Need advice again! Car trouble...

[skiri251]

Definately not that much oil consumed right now.
Hopefully the rest of the van will also stay together.

I see plastic radiator in there. Please, please, no cracking..

 

[AApple]

Appears to be "normal" seepage, to me. Not enough to worry about now, unless it gets a lot worse quickly.
Plugs were definitely overdue! :shock:
No noises, no smoking, starts/runs ok, no excessive oil consumption....
if it ain't broke.....:whistling: :good:

 

[OldWrench]

It is true the engine may have a lot of life left in it, I'm just going by past experience with gas engines. You can run a compression and leak down test on it ant that will give you an idea of how the rings and valves are. The lower end (rod and main bearings) is what I would be most concerned about with that many miles. As for the oil leak, I agree clean it up and keep an eye on it, I certainly wouldn't pull the head for it. One of the things we did in our shop with high mileage engines is to use a mechanics stethoscope and listen to the lower end at each end of the oil pan for any faint knocks, if it is nice and quite (no knocks) that is a very good thing. On Diesels we did may in-frames lower ends meaning just replaced the rod and main bearings.

 

[skiri251]

I do have a compression gauge but get in there and measure 8 cylinders is a heck of a job..
I should have done it while doing the spark plug change.

I also own mechanics stethoscope but have never used it.
Is it easy for untrained ears to notice the knock sound?

 

[AApple]

skiri251 » Tue Jun 07, 2016 8:09 am[/url]":3l9v0tnv]
I also own mechanics stethoscope but have never used it.
Is it easy for untrained ears to notice the knock sound?

On a good one, yes! A loud noise of any kind thru the stetho will dang near blow yer earholes out! Be careful with it around any moving objects, too. You will normally hear different noises with the engine running, so you need to concentrate on loud bangs/knocks, grinds, etc. Listen to several different areas of the engine to get an idea of what noises are there. Power steering pumps whine, bad bearings will usually give you a grinding noise, etc. If you can't hear anything unusual with the nekkid ears, then there is prolly no unusual noises going on anyway. A stethoscope is best for pin-pointing the locations of noises. :good:

 

[OldWrench]

As AApple said, if you have something going south you will hear it. For Rod and Main bearing I like listening at the center of the pan on each end. Listening on the side of the block can find a wrist pin that is getting bad. The thing is if the motor comes apart, (meaning broken rod, or crank) it can easily destroy the block and then there goes your core charge. Good luck with your van.