92 Legend - Blue smoke and only runs on 5 cylinders

1028 Views 6 Replies 2 Participants Last post by BIGBOY, Oct 9, 2012

Elzzie

Discussion Starter · Oct 6, 2012

I'm trying to figure out the most likely cause of my problem.. My lets off blue smoke all the time. When I start it, at idle and especially when I stop at a red light. On top of that it is only firing on 5 cylinders and it dies when I come to a stop or am going under 5mph.

I have been told it could be the head gasket, valve stem seals or piston rings. I don't know. I recently bought new valve seals (because they are so cheap) but I have yet to put them in. I also bought a new head gasket, which I haven't put in yet either. Mainly because I'm not convinced that the head gasket is the problem.

I am not losing any coolant at all. There is no coolant in the oil, although if I drive it very much in a day I will have to put a quart of oil in it every other day.

As I was pulling the valve cover off on the drivers side tonight (which is the side the dead cylinder is on) I noticed the famous "black goo" running down the front of the engine from the camshaft position sensor. I pulled the sensor and did an ohm test on it. Which is only reading around 650 ohms. Could this be causing the problems with the car misfiring and dying at low rpm's?

Lastly, how do I determine the cause of the burning oil? I don't want to tear the head off if I don't have to..

I really need help with this, as there aren't very many resources available through the search engines I've tried and you guys are the smartest I've found yet.

Thanks!

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BIGBOY

· #2 · Oct 6, 2012

Welcome to the forum, you definitely have bad valve stem seals. (bluish smoke)
The problem with stalling is most likely due to not running on all six cylinders.
I would start by checking all the coil packs with the car running remove the connector to the coils one at a time. If there is no change in the way the car is running you found the bad coil. It could also be oil on the spark plugs. (check both and report back).

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Elzzie

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 8, 2012

I've actually done this and determined that the #5 piston wasn't firing. I bought a new coil pack and replaced it, along with all new spark plugs. The problem persisted. I have recently torn the top part of the motor down and removed the cam position sensor. I did an ohm test on it and it was only reading about 500ohms of resistance. so I replaced it and put everything back together. I didn't replace my timing belt, like a dumbass and as a result when I started the car it jumped time.. so now I have to tear the front of the motor back down and put a new timing belt on it.

I will let you know if this has fixed my issues with the #5 cylinder.

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Elzzie

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 8, 2012

I would also like to note that the #2 and #3 spark plugs were covered from top to bottom in oil when I removed them.. So I'm sure that is where the smoke is coming from. However, as I was taking the intake hoses off I noticed a LOT of oil going into the intake manifold. Could this be a bad pcv valve? Or am I getting excessive blow-by due to the intake valve stem seals being bad?

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BIGBOY

· #5 · Oct 8, 2012

The oil soaking the plugs is due to bad spark plug tube seals. (They came with the valve cover gasket set so be wise to do both at once.

The oil in the intake manifold is caused by not changing the PCV valve. (Should be changed once a yr.) This build up is what causes the EGR valve and pipe to clog, eventually leading to BHG. Clean the intake manifold, EGR valve and the pipe that goes to it while your at it.

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Elzzie

Discussion Starter · #6 · Oct 9, 2012

Isn't it kinda pointless to buy a new PCV valve? It's basically just a plastic check valve. In my experience you can just clean the PCV valve and put it back in. Anyways.. I am having quite a bit of trouble getting it back in time now. I'm pretty sure that when you line the timing marks up on the cams and the crank that you have to make sure that the tdc is on the compression stroke when you line the cams up. Is that right? Other than that everything should be good. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

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BIGBOY

· #7 · Oct 9, 2012

They only cost around 5 bucks and they do fail over time.

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