Smoke at startup, valve guide seals? Replace without removing heads?

Hi all,

Really appreciate any advice people may have for me.

I bought a 2002 Tundra with the 4.7 L V8 a couple months ago, with 230k miles on it. I bought it cheap, figuring I'd have to put some money into fixing it up, but hoping to generally do most of the work myself. Ever since I got it there has been a bit of smoke after cold startup. I put new O2 sensors and a new mass air flow sensor on it (which took care of the check engine light), and did the PCV valve, and power steering valve as well, since I was hoping that those might fix the smoke. I also did the spark plugs just for kicks - none of them looked terrible, but almost all of them had a small amount of oil on the upper threads, which seemed to suggest valve stem seals. I've confirmed the engine oil level too, it's not too high.

Other than the smoke, the truck runs awesome, and there isn't a check engine light - the power steering fluid levels don't drop either (I know sometimes the power steering valve goes bad and that gets burned and misinterpreted as burning oil). Doesn't lose brake fluid either, or coolant. I haven't driven it that much, but I never really notice the oil levels drop either - it's not like it's burning a lot of oil, as far as I can tell.

My suspicion at this point is that it is the valve stem seals that have gone bad, leaking oil into the cylinders after the engine stops, which burns off the next time it is started up. The other day I noticed that it smoked after a long downhill with some engine braking, which I thought might confirms this (the vacuum on the downhill engine braking pulls in oil). I added some Lucas Oil Stop Leak just for kicks, figured maybe it'd buy me some time, but I know that can take a couple hundred miles to do anything, and I just added it recently.

Couple questions:

1. Can anyone think of any other possibilities? I feel like I've hardly seen anyone that has actually had valve stem seal issues on this engine, so I'd hate to replace the valve stem seals and find out it was something else. Seems like a lot of people talk about startup smoke but it usually ends up being other stuff, in a lot of cases. Could it still be something to do with the PCV valve or something?

2. Any tips for replacing valve stem seals on the 4.7 L? I know that on a lot of engines you can do the rope trick and avoid removing the heads, but I didn't know if that worked well on this engine.

3. I think the outer valve cover seal might be leaking a tiny bit on the driver side too, but I don't think that would cause exhaust smoke?

4. Would it make sense for all of the spark plugs to have oil on them if it was valve stem seals? Seems more likely that a couple would? But maybe they're all just equally tired out?

Thank you - really appreciate any thoughts people have on this

 

https://www.lextreme.com/how-to-replace-toyota-and-lexus-valve-seals/

 

Do your spark plugs look like the ones in this video where he mentions it is indicative of bad valve guide seals (starts around 2:00 mark)? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVCs5gWLUyI

I had the issue with the power steering valve so I was going to suggest that could be your culprit if you were losing power steering fluid, but it sounds like you've already eliminated that. If it is your valve guide seals, I think most people say to just let it go and top off your oil if you need to rather than messing with your engine, but I know from experience how annoying it is to have your truck smoke everyone out every time you start it up. Valve covers won't give you smoke on start up.

The Lucas Oil stuff doesn't have a good reputation - I would stay away from that in the future. This

$15 ATP Automotive AT-205 Re-Seal Stops Leaks, 8 Ounce Bottle

ATP AT-205 is much more recommended if you're going that route. I've also had a mechanic recommend using a thicker oil when they thought my issue was the valve seals. Either way, best of luck, I don't envy your situation having been in a similar spot.

 

Could be the power steering air control valve failed. How's your power steering fluid level? Cheap part to fix. Check this thread for description in post 1, video of replacement in post 4: https://www.tundras.com/threads/finally-some-good-news.95760/

Beyond that, I'd check for oil in coolant and frothy oil of course. Rule those out first. Others have had similar problems, fuel injectors slowly leaking into the cylinder after driving, causing rich smoke at startup, and a few other cases.

It's been discussed a lot, smoke at startup.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/2000-tundra-white-smoke-on-startup.93967/

https://www.tundras.com/threads/occasional-white-smoke-at-cold-start-up-help.96161/

https://www.tundras.com/threads/4-7-no-start-exhaust-smoke-engine-question.74356/

https://www.tundras.com/threads/smoke-and-knocking.88892/

https://www.tundras.com/threads/solved-white-smoke-puffing-out-of-exhaust-after-brake-job.64182/

 

If you are going to run the atp 205, I would do a liquid moly engine oil flush and then run a full synthetic for a tank of gas. Then add the atp 205. You will have much better results

 

For some reason I didn't get any notifications about this - I'm in the process of trying to change the valve stem seals, and will update after I do

 

I bought a 2006 Tundra this winter, it has BLUE smoke when startup for 1 or 2 minutes then won't smoke again or seemingly burn oil while driving or startup. Only when it sits over night it will smoke. I replaced the PCV valve, no change. Changed the power steering control valve (this was leaking and I was having some power steering issues with hard turning at idle). I thought this fixed it (its been getting warmer out too), I havn't had any burning blue smoke at start until this morning when it was almost 30 deg out.

I see the links above but they describe white smoke and I'm seeing blue smoke

 

I was going to tell you to read this.

But I guess you replaced that.

Blue smoke is normally oil passby or some kind of oil (i.e. power steering fluid)

Where did you buy your valve? scAmazon? fleaBay? To save a buck?

The fact it cleared up after the PSCV replacement should speak volumes.

 

I got the valve at Oreilly, it was $70, is there a direction on which hose connects to which port on the PSCV?

I thought replacing the PSCV solved my issue but maybe it was a coincidence with the warming weather (until this morning)

 

Oh, O'reilly parts? O'no thank you. I'd rather buy a counterfeit on scAmazon or fleaBay, at least it may work correctly for a little longer.

Yeah, no faith. Check this.