Smells like hot oil.

 

Well a hot oil smell would indicate that the oil which is to lube the cylinder walls is being pushed past the rings and into the chamber for combustion. That would then be expelled out the exhaust ports and thru the cats which is not a good thing. I know from experience on my 2001 Jeep xj that it kills them dead lol! I just got done replacing the entire exhaust system in my driveway this summer. What a b!tch that is/was.

 

Could be. However it didn't do this smoking on morning start up until the shop pulled the head, had it checked for cracks and then reinstalled it. They have had it back in their shop for two days now. I told the shop owner to take it home so he could witness the morning smoke. I expect I'll hear from him on Monday.

I'll let you know what he says.

 

Valve seals or valve cover(pcv). Here's what blue smoke looks like:

 

Oil level changed.

 

The smoke and the sometimes it does it and.sometimes it doesn't scenario is exactly what happens. The oil level was down a bit the last time I checked it before.I gave it back tot the shop.

TO me it just screams VALVE SEALS. But they say new seals were installed. I know the guy that owns the machine shop and I use him when my old MG engines need machine work. If I don't get some good answers on Monday I think I'll call him. He is an extremely well know machine shop and builds race engines for sprint cars and drag cars. He knows his oats.

 

I probably should have mentioned that I had heard from three different mechanics that the smoke problem was the engine. I was convinced and changed the engine block with new seals, but still had the smoke problem, which was also intermittent in my case. It would happen in the morning and if I drove the vehicle for longer amounts of time, after it rested and I restarted it, sometimes. In my opinion, the smoke kind of smelled like burning gas, which the mechanics did not believe. My 2006 H3 at approx 235,000 miles also had a decline in fuel economy. I’m still trying to figure out the lack of fuel economy issue, and in the process, changed the o2 sensors, which never showed the engine light, but stopped the smoke issue. Even my current mechanic, who also thought the engine, was shocked that the smoke problem went away after we changed the o2 sensors. Please do post what the outcome is once you figure it out. Thanks.

 

K took the H3 to the shop Wednesday evening so they could look at it again. They have had it now for three work days.
​​​ I told them to drive it. Take it home. Do whatever they need to do to figure this out.

So I called this morning to see if there was any progress. They said they are pretty sure the problem is in the PCV system so on Friday they ran a cleaner through it that is supposed to clean out the intake and PCV system. The guy I talked to said they want to drive it some more and will get back to me. But, no update today. I'll bug them in the morning,once again.

I too think the problem is in the PCV system somewhere but I also do not understand why it happened after the head gasket was replaced. We are missing something here.

 

PCV: Positive Crankcase Ventilation
symptoms of a restricted PCV:

• Blown out seals or gaskets
• Sludge around your engine
• Noticeable oil leaks

In your case:>>BLUE SMOKE AFTER NEW GASKETS/SEALS ARE INSTALLED.

 

Got it back Friday morning. It started at their shop and did not smoke. They ran a cleaner through it and had it for several days and said it doesn't smoke for them. Saturday morning it blew a cloud smoke again.

At this point I am not going to ask them to figure it out. I will pull the spark plugs and don compression test. What numbers should I be looking for? I know the numbers should be within 10% of each other but what number should a good engine have?

Your help is always appreciated.