Oil wt- 1 cylinder bad valve seal- ring or guide

[clarkflower]

We have spoken about my good running butt ugly $700 base 97 1.8 Kia Sephia with 100k before.

It goes through a lot of oil.
The plug on cylinder #1 is always oil soaked. The others all look fine.
I've tried most everything. MMO-Seafoam M1 and have gone from a 10-30 to a 10-40 Maxlife that's in now without any visible luck.
The smog mech saw the plug and said valve guide (or seal)
I've given up on on a cure.

The car runs great(29-30 mpg)and I just passed smog so it looks like I may get another year out of it.

I am in So Calif.
Would anyone go up one more step to a 20-50. I searched for a manual with no luck. I think I found a chart online that showed 20-50 was OK from 32 to 110 degrees

Thanks

 

[Trav]

20w50 will be ok in you location. How much oil is it using?
Have you tried a real piston soak on that cyl?

Edit where is the PCV on this engine? Has it been changed?
A bad PCV can cause real problems. Check the oil return holes in the rear of the head.

 

[jfking106]

Uh, you have a major gasket leak of some type. No high mileage oil is going to plug that. Replace the gasket or seal.

 

[clarkflower]

Not a real soak.
MMO and Seafaom in the crankcase (at different times) for 15 hours each.

Changed a rattling PCV valve when I first noticed the leak. No change.
Changed plugs 99,000 miles when I got it and #1 cylinder only was horrible-oil soaked.
Changed plugs again prior to smog at 102,000 and again only #1 cylinder was soaked.
Smog guy looked at the plug and said valve guides (or seal)

 

[clarkflower]

Originally Posted By: jfking106
Uh, you have a major gasket leak of some type. No high mileage oil is going to plug that. Replace the gasket or seal.


What gasket would cause only cyl #1 to be oil soaked?

 

[clarkflower]

The useage.
On 1/1 prior to the smog I bought a gallon of 10-40 QS defy and changed the oil.

When I ran out I bought a gallon of Maxlife 10-40
Today I have 2 Qts left out of 10 and 4 in the car

I get a useage of 4 quarts in 3 months with moderate driving

 

[MrQuackers]

Is this possibly just a valve cover gasket issue?

 

[KrisZ]

If the plug is oil soaked form the electrode side then the oil makes its way into the combustion chamber. It could be valve guide seals or that cylinder has lost compression.
If the spark plug is soaked from the insulator side then this is a valve cover gasket problem.

 

[toneydoc]

Since you say the car runs good, I assume the plug is sitting in oil. I had a Kia with a similar problem and it turned out to be valve cover gasket. It would sit in a quarter to half inch of oil if not cleaned out.

 

[Falken]

+1 KrisZ

You can have that cylinder compression tested. Then repeat the test with a bit of motor oil in the cylinder if it failed to see if it passes. That will let you know for sure if the rings on that cylinder are toast.

To test for valve seals, let the car sit over night, and early in the morning at the very first startup see if a big puff of smoke comes out of the muffler (have someone start the car while you are at the back of the car watching).

Valve seals are little plastic looking caps that go around the valve stem. They have a small spring tightly choking it around the stem, so as they wear out the spring keeps the tolerance tight.

If it isn't the rings maybe a HM oil would help swell the valve seal, and if it is the rings thicker oil won't hurt.

Anyway, the problem isn't bad enough to worry. Hopefully it is the valve seal, which I would guess it is if you still get great fuel economy!! I don't see how poor compression on one cylinder can still return those numbers.

 

[bepperb]

Valve guide seals aren't usually that expensive or difficult on a traverse I4, though I have never done or known someone who has done them on a Kia. It's probably a four dollar part. See if you can have a mechanic fix this.

IMO there is no point to using thicker oils if this is the problem. It's not that much thicker that it won't flow through whatever path to the combustion chamber exists the same way a "thinner" oil would.

 

[TFB1]

Forget all the less than useful suggestions and toss the 20W-50 in it, it won't be a issue at temps above 40/50*...

If it get's bad enough to foul the spark plug, can go up a heat range or two in that cylinder...

 

[aquariuscsm]

Try a good cheap 20W50 (like Super Tech),or you could try Maxlife 20W50 if you want something that *might* help with the oil burn/leak.

 

[danthaman1980]

Originally Posted By: bepperb
...See if you can have a mechanic fix this...


We're talking about a $700 car with 100k miles that only goes through a quart of oil every 3 weeks. That doesn't sound that bad to me - as long as you're not fouling plugs on a weekly basis it really doesn't seem like a huge problem. As long as the problem doesn't get any worse, buy the cheapest xW-40 or xW-50 you can get your hands on and add a little each time you fill up with gas. Find a $2 spark plug that works well in you car, buy a dozen, and change plug #1 every time you change the oil.

Just paying a mechanic to pop the hood will cost you 2 years worth of make-up oil and spark plugs.

In 2 years, once the car fails smog, sell it to someone out of state for $700.

 

[clarkflower]

Originally Posted By: danthaman1980
Originally Posted By: bepperb
...See if you can have a mechanic fix this...


We're talking about a $700 car with 100k miles that only goes through a quart of oil every 3 weeks. That doesn't sound that bad to me - as long as you're not fouling plugs on a weekly basis it really doesn't seem like a huge problem. As long as the problem doesn't get any worse, buy the cheapest xW-40 or xW-50 you can get your hands on and add a little each time you fill up with gas. Find a $2 spark plug that works well in you car, buy a dozen, and change plug #1 every time you change the oil.

Just paying a mechanic to pop the hood will cost you 2 years worth of make-up oil and spark plugs.

In 2 years, once the car fails smog, sell it to someone out of state for $700.


It is the electrode side.
The smog guy is Master Mechanic and said valve guides.
He also said I would flunk smog in 2 years (at least without new cats)
I did go up about 1 heat range and into the cheap NGK Plat plugs for the smog. (plus wires-roter and cap) Passed the idle HC by only 2 points.
As I said I've given up on a fix and now just want to milk what I have left. To me the big question is 20-50 or 10-40

 

[donnyj08]

[/quote]As I said I've given up on a fix and now just want to milk what I have left. To me the big question is 20-50 or 10-40[/quote]



I don't think it will matter. id lean toward 10w40, but the 50wt would work. buy whatever is on sale.

 

[Gokhan]

Originally Posted By: clarkflower
We have spoken about my good running butt ugly $700 base 97 1.8 Kia Sephia with 100k before.

It goes through a lot of oil.
The plug on cylinder #1 is always oil soaked. The others all look fine.
I've tried most everything. MMO-Seafoam M1 and have gone from a 10-30 to a 10-40 Maxlife that's in now without any visible luck.
The smog mech saw the plug and said valve guide (or seal)
I've given up on on a cure.

The car runs great(29-30 mpg)and I just passed smog so it looks like I may get another year out of it.

I am in So Calif.
Would anyone go up one more step to a 20-50. I searched for a manual with no luck. I think I found a chart online that showed 20-50 was OK from 32 to 110 degrees

Thanks

Sounds like valve-stem oil seals. You won't see much change from 10W-40 to 20W-50, as the former is already pretty thick. I detailed how to replace the valve-stem oil seals in detail in a DIY thread here. However, the labor is rather involved and having it done at a shop would cost you quite a bit.

 

[clarkflower]

Originally Posted By: Gokhan
Originally Posted By: clarkflower
We have spoken about my good running butt ugly $700 base 97 1.8 Kia Sephia with 100k before.

It goes through a lot of oil.
The plug on cylinder #1 is always oil soaked. The others all look fine.
I've tried most everything. MMO-Seafoam M1 and have gone from a 10-30 to a 10-40 Maxlife that's in now without any visible luck.
The smog mech saw the plug and said valve guide (or seal)
I've given up on on a cure.

The car runs great(29-30 mpg)and I just passed smog so it looks like I may get another year out of it.

I am in So Calif.
Would anyone go up one more step to a 20-50. I searched for a manual with no luck. I think I found a chart online that showed 20-50 was OK from 32 to 110 degrees

Thanks

Sounds like valve-stem oil seals. You won't see much change from 10W-40 to 20W-50, as the former is already pretty thick. I detailed how to replace the valve-stem oil seals in detail in a DIY thread here. However, the labor is rather involved and having it done at a shop would cost you quite a bit.


That was a nice thread. I'm not sure I'm up for it though. What's a valve cover BTW...

I think adding and driving and changing the plugs is the key.
In the last 1.5 (years) I have only drove 6,000 miles.

Guess I was really wondering if anyone thought the 20-50 would help
I also think I read where someone said the oil pump on those was weak and a heavy oil could hurt it. I have no idea about that.

Thanks again to all

 

[Gokhan]

Originally Posted By: clarkflower
Guess I was really wondering if anyone thought the 20-50 would help
I also think I read where someone said the oil pump on those was weak and a heavy oil could hurt it. I have no idea about that.

Thanks again to all

The consumption is going to be slightly better than 10W-40 but not a lot. Perhaps it will go down from, say, 2 quarts to 1.5 quarts.

There is a pressure-relief valve in every oil pump that bypasses the oil after a certain, well-defined pressure; so, the engine won't blow up because of too much oil pressure. The oil pump will work harder because of more oil pressure resulting from higher oil viscosity but it shouldn't result in any problems in the short term, perhaps only in the really long term.