I got a 92 Mazda Protege DX about 2 years ago. I used it for my primary car, but it became my beater car after about 1 years use.
After putting some miles on the car, I noticed that it was smoking white. Yes, white, not blue. I assumed that the headgasket was bad, so I threw some pellets in the radiator and just ended up blocking the radiator.
It turns out that the whitish smoke was in actuality oil burning. (Yes, I know it's supposed to be blue when it burns oil, and now it burns blue).
Again, this is my beater car. I want it to run and get me to work until it croaks. I DON'T WANT TO SPEND ALOT OF MONEY and don't think that a used engine would be cost effective either.
BTW, I have failed to mention the symptoms:
Smokes in the morning for about 1 minute. HUGE BLUE CLOUDS ETC and stench of oil etc. Smokes so bad that I am sure the plugs are getting sprayed with oil during that time period to the degree where it misfires during that time.
I have been able to get rid of this by doing the following:
Using 20w-50 motor oil (Cheap stuff like supertech) and just replacing it as it burns off.
I have changed the oils every 3000 miles regardless as the car is really only burning about 1 quart of oil every 1000 miles.
At some point though, it started smoking again. I can't remember the sequence of events though.
I got drastic to try and get it to stop by doing the following:
2 quarts Lucas Stabilizer w/ 2 quarts Valvoline high mileage 20w50.
This cut down on the smoke, but it still smoked about 50% as bad.
Well then I lost my senses and got too greedy. I decided to get Walmart's cheap synthetic oil (Warren oil under the Supertech Badge)(since it was about the same price as a high mileage anyways).
When I put the synthetic in I developed a rear main seal leak. I am assuming that the high detergent action in the synthetic caused this. Then I got TONS of smoke in the morning.
I went back to the 2 quarts Lucas, and 2 quarts Valvoline High Mileage 20w 50 and the rear main seal stopped leaking, but the burning in the morning is really bad, AND I MEAN BADDDDD.
I have some "Restore" sitting in there, and it hasn't done a #@$%! thing.
I assume that the problem is bad valve stem seals (compression is OK).
I have a few ideas:
1) Get some cheap non-detergent oil, and run the car till it sludges back up.
2) Try some Castrol 20w 50 GTX high mileage.
3) Just keep adding cheap 20w 50 and neglect oil changes for longer durations....go 7.5k miles between changes to thicken the oil up etc. (I notice that it smokes even worse when adding quarts of "normal" cheap non-high mileage oil.
Just want to crutch it along and learn something.
Any suggestions?
Thank you!
Remember, I don't want to thrown much money into this car, but the gas mileage is unbelievable.
I got 42 mpg the other night in rural/city driving (2 stop lights on a 50 mile trip) with 3 people in the car....driving it like a granny. That was with the 2 quarts lucas and 2 quarts 20w 50!!!!!!