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  #1  
Old 12-03-2002, 10:43 AM
billisa
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Tiny waft of blue smoke...

Generally speaking, my car uses/loses about a 1/3 of a quart between 3k changes. Now on cold start-up, I notice a tiny puff of blue smoke that disappears in a half second. In other words, after a half-second the exhaust is invisible. I assume some oil leaks overnight past the rings? Or what? At 158,000 miles I'm thrilled with my oil consumption, but just wanted to run this by you all.
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  #2  
Old 12-03-2002, 11:55 AM
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I'm not sure on a boxer engine, but on most upright engines that is a sign of valve guide seals going bad. When the engiine is off, the oil in the valve train leaks past the worn valve stem seals and accumulates in the combustion chamber. When you fire it up it burns off it a hurry and is not seen until the next time you fire it up after sitting for a while.

Over all. 1/3 of a quart being used over 3000 miles on an engine with those miles isn't so bad. I'm kind of impressed by that
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Old 12-03-2002, 12:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by CigarJohnny
I'm not sure on a boxer engine, but on most upright engines that is a sign of valve guide seals going bad. When the engiine is off, the oil in the valve train leaks past the worn valve stem seals and accumulates in the combustion chamber. When you fire it up it burns off it a hurry and is not seen until the next time you fire it up after sitting for a while.

Over all. 1/3 of a quart being used over 3000 miles on an engine with those miles isn't so bad. I'm kind of impressed by that
Me too. My car leaks about a quart every 2500 miles, as opposed to our F150 (needs a new rear seal) that leaks a quart every 400 miles. The SVX has 224,000 and the F150 has 160,000 miles on it.

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Old 12-05-2002, 03:30 PM
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Re: Tiny waft of blue smoke...

Quote:
Originally posted by billisa
Generally speaking, my car uses/loses about a 1/3 of a quart between 3k changes. Now on cold start-up, I notice a tiny puff of blue smoke that disappears in a half second. In other words, after a half-second the exhaust is invisible. I assume some oil leaks overnight past the rings? Or what? At 158,000 miles I'm thrilled with my oil consumption, but just wanted to run this by you all.
Have you smelled that smoke? It may not be oil. I know that when I drove my SVX in the winter, it blew a tiny bit of blue smoke when I started it. I ran around back and, taking one for the SVX, I took a big whiff. It was gas. It's been a couple of years, a move halfway across the country and a board change since then, but I seem to remember this being described to me as normal. Something about the startup process combined with the air being colder (and therefore more dense) than the car expects, so it compensates with a lot of fuel.

My car, incidentally, doesn't lose oil.
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Old 12-05-2002, 05:29 PM
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Generally:

Blue = oil
Black = gas
White = coolant (steam)

Have you checked to see if there's too much oil in the engine? You might also check the dipstick the next time you change the oil. Six quarts will bring it just below the full mark. Excess oil can find its way into the cylinders while parked if it's overfull or parked across a steep bank.
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Old 12-05-2002, 07:07 PM
billisa
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Thanks

I'll check the level -- I do in fact think my mechanic may have slightly overfilled the crankcase (1/5 quart). But as I say, at 158,000 miles and really never needing to add, I'm very happy. It's by far the least oil consuming subaru I've owned.
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