1997 Suzuki Carry Smoking, Using Oil

[silverado0_2]

I need some help figuring out what I need to do to stop my 1997 carry from smoking. I am running 5w30 oil and have owned it for a year. It has smoked since I got it. It only has 33,000 kilometers on it. It primarily does it if it idles for a short time and will disappear while under higher rpm. It is a white smoke. I am having to add 1/2 quart or more every fillup now. It runs excellent and seems to use more oil when driving it at higher speeds and rpm than at lower. It never sputters or anything. I have read on here about the guides being messed up during shipment as they are tilted up during the importing process. Can someone tell me what would be the most likely thing to check and how to go about doing it. Thanks

[GoFaster]

There are only two places that oil can come from to get burned in the engine: Valve stem seals, or piston rings. A third path is the crankcase breather, but that's normally only an issue if either the oil is overfilled (doesn't appear to be your situation) or the piston rings are leaking a lot of compression.

Holding an engine at a wrong angle can *temporarily* make oil get into places it shouldn't be, but it won't make your piston rings or valve stems leak. Normally, if that's the case, it'll smoke on initial start-up then clear up and be gone for good (although you might have to change the spark plugs!).

The first thing to do, is to make sure the crankcase venting system is not blocked.

The next thing to do, is take out the spark plugs and have a good look at them. If one cylinder is oily, that's the problem cylinder.

A compression test (and ideally a leak-down test) can tell the tale, if the piston rings are worn.

You could try one of the various snake-oil treatments to "fix" oil-burning, but ultimately the correct fix is to take the engine apart and fix the real problem. If you have a leaking intake valve stem seal, that intake valve will be oily (and you *might* be able to see it through the intake port before taking the engine apart but this depends on the shape of the ports). Leaking exhaust valve stem seal won't dirty the spark plug and won't have any effect on how the engine runs, other than the smoke.

[DRW]

Does your truck have the correct air filter in it? If it does not have an OEM style filter chances are you have "dusted" your engine and the rings are shot. I know this won't fix your problem, but it might save your repaired engine.

[TRAX and HORNS]

I agree with the statement of pulling plugs and reading them. If they look the same put a new set in, run the truck hard 5 miles and read those, should find a least 1 or all 3 cyl. loading up. Next run a compression test on each cyl. If its burning that much oil you will find the problem.

[tcubed]

Interesting... I have a Sambar KS-4 that has is burning oil bad. I changed the oil to a synthetic, and in the process overfilled. I drained back down after I cranked her and noticed her smoking (a few minutes of run time). It never stop smoking. I figured that the sythetic oil ate up the valve stem seals and was going to do a head job. I changed the airfilter at the same time, but it appears to be working fine. Used a NAPA filter that was just off size, require a slight trim to the edge seal, but it seals fine (there was about 1 1/2 inch of seal area and I trimmed an 1/8". Do you know where the crackcase ventilator in on a sambar? Could it have been flooded in the overfill and now plugged causingoil burn? The plugs get wet, black fouled in no time.

[fupabox]

I think 1 of the biggest causes of oil burning hasn't been mentioned...oil too thin..5/30 would be fine with average daily temperatures well below zero. I have seen many vehicles that burn oil fixed by just upping the viscosity to where it should be ,and wouldn't dream of running anything less than 15/40-20/50 in the dead of summer...most manufacturers if you check the recomendations in your manual will verify this..(brand new cars with tight tolerances and synthetics are the exception)

[o8k]

Interesting... I have a Sambar KS-4 that has is burning oil bad. I changed the oil to a synthetic, and in the process overfilled. I drained back down after I cranked her and noticed her smoking (a few minutes of run time). It never stop smoking. I figured that the sythetic oil ate up the valve stem seals and was going to do a head job. I changed the airfilter at the same time, but it appears to be working fine. Used a NAPA filter that was just off size, require a slight trim to the edge seal, but it seals fine (there was about 1 1/2 inch of seal area and I trimmed an 1/8". Do you know where the crackcase ventilator in on a sambar? Could it have been flooded in the overfill and now plugged causingoil burn? The plugs get wet, black fouled in no time.

Dont know where the CCV is on a sambar, may want to post that question in the sambar area. Good thing to look at if you overfill.... as for the rest of your story...

Why would you put in expensive synthetic if you already knew you were burning oil? Or did you mean that it didnt start smoking till after your botched oil change?


Also, did you try any of the other things suggested in the previous posts? Compression ect? results?

EDIT: Sorry about that (made changes in blue) in order to be more specific

[TRAX and HORNS]

My two cent on syn. oil. I love it. Break a new engine in on conventional oil and swap to syn. oil. You got a engine that will run along time.
But buy a used vehicle with med. to high mileage, change to syn. oil and that engine will start using oil and could start leaking oil as well.
When changing to a syn. oil on a older engine its like steaming clean the inside of motor. The syn. oil will wash out all the solids that have built up to keep the seals from leaking after they get older.. As we all know the seals seal when new Over time the seals fill up with bits of all the metals that are in a engine(aluminum,iron,copper,lead,tin,nickel,silico n zinc ect). All these micro particles help the seals seal. Add syn. oil and you just washed all of it out. On these trucks I will change to syn. if the trucks has low miles, say 20k or less. Over 20k and I'll stay with conventional oil.
When I first got in the mini truck business I was changing all my trucks to syn. oil. I notice several trucks start leaking a little bit oil after the change.
Like fupabox suggested, go to a heavier wt. oil. Wont stop the it but might slow it down a little.

[tcubed]

O8K, it did not burn oil prior to the Syn and over fill. Compression looks good. 152 PSI in all cylinders. I am crawing all over that thing looking for the CCV....

[o8k]

O8K, it did not burn oil prior to the Syn and over fill. Compression looks good. 152 PSI in all cylinders. I am crawling all over that thing looking for the CCV....

roger dodger that makes more sense

wonder if a little sea foam in the crank case would help? (I've only used it in the intake b4 but the directions say its good for crank case too) So it may help cough up the rest of the boogers?