[Lscman]

This '79 2.3T is a cherry car with 40K original miles. It was using a good bit of oil before this incident which I attributed to bad valve stem seals or more likely....leaky turbo seals. The excess oil use built up slowly over 20 years. This is not my problem....

Anyway, this thing suddenly blew on the way home today. I noticed excessive blue smoke from exhaust and then about 1/2 mile from home the thing really let loose and a monsterous white cloud followed me to my driveway.

I smelled the exhaust blowing massive white smoke & it did NOT smell like coolant and it did not feel like coolant.

I checked radiator...normal level.

I checked oil, somewhat low, as usual.

I pulled spark plugs, normally sooty but two rear plugs looked lot worse and soaked in oil.

Then the big surprise....daughter cranks over motor with plugs out and the rear two cylinder plug holes begin spraying massive amounts of oil out like a geyser. This occurs INSTANTLY upon cranking and never ends. There is no trace of coolant in this oily discharge being sprayed out.

Any ideas appreciated...my daughter needs this car fixed ASAP.

[74stang2togo]

Blown rings, blown valve stem seals, oil being blown into or sucked into the intake runners for those two cylinders (had that happen on a 5.0 once)... about all I can come up with...

[b_chandler]

I'd check compression before I pulled it apart. It may be rings.

[Lscman]

Originally Posted by b_chandler

I'd check compression before I pulled it apart. It may be rings.

This car has 40K miles, Mobil 1 since almost new and was driven by my mother for about 35K of those miles. The car never saw more than 3/4 throttle and it has never seen RPM over 4K. This motor frankly doesn't even know it has a turbo on it.

I'm betting the rings will last another 150K mi. Rings don't simultaneously fail on 2 cylinders.

At this point, I'm betting on a head gasket that failed due to age and head bolts relaxing over 29 years. What I'm worrying about now is whether the rods and mains got starved from oil from all the oil gushing into the cylinders. The motor felt a little tight upon cranking.

[b_chandler]

I missed the 40K part. Sorry. However you did say that it's been using oil for some time and it's gotten worse as of late. I read that as a chronic problem that finally came to a head.

I'll kinda buy the head gasket being to blame, but I won't buy the theory.

Rest easy on the rotating assembly. The 2.3 oils the bottom first, then the head.

For a minute I thought about the turbo itself. But that doesn't explain oil in only two cylinders.