bad oil leak, valve covers or head gaskets or something else?

Asked by Selzerian Sep 29, 2014 at 03:24 PM about the 1994 Plymouth Acclaim 4 Dr STD Sedan

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

hey gang, recently put a new engine in my 1994 plymouth acclaim V6 engine. it was a
junkyard engine and ive made it about 2k miles with it sofar. it started burning oil about
a week ago, went through oil slowly and blows gray smoke during long idles. I checed
the PCV valve and it was fine, checked the valve stem seals and they were fine, so im
figuring its the piston rings. I dont wanna have to fix that so I figured a bit of blowby
wouldn't hurt and ive kept on driving it. now about 2 weeks later i have a sudden out of
engine oil leak. its fast, and goes through about 1 quart every 30 miles. the oil is
everywhere on the bottom of the block so i really cant tell where the leak is exactly, but
the oil seems to only be as high as the valve cover on the firewall head and about up to
the head on the front side. Is it possible for oil to be leaking from the head gaskets this
bad on this engine model or would the galleys have to intersect with the coolant galleys
and mix? because I have no oil in my antifreeze or vice versa. If its not the heads than
my only other thought would be the valve covers but you would think it wouldn't leak
that crazy bad seeing as how the valve covers arent holding pressure? and it makes no
since to me that their is oil on the front side and back side, the only logic i would see in
that is if both valve covers started leaking at the same time and the odds of that are
pretty rediculous?

17,465

crumbob answered 9 years ago

first get some engine degreaser and spray it on there and check for visible cracks

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Dwightfish answered 9 years ago

I have a 4 cyl. Acclaim that did the same thing. After a trip from Los Angeles to Austin it really started loosing oil rapidly. I removed the pcv valve from the valve train cover and it was blowing exhaust and oil straight out of the fitting. I removed the air filter and it was full of oil too. Talked to a mechanic and he says it is probably a broken piston ring or leaking head gasket. The car has not been running hot though and no oil in the antifreeze. I am tearing it down but don't have the head off yet. Have you solved your problem yet? If so what was the problem?

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