G'day Fordmodders, got an issue with my engine...

- Engine is a 4.0L I6, EBII, done 325,000km
- Is using a bit of oil lately, not heaps, but more than usual
as the car usually does not need a top up between 5000km changes
- Cant see any signs of drips, etc, so I figure its burning oil
- Exhaust is a bit smoky on hard revs, dark in colour, black-ish
- After a 30km hwy drive, I take the oil cap off and its a bit
smoky out of there.....
- Car has recently been serviced and tuned (Jan '07)

Any suggestions on the diagnosis and $$ to fix...??
Many thanks.

aww poor valve stems!

add oil - keep driving!

If the oil cap is smokey then you have either Blow-by or you are using the wrong/poor quality oil and it is burning due to heat build up. 325k on the original motor is pretty good. I would do a compression check. Anything below 144psi is Ford's recommended rebuild time. Any variance of 10% is rebuild time.

If you get smoke on heavy acceleration, it is usually rings, if it is on acceleration after idle, on startup or after hard acceleration then that is normally valve stem seals.

A sudden increase in oil usage could mean stuck ring/s. If you have used the wrong/poor oil, burnt oil/carbon could have caused an oil control ring to get stuck resulting in oil usage, but good compression. Put in a good oil cleaner, then use good quality or a synthetic oil to help clean it up.

cheers
Scott

Thanks for the tips there Scott.
I've added 300ml of Nulon Worn Engine Treatment to the oil
and it seems to have reduced the smoke, from both the rocker
and the exhaust......

Ill see how it goes and have a chat to my
mechanic at the next service in about a month.

Cheers.

Its usually not a good idea to use a full synthetic in an engine with a lot of K's on it.

I was advised to use Valvoline Maxlife in my xf by my local mech's... (its done over 400,000 kms) Aparently it just helps everything out a bit. But then i dont know much about oils, but i figure at 400K engine needs all the help it can get.

I've got no idea what sort of oil goes into my car
when it gets serviced......guess I'll ask next time.

It does, however, get new oil every 5000km, so I figure
that probably treats the motor well for an old thing..