Car smoking from several areas?

Question

My car an 89 Pontiac Sunbird Le, fuel injected, sohc, automatic, 2.0 4cyl. When I start my car up it smokes out the tail pipe, then after driving a few blocks and back, it smokes out of the dipstick tube, the opening where you pour the oil into, also the PCV hose going into the air filter area. (I changed the PCV valve). The spark plugs keep fouling out as #2 plug keeps getting covered in oil. It does look like the Valve cover gasket needs replacing, the bolts are very loose and it is seeping small amounts of oil. could this cause it to lose compression or something and suck it out the tailpipe? I know the car may be as good as junk but I would like to know what happened to it. I kept the fluids topped all the time.. Thanks... Lisa

Answer 1

Does it smoke from the tail pipe all the time or just right after you start it? What color is the smoke? If it's blue smoke just at start up, that's a sure sign of worn valve guides and/or seals. Worn guides and seals allow the engine oil to seep past the valve stems and into the combustion chambers when the engine is not running. Then, when you start the engine, the oil is burned along with the fuel resulting in the smoke. If they are leaking bad enough, the plugs will foul quickly. That's an easy fix if the car is in otherwise good shape. If it's blue smoke all the time, Your rings are shot. But, then you would have lower compression readings. If it's white or gray smoke, Then you're in big trouble. That means water is getting in and could be anything from a bad head gasket to a cracked block.

Those compression readings are not that bad. If you like the car and don't want to get rid of it. Take it to a shop and have them give you an estimate to fix it. It might not be as bad as you think.

A quick and easy way to check for a bad head gasket or cracked head is to Remove the radiator cap, then start the engine-don't rev it or coolant will spurt all over. as the engine comes up to temp and the coolant starts to flow, look for air bubbles in the coolant. A few bubbles are normal, but a lot of them is not.

Answer 2

Sounds like you just have a plain warn out engine. It probably has bad piston rings letting compression leak out of the cylinder back through the engine often referred to as blow by. And the smoke coming out of the tailpipe is oil smoke. Another possibility is that it just may have a blown head gasket.

Answer 3

If the #2 plug is fouling (covered with oil), it means that the rings are likely bad. This results in:

1. Loss of compression

2. Oil being burned during ignition (smoke out the tailpipe)

3. Hot gases from ignition leaking into lower block where the oil is which heats it up and would allow the hot gases including smoking, burnt oil to leak through the dipstick tube.

The loose bolts on the valve cover would allow oil to leak onto the engine block and burn off.

The engine sounds like it is in poor condition. It needs a "ring job" (and probably some other work). Rings will eventually fail, especially in cars with a lotof miles. Just keeping the "fluids topped off" will not prevent this type of wear. It will happen tomost engines eventually.

Answer 4

Not knowing the mileage it sure sounds like worn rings and bores.

Time to let the old Sunbird go to the Auto Retirement Home...