Whoops... Ran my Festy with too much oil...

[blkfordsedan]

He said "about a quart" overfill.

LOL.....yeah, I guess I should have read it a little closer. I can't really see 1 extra quart hurting anything.....the pans on these engines are fairly large. Im pretty sure I've overfilled mine by a quart before. In order to address sucking the pan dry during sustained high RPM operation on the 4.6L Modular engines, Ford actually switched the recommended fill from 5 to 6 quarts without changing anything but the dipstick. Many guys even run 7 or 8 quarts....which is 3 more than the pan was originally designed for. I realize its a different engine, but just 1 quart will not effect the level in the pan by hardly anything.

[Flw Sock]

You said it started smoking less when you ran it for 15 minutes. I would let it run for an hour or so and check it then. Driving it that little bit shouldn't really mess anything up.

[93L]

geeze..have you wiped all the oil out of the air filter and plastic tubes yet?

I haven't seen any oil in any tubes... Disassembled the intake and associated tubing and it was all dry.

bingo

Just tried this and it ran the same with the o2 sensor removed, just much louder lol.

You said it started smoking less when you ran it for 15 minutes. I would let it run for an hour or so and check it then. Driving it that little bit shouldn't really mess anything up.

Got it idling right now, going to let it do so for a good while.

[93L]

Went ahead and bought the oem shop manual and Electrical Vacuum Troubleshooting Manual off amazon as well.

Can't wait to get to the bottom of this, I'm dreading the thought of paying for gas in my truck to drive to and from work :nightmare:

[blkfordsedan]

Buy a compression tester kit and do a compression test. That would be a good place to start. Does the white smoke smell like burning oil or does it have a sweet, pugnant smell?

[93L]

Buy a compression tester kit and do a compression test. That would be a good place to start. Does the white smoke smell like burning oil or does it have a sweet, pugnant smell?

It doesn't smell like burning oil to me, but not very sweet either. Definitely pugnant.

[93L]

Also I noticed when I step on the gas the white smoke is MUCH more prevalent.

[Movin]

You may have a ricer filter but you still have the VAF and what ever is between it and the throttle body. Oil when pushed from the valve cover into the intake fouls your plugs and the engine runs really doggy. When you have oil collected in the VAF and you drive the car it will sweep some of this oil into the intake and cause poor power. Also can make the vane sticky and cause poor running.

If the baffle inside the valve cover is carboned up it could be holding oil there and dripping some into the intake every now and then.

Flooding the valve cover area with oil may have caused some to go into the disty cap, check that as well.

[93L]

You may have a ricer filter but you still have the VAF and what ever is between it and the throttle body. Oil when pushed from the valve cover into the intake fouls your plugs and the engine runs really doggy. When you have oil collected in the VAF and you drive the car it will sweep some of this oil into the intake and cause poor power. Also can make the vane sticky and cause poor running.

If the baffle inside the valve cover is carboned up it could be holding oil there and dripping some into the intake every now and then.

Flooding the valve cover area with oil may have caused some to go into the disty cap, check that as well.

Thanks for the response. As a disclaimer, I am no mechanic. I have a basic 200 piece craftsman socket set, a floor jack and jack stands. I have only done very basic maintenance on vehicles in the past.

I have been lurking on this forum for a while drooling over all of the festy's and taking notes on what to watch out for etc. I finally bought my very own back in January and have LOVED it.

With regard to the VAF vane, where exactly is this and how would I go about cleaning it? Spark plugs? I replaced those just yesterday. I took the cap off the distributor and it was clean and dry in there.

I am reluctant to remove the valve cover, because I believe after doing so I will have to replace the valve cover gasket.

[blkfordsedan]

I think you have something else going on here....maybe a bad head gasket, broken ring or something. I really don't think having one extra quart of oil in the pan had anything to do with it. However, you might have some excessive blow-by that's forcing oil into the intake tract.
Start the engine and let it idle. While its idling, remove the oil fill cap and observe....and rev it up a few times. Is there white smoke or steam blowing out of the valve cover? Hold your hand over the hole to seal it tight for about 10 seconds and remove your hand. Is there a large build up of pressure in the valve cover?

[moz]

Its time for a compression test. That will either prove a head gasket, ring problem or cancel it out.
Buy a compression gauge or take it to you local mechanic to get it tested.

[93L]

I think you have something else going on here....maybe a bad head gasket, broken ring or something. I really don't think having one extra quart of oil in the pan had anything to do with it. However, you might have some excessive blow-by that's forcing oil into the intake tract.
Start the engine and let it idle. While its idling, remove the oil fill cap and observe....and rev it up a few times. Is there white smoke or steam blowing out of the valve cover? Hold your hand over the hole to seal it tight for about 10 seconds and remove your hand. Is there a large build up of pressure in the valve cover?

Its time for a compression test. That will either prove a head gasket, ring problem or cancel it out.
Buy a compression gauge or take it to you local mechanic to get it tested.

Thanks guys, I will check the compression tomorrow.

[Movin]

The VAF is the part that has a electrical plug in. It is in the tube between your throttle body and your air filter. This same tube goes over the top of the valve cover.

The inside of this tube and the throttle body should be clean and dry inside. No sign of oil having been there.

[93L]

Update:

I finally have a day off of work!

My '93 Festiva manual came in. I went down to Vatozone and rented a compression gauge and got to work testing.

NOW, the #1 cylinder showed 210 on the gauge. I went to move over to #2 and the damn tube wont unscrew, it just circles the plug adapter piece and wont back out. Anyone have any idea of how to get this thing out without ripping off the rubber tube?

TIA

93L

[Movin]

Chinese rubber...It has a crimp clamp holding the hose onto the nipple in the adapter.
Use some vice grips or? to squeeze the crimp and turn. The crimp is not tight enough anymore and squeezing it should be just enough to back out.

The adapter should have a oring to make the seal ( it does not need to be very tight at all to seal ) and this oring can be slicked up or softened up by a little hot oil poured down in there.