Valve stem oil seals and piston rings

HeyArnold320 · 08-01-2015 8:37pm #1

Has anyone paid to get these jobs done? I'm just curious what it's cost. I've a Mazda 6 1.8 with emissions through the roof.
I haven't done a compression test yet but my money is on the valve stem oil seals anyway

porsche boy · 08-01-2015 10:32pm

my advice is get to a garage and have your catalytic converter and lambda sensors tested.

greasepalm · 08-01-2015 10:37pm

that would mean oil usage would be huge,if like fords may be an engine,but as above sensors tested as stated.

HeyArnold320 · 08-01-2015 10:51pm

Sorry should have said. It gets through a serious amount of oil. Burning oil is common with this engine

jimgoose · 08-01-2015 11:02pm

HeyArnold320 wrote: »

Sorry should have said. It gets through a serious amount of oil. Burning oil is common with this engine

How much, out of interest?

greasepalm · 08-01-2015 11:08pm

maybe adding an additive to reduce oil burning might be an idea

George Dalton · 08-01-2015 11:15pm

What year is it? Could be time for it to be humanely dispatched :pac:

visual · 08-01-2015 11:32pm

its a ford engine valve and piston rings common fault you can buy compression tester for 25 to test rings

HeyArnold320 · 09-01-2015 12:01pm

visual wrote: »

its a ford engine valve and piston rings common fault you can buy compression tester for 25 to test rings

Yeah I've been meaning to do that. I know it's common alright. Anyone got a ballpark figure on what they cost to do? It more than likely costs more than the car anyway

George Dalton · 09-01-2015 12:41pm

Expensive, €1200-1400.

Boldfinger · 09-01-2015 12:59pm

George Dalton wrote: »

Expensive, €1200-1400.

Hi there. My Mazda 6 is in Cobys auto @ red cow getting valve seals and piston rings fitted as we speak. It failed emissions test 2 weeks ago and is using a lot of oil. It is gonna cost 1000 to 1200 to fix. I think the last owner drove it after the thermostat stuck and the engine overheated. Any way I think it is a big risk to get second hand engine from a breaker yard . Buy engine 450? Get it fitted 200? Maybe **** ? Back to square one.

HeyArnold320 · 10-01-2015 7:50am

Boldfinger wrote: »

Hi there. My Mazda 6 is in Cobys auto @ red cow getting valve seals and piston rings fitted as we speak. It failed emissions test 2 weeks ago and is using a lot of oil. It is gonna cost 1000 to 1200 to fix. I think the last owner drove it after the thermostat stuck and the engine overheated. Any way I think it is a big risk to get second hand engine from a breaker yard . Buy engine 450? Get it fitted 200? Maybe **** ? Back to square one.

Thanks for that. The thermostats on these cars are a strange setup too. I'm wondering should I get it fixed now or move on. The car is barely worth that but it's been reliable otherwise except is really down on power. Could be a lack of compression too

lomb · 10-01-2015 9:49am

Run it on the thickest oil you can find until it dies. You don't really need an nct if your willing to drive on. Just keep booking it in every 3 months and let it fail each one if it does. At the end of the day if the car is safe otherwise then an insurer would be understanding if a claim was put in.
The problem with buying scrap parts is that where there is an inherent design fault then its a strong possibility the scrap part has that fault too to some extent. You'd really want to test the engine before it gets taken out of the donor vehicle or trust a reputable breakers word on it. Do they compression test engines/ check for noise/smoke / overheating /sniffer test an engine before removal I doubt it.

greasepalm · 10-01-2015 10:31am

wont work now with new nct rules if driving car on road with no nct be warned,penalty points was it not?

running a car on the thickest oil would that have an issue with sticking valves in head on the fords which was an issue?

Boldfinger · 10-01-2015 1:06pm

There is still a chance that after valve seals and piston rings are fitted, the catalytic converter may be ****ed because of all the heavy fumes . So my advice is if your car is really sound with everything else and it is 04 year or after then get it fixed.
Then you know you have a fairly decent car that you will look after. Other than that I would cut my losses and scrap it and get another car that has Nct for 1400 euro or more. My car is 05 worth about 2500 when fixed . If it was any older I would scrap it . I know what your going through , but you have to bite the bullet and make your choice , fix or scrap?
Good Luck!

An Ard Ri · 10-01-2015 4:33pm

HeyArnold320 wrote: »

Has anyone paid to get these jobs done? I'm just curious what it's cost. I've a Mazda 6 1.8 with emissions through the roof.
I haven't done a compression test yet but my money is on the valve stem oil seals anyway

Yes. Had it done on E46 BMW. It was drinking a heroic amount of oil.

The main problem was piston rings. Got piston rings, valve stem seals, head skimmed, cylinders bored and a few other things so nearly a top and bottom rebuild.

If there is blue smoke on idling it's the valve stem, if there's no smoke its piston rings. Piston rings are more expensive to repair due to their location.

Using thicker oil, engine flushes, additives may show slight improvement but are ultimately useless.

Get a compression test done first.

This work is not cheap, but worthwhile if you wish to keep the car.

When work is done, takes a while to 'bed in'.

jimgoose · 10-01-2015 4:39pm

An Ard Ri wrote: »

Yes. Had it done on E46 BMW. It was drinking a heroic amount of oil.

The main problem was piston rings. Got piston rings, valve stem seals, head skimmed, cylinders bored and a few other things so nearly a top and bottom rebuild.

If there is blue smoke on idling it's the valve stem, if there's no smoke its piston rings. Piston rings are more expensive to repair due to their location.

Using thicker oil, engine flushes, additives may show slight improvement but are ultimately useless.

Get a compression test done first.

This work is not cheap, but worthwhile if you wish to keep the car.

When work is done, takes a while to 'bed in'.

Blue smoke for a while on cold-start is probably valve-stem seals. Blue smoke with the toe down is probably rings. You'll also find that on a particular engine the situation may be improved somewhat by a thicker or thinner oil than standard.

An Ard Ri · 10-01-2015 4:45pm

jimgoose wrote: »

Blue smoke for a while on cold-start is probably valve-stem seals. Blue smoke with the toe down is probably rings. You'll also find that on a particular engine the situation may be improved somewhat by a thicker or thinner oil than standard.

Went from 0/30 to 10/40 semi synth, improved for a while but eventually burned the same amount.

jimgoose · 10-01-2015 5:09pm

An Ard Ri wrote: »

Went from 0/30 to 10/40 semi synth, improved for a while but eventually burned the same amount.

Aye, you'll have that. In other engines a slightly thinner full-synth improves flow and resists hot-spots a bit better.

HeyArnold320 · 10-01-2015 7:57pm

Thanks for the advice. I've been putting in thicker oil for the last while and it hasn't done much. In fairness the car is in fairly good order other than that but I have no love for it at all so find it hard to pay for the work. Might put it up cheap explaining the problems and find myself something a bit better

Boldfinger · 14-01-2015 8:14pm

I have just picked up my 05 mazda 6 from coby autos at the red cow. Here is the break down of costs.
Set of piston rings 140 euro
new head gasket set 120
set of valve stem seals 70
new thermostat 70 which I asked for
new water pump 59
coolant refill 30
oil and filter change 45
emission diagnostic, labour 700

Total 1400 euro

If the car does another 100000 miles I'll be happy .

Boldfinger · 14-01-2015 8:16pm

By the way , the emissions are good now.

HeyArnold320 · 14-01-2015 8:18pm

That's good to know. Was your car down on power at all or was it just emissions problems? Glad it's all sorted anyway. Was expensive but the breakdown seems reasonable. The thermostats are expensive on these engines, although 70 seems cheap for the genuine one

mossy50 · 14-01-2015 8:31pm

give DIPETANE a try only 13 euro for a litre

Boldfinger · 17-01-2015 6:36pm

It always seemed a bit low on power for a 1.8 , but as far as I know these engines are 120 hp . I use to have a 1.8 alfa 156
and that would leave this standing. I also can't work this fixed engine to much for at least a thousand mile to ware it in , so I wont know if its any better for a while.

Interslice · 17-01-2015 8:03pm

HeyArnold320 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. I've been putting in thicker oil for the last while and it hasn't done much. In fairness the car is in fairly good order other than that but I have no love for it at all so find it hard to pay for the work. Might put it up cheap explaining the problems and find myself something a bit better

14 hundred plus the cash for your car will put you ahead of the getting yours fixed option I reckon. Some very good 1.8-2.0 petrol cars out there for 2k euro or so. A nice alfa would be got.

yoshiktk · 18-01-2015 3:50pm

Interslice wrote: »

14 hundred plus the cash for your car will put you ahead of the getting yours fixed option I reckon. Some very good 1.8-2.0 petrol cars out there for 2k euro or so. A nice alfa would be got.

Add few hundreds euros at start for repairs/etc and keeping and old car after major repair doesnt look so bad.
I have the same issue, my mazda is showing the same problems. Eating oil, loss of power. 100% rings/engine to be repaired. I'm fighting do I try to save it or gamble the luck again and buy something.

Valve stem oil seals and piston rings

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