'88 Caprice: valve stem seals

[brentalan]

My '88 Caprice (305) burns oil (a quart every 1000 miles), particularly on startup I get that puff of blue smoke meaning valve stem seals. Short of fixing the seals, which could get into a bit of money, (not something I want to take on myself) what would you do?

Currently I'm still using up the free Valvoline 5W-30 green bottles from a few years ago, but I clearly need to switch to something else. The owner's manual recommends 5W-30, so do I just go to a high mileage flavor 5W-30? 10W-30? 20W-50?

What say you?

 

[Ramblejam]

That's a fine oil, but not a great choice for your situation; go to a higher-viscosity, high mileage oil. MaxLife 10w-40 is $16.97 at Walmart.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Valvoline-MaxLife-10W-40-Synthetic-Blend-Motor-Oil-5-qt./15125759

 

[Need4racin]

try a quart of mercon mixed in your oil capacity. Maybe high mileage version would help even more. Mercon always stops ticks for me.

 

[Ramblejam]

DO NOT put ATF in your engine.

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted By: Need4racin
try a quart of mercon mixed in your oil capacity. Maybe high mileage version would help even more. Mercon always stops ticks for me.


Wow!

OP just use a HM oil. QS Defy is working well for my Son's Challenger which consumed a bit of oil. This may help with the consumption if not save for a rebuild which is coming sooner or later.

 

[Falcon_LS]

Liqui-Moly Motor Oil Saver with whatever motor oil you use - one can is good for 5 quarts. It's an ester-based additive that rejuvenates compatible seals.

 

[Garak]

Back in the day, I would have asked to buy it from you and run it as a taxi, given its low oil consumption in comparison to some of its brethren.

A HM oil might be worth a try. Of course, one always has to watch what one is spending. How long are your OCIs? Figure that into what you're dumping into the crankcase.

 

[Astro14]

Valve stem seals on a SBC aren't bad at all...but if you don't want to change them, then a HM oil.

Honestly, a quart every 1,000 miles isn't that bad...and oil is still pretty cheap.

 

[skyactiv]

If you already had the tools, this is a $30 repair. I doubt any oil or additive will make a difference. The O rings have shrunk and are brittle which a high mileage oil cant help, the old umbrella seals have an enlarged opening that are probably wallered out. High mileage oil isn't very effective at helping valve stem seals on old OHV Chevy small block engines.

 

[FCD]

It's absolutely worth doing.
After changing the valve stem seals on my Capri it almost burns no oil now, and on a pushord engine it isn't hard to do.
When i took the old seals off they were extremely hard, pretty much like hard plastic, so no wonder it burned a lot of oil even on 20W-50.

 

[brentalan]

Thanks for all of the advice, folks. I think I will take it by my local shop and see what they quote me.

I'm doing a 7500 mile OCI since I put 7 quarts in by that time. I used to do 5000 miles before it consumed so much.

 

[Blinker]

Currently in my family's extended stable we have 4 1989 305 Caprice vehicles (first year for fuel injection). They all have or had the valve stem seal problem. One was so bad it would smoke on acceleration from sitting at a signal light for just one minute and it would leave a long trail of blue smoke. We had the valve stem seals replaced in that engine and the problem went away. That was at about 170,000 miles and the car now has 260,000 with no more issues. It didn't burned a quart every 1,000 miles. With the valve seal problem it burned about a quart every 3,000 miles and trust me, it had one of the worst valve guide problems we've seen.

The other three aren't too bad, they smoke on startup but they have for years and it isn't getting worse.

In my experience with that engine, a quart every 1,000 miles might mean more than just a valve guide seal problem.

 

[brentalan]

OK, thanks folks.

Consensus is take it in for the VGS, move to a 10W-40 HM like MaxLife and cross fingers.

 

[Red91]

Brentalan, just something to consider, and hasn't been mentioned, but small block Chevy's have two oil return galleys per head, a front and rear. I've seen as little as one and as many as all four clogged, and this causes the oil to take the path of least resistance, which is through the valve stem seals. It would be worth your time to pull the valve covers and see if those galleys are clogged.

If so, a coat hanger and some stout solvent should open them back up. Once that's done, change the oil with some Delo 15W-40 and run it 2-3K miles, and see if your consumption slows.

Generally speaking, a quart per thousand miles is a bit on the high side, but a quart every three thousand is normal.

This little experiment would be worth a shot. One way to know if you have this issue is to look at the rear most part of the exhaust manifold and see if its darker than the front, or even partially oily. Good indicator if it is that you have oil backing up in the heads.