We (Toyota Dealer) had a bunch of problems with oil loss on Highlanders through the PCV. In that case, a redesign of the valve cover was necessary, but yes you can burn a sh_tload of oil through the PCV.

 

I'd do the old piece o' paper in front of the tail pipe test (help you better determine if it is blowing by, and not just leaking slowly and getting burnt off), then pay the what, $5 for an oil analysis. At lease I think it's $5, I get it done for free at work...

You'd be surprised how much oil you can loose without ever seeing a drop on the driveway. My 12v cummins used to burn a gallon of oil every 800-1000miles before we rebuilt it. And I never saw a single drop of oil on the driveway. Wasn't blowing by or anything. Turned out I had a teeny tiny tear in the hg near #6, and the oil would leak down to the top of the tranny, down the top of the tcase, down to the driveshaft where it would be spun off at higher speeds.

But anyways, if you find out it's not just blowing by, you can also use the ol' baby/athletes-foot powder trick to find em elusive oil leaks. First just drive to the car wash and use their engine clean spray to clean up all the old oil and dirt and grime. Then coat everything with the powder. Start it up, let it run for a few, cut it off and let it sit. The oil leak will leave an obvious trail through the powder.

 

also, its not uncommon for a machine shop to overlook the obvious, like valve stem seals. I know, it sounds ty but possible. But start cheap and go with pvc for now, only thing is its going to take a while to drive enough mile to notice if it gets better, so be patient. And the over flow suckin down could easily be an air pocket in the system, just fill again and check it every day for level.

 

any update on gettin it figured out?

 

today I picked up the grommet from my local dealer. It is raining today so hopefully tomorrow I can try and wrestle the think out of there.

 

don't worry about the old one- use a knife and slice up one side and it should pop out with some pliers. lay a rag down on the valve cover under the pliers and pry up

 

Well, got the PCV changed out last weekend. Problem continues.

Here's an interesting fact, - I was lugging around a 16 ft tandem axle trailer for the past 2 days (moving) and at highway speeds, over moutains in temps between 85-90. Now I wasn't beating on the truck, but I was maintaining speeds of about 60mph on the interstate while gearing down to 4th gear to try to maintain speed on the hills.

That being said, I ran the A/C the entire time and the truck never missed a beat. There was no residue/oil located on the trailer or my belongings. When I was re-attaching the trailer to the truck in my driveway I left the engine idling for about 3 or 4 minutes. Shut it off. Started it and boom, big black oily spray pattern out the exhaust and onto the driveway. Thus I found the issue exists.

 

So, instead of starting a new thread I'll just add to this one. A bit over a year has passed now and the problem has stayed about the same. I took the truck off-road this past weekend for the first time in forever (see trail trips photos forum) and had a great time. However, due to the low speed low range crawling I also was able to visually see the oil loss (in the form of blue smoke exiting my tail pipe). It seemed rather random when it would occur, but it seemed quite significant as well. I checked the oil level to make sure everything was okay, and it checked out fine, I wasn't losing any more than "normal". Interesting to note that I specifically noticed oil coming out of the tail pipe when I was using engine compression to maintain my speed going down a steep slope in 4wd low. Anyone have any ideas as to where I should start looking? Not sure if this is relevant, but when I start the truck up cold, I do not see oil burning. Although the black "blowout" problem described from earlier in the thread persists.

Allegedly the shop that did the work on my head did a complete valve job, replaced the valve seals, & guides & stress checked for any hairline cracks. Based on the conditions I described above however, I'm having a hard time knowing where to even start...

I have all but concluded I'm not losing coolant anymore, as I haven't had to add any since I changed the alternator this past spring.

 

I do remember hearing something about oil pass through the rings and check if you have this problem. Is by opening your oil cap and start your engine or just crank it ( I forgot if it need to be started, but you can try both ) and if you hear a swissssssssss sound than your rings are bad. So don't count on this much but it may sound a bit to help you so I really forgot where I find this source at... There is another way to tell if your valve seal are bad is either from the tail pipe by cranking it or start it. If someone know where this source is from, hope they will chime in on this...

 

Try pressure testing the engine.cylinder at tdc fill with air pressure rings leaking air out of the dipstick,exh valve out the exh and intake out the intake.more time consuming than comp test but more precise.

 

You have great compression in a rebuilt motor, so I would rule out the rings although a leak down test would provide more certainty. I presume that you have checked/replaced everything that might introduce excessive oil into the intake via the crankcase PCV system. You had a shop do the heads and your symptom is high oil consumption when operating the motor at very high manifold vacuum (engine braking). In my experience, given the rest of your data, this is indicating a problem in the intake valve guides, and I presume that you did not go through and double check all of the valve work that the shop did.

If I had your symptoms and compression figures, I would be inspecting the valve guide situation without pulling the head. You do it one valve at a time using a special valve spring compressor designed to remove the retainer while on the motor. KD tool number 2078 is one such tool. You pop the top of the retainer with a socket before you use the tool to unstick the retainer from the keepers. You can use air pressure in the cylinder to keep the valve closed while removing the retainer and spring.

If the stem seal is not there it will be obvious with the spring off. You can then release the air pressure while holding onto the valve stem and check for excessive play in the guide. If there is no seal you can install it and see how it goes. If your guides have lots of play, you need a real valve job that really replaces the guides.

Eugene

 

Great input, thanks Eugene. No I did not I spect the head, I am honestly not qualified to do that. However the shop I had rebuild the head did say they replaced the guides and I took (and paid) them at their word.

 

Quick question- I do have a leakdown tester. What will the symptoms of bad valve guides be coated to bad valve seals?

 

I have about the same oil blow by problems out of my 22re. Crappy thing is it runs really great. I am sure that it has been that way since long before I bought it. Truck had a big hole in the muffler, and that let the oil blow by into the cab. I had to spend several days scrubbing and shampooing oil out of the interior. I have the same compression figures, and picked up a leak down tester, I dont remember the results of the leak down but they were well withing specs and did not have air coming out of places you expect if you had a problem, i.e. intake, exhaust and such. I have narrowed it down to valve seals. if this was a non-overhead cam engine, would not be a big deal. Just fill the cylender with air, remove rocker and vavle spring, and replace the seal. However on the 22re the bolts that hold the rockers down also hold the head in place. If you remove them and fill the cylender with air to hold the valve up, you stand a good chance of moving the head and ruining the head gasket. I have 180K on the truck now, so as much money/time as goes into removing the head to fix the seals, I figure I might as well just try to get some more time out it and save for the rebuild. I would bet the shop did not put your valve seals in right.

 

Kyle,

I'll have to go back over your threads and remind myself of what all you did in your rebuild. Just remember........good compression doesn't mean good oil retention in the rings.

Later

 

When you rebuilt the bottom end, did you have the cylinders bored or just honed? Was the ring end gap all good? I hate to think those guys at Paul's botched the head work. But, could've happened.

 

Paul's redid the entire bottom end and top end. All new bearings.. maybe even new rods. The pistons are .020 over. Valve job, new seals on them, and all new valve guides...

 

Dang............sum'pins screwed up, then. You shouldn't be burning oil. Did you call them, yet?

 

I suspect you're right, Nostradamus. No, I haven't called them.

 

I've bet Chuck Norris fries his omlets in 10w30.