Who has actually repaired their head(s) to fix 300A startup smoke puff?

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

It took until about 35k miles for my 300A to start the startup puff of smoke, but now at 41k it does it noticeably. Also, this car used to go 6k mile oil changes with absolutely no oil consumption, now it used about a half quart in about 4k miles. Although the general concesus on this board re: the 300A smoking/oil consumption seems to be "leave it alone", I am not okay with this engine showing this sort of deterioration at such low mileage, even if it is only nuisance-level deterioration to some people. I am willing to spend the money to properly fix the engine.

My understanding is, and correct me if any of this is incorrect:

Cause:
lack of sufficient cooling for driver's side head

Result: accelerated valve guide wear on driver's side head, causing oil to be drawn through enlarged clearance between intake valve and guide

Repair:

Remove driver's side head, have new guides installed at machine shop

Preventative measures to ensure this does not happen again: Install Reinhart rear cooling mod

Is my understanding correct, and has anyone actually had their head reconditioned at a shop? If it is only the drivers side head that thas the guide wear issue, then I guess an alternate plan might be for me to find another 40k mileage used passenger side head and put it on the driver's side of my car, with a rear cooling mod

PS please don't reply just to tell me you don't have start up smoke on a 300A. I am interested in the proper fix once it has begun, which on my car it has. Thanks

Steve

[SC Cheesehead]

03mmmonroe was talking about doing some work on his engine (replacing valve guides I believe) to correct this problem, you may want to send him a PM and see what's up.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Cool. I don't mind taking the head off myself and having a shop I trust do just the labor on the guides. I just need to make sure I am clear on the cause, result, and that the rear cooling mod will prevent my repaired head(s) from wearing this fast again.

[Blackened300a]

I have a early build 03 with 66K hard miles. No smoke, zero oil consumption and I dont have any rear cooling mod done. I think its just lousy guides that were installed on some cars.

[burt ragio]

Premature oil consumtion is a true indicator of worn valve guides or worn rings. A few members have expressed this concern. I believe the start up smoke is another problem source cause at low milage. I had start up smoke when I bought my Marauder new. At first I was very concerned. At apx 12,000 miles it went away. I think it could be the idle control valve mal function at start up or shut down. The rear head cool mod will help by lowering cylender head temps improve excessive ware caused by heat & decrease pre ignition.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

worn guides/seals definitely can cause start up smoking because oil accumulated in the top end runs down the intake valve stems and pools and then burns all at once when you start the engine. I've seen it happen to 20 year old engines with shot valve stem seals. I would hope the seals on this engine are okay but heard the guides themselves may have developed too much clearance. IAC valve? All that is is a controlled vacuum leak to regulate idle speed. Not clear how that could be connected. I don't have the tools to measure valve guide clearance, maybe I should look into that. When I have built performance engines and done head work it was always, if you could wiggle the valve much at all with the valve off the seat, the guides were worn. But since I want this engine to last another 100k miles I need to make sure the work is done to better tolerances than the wiggle test.

I guess I can get some proper range snap gauges and a mic, I should have them anyway. Are the guides integral on these heads or are they removable inserts that a shop can press in/out? Can I order replacement guides directly from Ford?

[Krytin]

Have you done a compression and/or leak down test to see if the rings are a contributing factor to your high oil consumption? Hate to see you do the valve guides only to find the rings needed to be done.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

No I haven't done a leak down. Heh I wouldn't call a half quart in 4,000 miles high consumption, its probably lower than a lot of people. I am not convinced rings would cause start up only smoke. I'm aware dealerships have blamed rings and replaced them on some of these engines w/ the smoke issue but I don't buy that as an actual cause. For ha ha's, I could do a simple crank test for compression, that wouldn't hurt, I don't have a leak down kit though.

[Krytin]

The leak down test is usually reserved for a higher consumption rate that isn't showing a low cylinder(s) on the regular compression test. You probably don't need a leak down. It's just most of the "puff of smoke on start-up" problems occured on early '03 production low mileage cars - mine did and went away after the second oil change. I'm over 90K on the clock and don't use any oil.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

I am 8/2002 production and have 41k miles, I don't know if that qualifies as "early" production

[MM2004]

FWIW...

My DTR did the smoke at start up a couple times at very low miles and hasn't in 2 - 3 years now.

Just turned over 33k.

Of course, now that I said that...

Mike.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Since I don't have one of these magical self-repairing engines... gonna have to go to plan B. Just trying to find some hard data on what has been found to cause the potential guide issues.

[babbage]

I have a early build 03 with 66K hard miles. No smoke, zero oil consumption and I dont have any rear cooling mod done. I think its just lousy guides that were installed on some cars.

+1 I have about 58K on mine now. I run AMSOIL (the best oil you can get) and also ran some AUTO-RX to clean and recondition the valve seals.

The valve seals get worn out/dried out and leak. I'm not sure if this is the total problem but I do believe in the Auto-Rx product and it really had good results on my 2v 4.6... It's a lot of work to take the heads off. Might as well send them to MMR for a stage 2 port & polish and repair

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

I'm not interested in doing any performance work to the heads. I just want this engine to be in as close to new condition I can get it back to, which at this point focuses on dealing with whatever is causing the startup smoke. Every time one of those start up smoke threads gets started, like 30 people chime in that their car started doing it and continues to do it, and that it's normal for 300As and at some point they all do it. I don't like that answer.

I guess I can start by taking the heads down to the seals and see what they look like.

Here is a thread from a guy NOMARQUIS who had just the driver's side head fixed and that was the fix

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forum...ighlight=smoke

I basically want to do the same thing but instead just have the head reconditioned, not totally replaced.

Just lookin for anyone else who did a real fix like NOMARQUIS and can verify whether this was their problem.

[BODYMAN]

My KB-S started at 15,xxx got really bad by 20,xxxx and yes it was the valve guides it was done under warranty so they just did both heads to be sure and evrything match from a wear stand point! but yes it was valve guides does youres look like a mosquito blower yet? mine got so bad it was down right embarassing, go to leave and car show and I had people talking about it.
My second one is a 300A also with 60,xxx on it and no smoke at start up! so not all of them do it!