car350z Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 My good old JDM has now done about 100,000 miles. I recently noticed the following: I was driving on the Motorway, doing about 80mp/h (flowing with the traffic). I left the motorway via the slip road. At the end of this slip road is a traffic light which is usually red, so I have to stop. As I often do with my Tiptronic, I manually shift down to use the "engine brake". When I come to a stop, I notice a significant cloud of blue smoke from behind the car. I've taken it to my usual garage and they said it might be valve stem oil seals but they'd need to strip the engine to confirm, and quoted me about 2-3 grand for the replacement. They did say that they don't usually do this kind of work on the engine so this amount might be misleading (I hope it is). Are valve stem oil seals really that expensive to replace? Or what amount would I be looking at if I took it to an engine specialist? Or might it be something completely different? The cloud isn't massively dense, but it's enough to notice it floating by while waiting at the traffic lights... Funny thing is that this started happening after I had the engine terraclean'ed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-350 Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 Well does it burn oil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
car350z Posted September 9, 2013 Author Share Posted September 9, 2013 It does burn a bit of oil, I guess that's what causes the blue'ish smoke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-350 Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 I will be honest, if it is the Valve Stem Oil Seals, its a big job... It is a lot of work and some specialist tools would ideally be needed. The reason it costs so much is the labor time, Stem seals would take at least 6 - 7 hours for someone who has done them before. Checked the Plugs etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arran Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 Guarantee if you take the coils and plugs out and see the plug recess filled with oil that's your problem, three central gaskets on the rocker covers leaking oil into the holes once warm. Will need new rocker covers. Try that before looking at valve stems its not hard to do you could do it tonight and see if you had the opportunity to do so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
car350z Posted September 10, 2013 Author Share Posted September 10, 2013 Oh no, not good. If it's really that expensive, then I think there'll be a Zed in parts for sale soon I haven't taken out the plugs or coils (I do computers, so 2 left hands with 10 thumbs) but will ask my mechanic to check that. I have the car booked in for new belts anyway, so he might as well take a look at those. Thanks a lot so far for everyone's suggestions, will keep this updated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs2000 Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Non Panico, from what I remember the rocker covers are £90 each and a new gasket for them was either £5 or £11 per side, cant remember Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhackyWill Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Valve stem oil seals gone on my boys Golf..Job for this weekend, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.