Worn Valve guides ??

[martiniqueln]

Help .
I have 1989 3.2 stock . 186k on the clock . Valve guides replaced at 89K according to first owner
Starting to use 1 qt oil every 400 miles .
Is this a valve guide problem ?
Is there a sound associated with worn guides .
Pinging , knocking?

Starts perfect ,idles perfect pulls strong until warm then tends to bog down with some puffs of black smoke .

Any help would be much appreciated

Vinnie from ventura
1989
Car runs great when cold .

[martiniqueln]

What am I looking to spend to replace guides if they are the problem ?

Thanks

[creaturecat]

black smoke - overly rich mixture
blue smoke - guides,rings etc.
pinging or knocking - not with worn guides;
400 mi. to the quart - if it is ONLY guides - maybe $5000 or more,

If you use the search function - you will be overwhelmed with the knowledge within......

[dweymer]

The best way to check guides is this:

1st or 2nd gear
go to a high rpm, 6k
quickly release the gas pedal all the way and look out the mirror or have a friend follow and watch for blue smoke out of the exhaust pipe. A top job at a shop can be pricey, like 2500, if you remove them, atlantic can do it for a little more than 1k depending on parts.

[garibaldi]

The only way to know for sure is to pull it apart and measure the guides. But 9.9 times out of ten, with that kind of mileage, I can almost guarantee you that your guides are worn, they dont last that long in these motors. I would bet you a dollar that if you took it apart and measured, they are beyond wear limit. Ive done 911s with much less mileage on them that had shot guides like that. Problem lies in that if you pull it apart, you are going to want to machine the heads, do a valve job and cut the mating surfaces, along with replacing and honing the guides to size. Then you also want to grind the valves, replace the springs, measure measure and measure, replace the valve seals (And you can leave the seals off the exhaust side to buy a liitle more oiling to them, since they need it more due to the higher thermal loads in the exhaust) but now the other problem is that if you only do the top end, chances are, esp with that kind of mileage, you are going to be pulling a lot of oil past the rings since they are tired, and now you have a tight fresh top end, so the vacuum goes up. SO you should look into new P/Cs and rings. Re-ringing sucks and will most likely end up in busted ring lands. So by the time you get to that point, you might as well split the case and clean up the crank, rods, install new bearings, and replace the oil pump, etc. So you ready for a rebuild?

[HarryD]

Originally posted by dweymer
The best way to check guides is this:

1st or 2nd gear
go to a high rpm, 6k
quickly release the gas pedal all the way and look out the mirror or have a friend follow and watch for blue smoke out of the exhaust pipe. A top job at a shop can be pricey, like 2500, if you remove them, atlantic can do it for a little more than 1k depending on parts.

300 miles/quart, worn guides, 12 bad valves ... 118,000 miles

[stv951]

My car (a 3,2) also uses about a litter of oil every 800 klms. Blie smoke is coming out on lifting the throttle. Sometimes I've noticed that oil consumption depends on external temperatures. Used to put Mobil 1 0W 40. I now use 15W 40

It goes strong though for 210k kilometers

[stlrj]

My oil consumption went down when I changed over to 5W30. Rarely smokes on startup too.

Cheers,

Joe
74 w/ 86 3.2