapping all the spark plugs I had a computer code of 0304 and then 0132 later on. The engine vibration was very bad with the miss firing cylinder from # 4 as the engine code says. Since it was a brand new plug I decided it was the coil pack. The new coil pack had a slightly longer wireconnection piece than the original one I pulled off. Took more effort to push it on. So I started it up and it ran fine for a about 5 minutes then the second P0132 1/1 O2S Shorted To Voltage code showed up. So I took it down the street to ensure the misfire cylinder was indeed gone and the 0132 stopped when I got back. I reset the engine codes. About a day later the same engine codes 0304 misfire cylinder #4 and the 0132 are back. Are they related somehow? Is there a chance that the coil pack is faulty? I got it from autozone. It's a 4.7L V8. Is there a conncection problem due to the newer longer wirefixture on the coil pack I purchased? Its not vibrating as bad this time. The first go around I thought my engine was going to come apart. Now its frequent missing with half the vibration. So I thought it was another cylinder missfiring so I bought another coil pack that I was going to change out. Now that the #4 is acting up again, I have to use the new one on that. Any ideas why it would be acting up like this??? Any help is much appreciated.