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94 Ford ranger 4.0L V6 has about 120K on it. This truck belongs to my uncle. I changed the oil for him today. He wanted to use full synthetic Valvoline 5W-30. I thought that would be fine since Ford recommends 5W-30 for this truck. After changing the oil and starting it up we saw A LOT of white smoke coming out of the tailpipe. I’m thinking that because it’s such an old engine, maybe the synthetic oil is getting into places where it’s not supposed to go and burning. Should I use a thicker oil? Or maybe just use SAE oil?My gut tells me that will take care of the problem, but I thought I’d ask the experts here.
He also has a grinding noise coming from the starter. He told me his starter went bad, and he replaced it with a new one he had bought for his 92 Ford Explorer. That’s when it began grinding. He tried to use a shim, but it made no difference. The starters looked exactly the same, and I’m pretty sure both of those vehicles have the same engine. I took the starter off and saw that both the teeth on the starter and the teeth on the flex plate are a little boogered up. If this is the right starter, could the flex plate be warped or cracked? Would that cause this issue? It still starts, but it sounds awful when it does.
Thanks for any input!
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For the oil issue; try plugging the hose for the PCV system. see if you still have the white smoke.
If the white smoke is primarily on initial start-up but not as heavy during idle or acceleration, oil might be sneaking past the valve guide seals.
If it burns oil constantly no matter if it’s idle or acceleration, then it might be getting past the rings (this is unlikely though.)
When using synthetic in older engines all kinds of leaks and odd things can pop up. Though the oil is the same weight, it has different characteristics. You could go up to 10/30 to compensate for worn bearings, but it’s not recommended because you risk starving the valvetrain of oil.
I don’t think there is any advantage to synthetic in older motors. Newer motors, yes. If the problem persists just go back to regular old dinosaur juice.As far as the starter issue. They do have the same engine, but that doesn’t mean they have identical starters. If they look the same they probably are though.
If he tried shimming it, it’s probably just a bad starter. The flex plate probably isn’t warped or anything.
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