90 Festiva, lots of smoke

[Dave G]

I just yesterday bought a 1990 Festiva. It's automatic, 127,000 miles. When I was looking at it I noted oil all over the engine compartment, but attributed it to a leaking valve cover because of silicone sealant all over the place (perhaps no gasket, though I). I drove it, seemed fine, noted that there was no smoke. Then I followed it in my car while the owner and I drove to transfer the title and deliver it to my house. We went probably 15 miles, city and highway driving - no smoke ever. Put it in the garage to look it over. First I noticed the PCV valve was not plugged into the valve cover - I plugged it in. Checked the oil - seemed to be dry. I added a quart, checked again - tip of stick was wet. Put in another quart, stick said it was full. Went for a drive - first couple blocks all was well, then all of a sudden I got mass quantities of white smoke from the exhaust while accelerating. Back to the garage. Thought maybe it's got the wrong dipstick in it & I've put in too much oil. So I drained it, and sure enough there was probably 8 or 9 quarts of oil in it. I refilled it with 3 1/2 quarts (per the "Owner Guide") and checked with the stick - it indicated it was just right! I don't know if I read it wrong the first time or what, but at any rate it's right now. However it still smokes like crazy, intermittently (not all the time). The smoke is white, but smells like burning oil... Maybe I've got both a blown head gasket AND oil getting in somehow.

Anyway, I've ordered a Haynes manual and expect to replace the head and valve cover gaskets and valve stem seals. Through all this the engine sounds great - no expensive noises at all.

Any additional things to look for and/or moral support would be appreciated :-). I really like the car (the body is perfect) and hope I can get it working properly without going broke.

[mechanicaldj]

i think you may have a sludge problem

sludge might have accumulated on top of your cylinder head blocking the oil return passages

so the oil fills up the top of the head and the PCV sucks it into the engine

try to look into the valve cover , after the engine has ran for a while, to see any puddling.

if it is the case, you will need to remove the valve cover and clean it out
then run a few engine cleaners through it, replacing the filter every time

[Dave G]

i think you may have a sludge problem

I think you're right, plus I seem to have spoken too soon. I've been running errands in it all afternoon and it's not been smoking. Perhaps the excess oil caused problems for a while, but time fixed it somehow? I'll pop off the valve cover and see what's up soon. I pulled all the spark plugs this morning and they were evenly oil fouled, so I no longer think the head gasket has a problem.

I love this car - it's like driving a go-cart :-).

[25Horseplay]

You should come to our Ohiostiva meet in 2 weeks. You can read about it in the North East US forum. We have a couple people coming from the Columbus area.

[Dave G]

You should come to our Ohiostiva meet in 2 weeks. You can read about it in the North East US forum. We have a couple people coming from the Columbus area.

Yeah - I noticed that! Couldn't figure out the location or date though (probably not looking hard enough). Wherever it is, I'll be there if the car seems up to it :-).

[25Horseplay]

Here is a link.

http://fordfestiva.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5864&sid=ba36f9017bb9c6ea989b05fa4ec98f92

[ajb999]

i just had the same problem with my 92 festiva. my passages are dirty and the same thing happened when i added oil. it said it needed at least a couple quarts but there was a lot of oil sitting on top of the cylinders so it actually didn't need any. it drove fine for a good distance but started smoking when revved up. time seemed to fix my problem too. i think it just burned the excess oil.