Is my engine finished?, White smoke, overheating, newly installed distributor, oil spraying Options

[Selly_Kuhman]

Not sure where to start, but at the moment my car is shooting up oil under the hood and white smoke is pouring out of the exhaust and a little from the oil filter region. When I leave the car running, and begin to take out the dipstick, oil starts spraying out. I'm not sure if I have a bad ring, or this could happen from installing a distributor incorrectly. Here's the breakdown in case it helps.


May 28- After driving for a while (~90 mins @65mph), it started to idle high and overheat when not moving. For this I added 3 quarts of oil and filled the coolant. It drove fine after that all the way home. Planned to take it to the mechanic the next weekend.

May 31- I was on my way home from work (~15 mins in traffic), and the check engine light came on. Within four seconds the car lost power, and the steering locked up. I had it towed to the mechanic and they saw my distributor was overheating so they changed that.

June 8- When I stopped by to pick it up, the distributor was replaced, but they didn't test drive it yet. I said(regret this now) I will take it to work and let them know how it goes. When I was leaving work to go home that day,(~5mins in traffic) the car wasn't overheating, but the RPM's were almost 2k when I came to red lights or stop signs. Pulled into 7/11, tossed in two quarts of oil. Continued home (~15m in traffic) and the RPM problem went away, but now I noticed smoke coming from under the hood (a lot). I added two more quarts when I got home and took it around the block a few times. White smoke started pouring out of the hood.

June 9- I took the car to the mechanics again,(~5 mins in residential area) though on the way the white smoke was now 90% coming from the exhaust (more when accelerating) and maybe 10% from under the hood.

This post has been edited by Selly_Kuhman: Jun 9, 2016 - 12:11 PM

[kevin311]

my guess would be bad rings or head gasket. Can't think of a scenario where the distributor would cause something like that. Were you checking he oil level each time before adding more to it? That's a ton of oil to go through in a matter of days, granted it sounds like you're burning it. Just curious. How does it sound when it's running at temperature?

This post has been edited by kevin311: Jun 9, 2016 - 12:27 PM

[Selly_Kuhman]

my guess would be bad rings or head gasket. Can't think of a scenario where the distributor would cause something like that. Were you checking he oil level each time before adding more to it? That's a ton of oil to go through in a matter of days, granted it sounds like you're burning it. Just curious. How does it sound when it's running at temperature?

Thanks for the fast reply, had to write this up on my lunch break. It sounds okay now when running, though I do notice some noises when turning the wheel (power steering fluid is full)

Oil Stick Readings:

May 28- After pulling into the gas station, the oil was just about empty.

May 31- The odd thing here is the oil was about 2 to 3 times higher than the "Full" line. I did wipe it off before putting it back in to take the measurement.

June 8- Same as above (did notice some hiccups when driving though as in an instant loss then gain of power when accelerating)

[kevin311]

If you were over the fill line and blowing white smoke sounds like the head gasket is blown. Or at least the most likely scenario. Did the oil look milky, or have a different color/consistency? Usually the easiest way to know. Might be hard to tell on the dipstick though. If you drain the oil and its muddy brown it's most definitely the head gasket.

[Box]

Sounds like it was overheated which damaged the head gasket, then overfilled with oil and has started blowing out seals, rings, and gaskets. I second the notion of checking for coolant and oil cross contamination and I'd check compression on each cylinder. I would try not to drive it if possible until it gets sorted to prevent further and possibly more extensive damage, but I understand the one car and need to get to work etc...

When the engine is running or has been a lot of the oil is up in the top of the motor and it takes awhile to drain back into the oil pan to get a proper reading off the dipstick, so that's why it was way low on one read and way over the next.

This post has been edited by Box: Jun 9, 2016 - 2:33 PM