06 Tacoma 4.0 burning oil look at plugs and Toyota engine cleaner

Hey guys I have a 06 Tacoma v6 with 196,000 burning oil. It about 1 quart every 1650 miles. I took some picture of the spark plugs and I’m hoping that I could ask a few questions about how I assume the oil is getting in here.

I known I need a valve cover gasket and I am losing some oil through the sides and in one of two of the spark plug holes. But I see no dripping or fresh oil expect from one or two of the park plugs but it was not flooded or anything just a bit of oil at the base of the plug.

Assumption number 1: I think that because I do not see fresh oil and or dripping that the valve cover gasket would not account for that amount of oil leaking. How much oil could be leaking out of the valve cover? Maybe like a 1/4 quart through a 3,000 mile oil change?

I spoke with a mechanical buddy of mine and he said a lot of the way i drive it can also lead to some oil burning( I do service work, no highway driving, drive 3-6 miles and then park for and hour or so and gone again. Usually 5-6 times and day and in the summer much more). He said I should try Toyota engine oil cleaner. Has anyone ever had any experiences with an engine oils cleaner with the idea to unplug piston rings to help with burning oil and then running and engine restore with oil changes.

 

Take her out on the road and give her an Italian tune up every couple weeks. Then see what happens.

No the VC gaskets aren't your root cause, but I'd change them before they get worse.

 

What is Italian tune up?

 

It's an old method of running a vehicle hard to clear out carbon and such.

I don't advocate redlining your truck. But some Redline or Techtron injector cleaner in the gas tank and get her out on the road and quickly bring her up to speed, then run till you are at full operating temperature for 15 or 20 minutes may shake things loose for you.

I know I said injector cleaner, but it does do a nice job on carbon deposits in the chambers too. But the running may free up a ring or two if that's the problem.

Your short OCIs with the proper oil should be preventing any engine gunking. Changing those VC gaskets will let you peek inside. Hopefully everything will be clean with a nice golden patina.

 

What is the manufacturing date of your '06? Some (all?) early 2006 vehicles with the V6 / 1GR-FE were also part of the well-known cohort of 2005-vintage vehicles with known headgasket issues.

Extensive details:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2005-and-early-2nd-gen-issues-and-how-to-fix-them.735957/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ues-and-how-to-fix-them.735957/#post-26202040

 

Any bluish smoke out the tail pipe after truck has been turned off 3-4 days? That would confirm oil burning due to leaking valve guides. But, you would see oil fouling on the plugs. The short drives and leaking valve covers may account for the oil loss, or at least contribute to it. Try and get an endoscope in the cylinders to see if you have excessive carbon buildup on the pistons and valves. In addition to the mentioned remedies, I would go to 10/30 or 10/40 oil weight.

 

says 11/05

 

I usually use a Lucas fuel cleaner system every second or third oil change. Is this kind of the same stuff?

 

It’s a daily driver and I see no smoke in the morning

 

Basically yours is a late 2005 production & therefore very likely subject to the same defective head gasket which affects the 2005s. Read all about that problem, there is extensive coverage of it in those threads and elsewhere on TW forums.

It is a known issue affecting many 2005's at ~140 to 200K mile mark.

I'm not say that is the problem, it may or may not be, but it deserves strong consideration, e.g. a compression test at least is probably in order.

 

Haha ok that second thread I saw the guys said from 11/05 onwards they were good. If the head gasket is blown wouldn’t I have some coolant issues as well?

 

Only if the valve stem seals are really bad will one see smoke at every turn of the key. One can see them going bad if bluish smoke is visible after the car sits 3+ days as oil has more time to move down past the damaged stem guides. In a daily driven engine, it will still burn oil due to damaged stem guides, but one may not see the smoke because the oil is not collecting in the combustion chamber as much as when the engine sits undriven over several days.

 

In my mind I thought that the valve cover wouldn’t leak enough to account for 1 quart in 1650 miles. Also I figured if the spark plug is on there that the oil wouldn’t be able to get past the crush washer quick enough.

 

Id be curious what your motor oil looks like at oil change time. Chances are good it’s milky. You could look at the underside of the oil fill cap for signs of moisture.

Mine gets a similar treatment. Driven mostly on weekends, mostly short trips, rarely during the week or on the freeway. My oil fill cap gets wet. Theres a couple things Ive done to help. My first trip of the day, I’ll shift later allowing the rpms to run high. Just before I get to my first destination, try to accelerate harder. If it’s been more than a couple months since I last got it on the freeway, I’ll go out on a Sunday morning when traffic is light. Plan ahead with a tank of premium with some good in tank cleaner, I like jectron. Either a long high rpm pull uphill or a big freeway loop taking about an hour.

Ive used lucas, redline, and techron. Of the 3, I think redline is best. Over all of them, jectron Ive found works best. Sometimes you can find it at napa. Some people believe using none of them is best. Theres also people who think the earth is flat. I’m not gonna judge.

 

Not milky at all just a little dirty. I don’t think I add much coolant and when I do it’s very little

 

That moisture would be caused by crank case condensation caused by the engine not being brought up to temperature on a regular basis.

 

The valve stem guides are inside the valve covers, covering the tops of the valve stems to prevent oil from flowing down into the combustion chamber. Now that I see your pic of the plugs, #s 5 and 6, from the top, appear to have oil residue at the tips. It could also be oil that dripped down when you removed the plugs if oil was sitting in there from the bad plug seals.

Edit: it looks like the bad plug seals were around cylinders 1 & 2. Thus, 5 & 6 should have no oil residue on them. Can be due to damaged valve stem seals, worn piston rings, bad head gasket.

 

Anything I can do to trouble shot any of that stuff?

 

Taking the truck to the dealership… going to try and get this thing diagnosed with the pro’s… I’ll report back

 

Valve stem guides - I covered that, turning on the car after sitting several days to see if a puff of smoke comes out the tailpipe. Also, when the valve covers are removed you can look at the valve stem guides on cylinders 5&6 to see if they are damaged. In high mileage vehicles they tend to hardened up. There are additives on the market to soften them up. If the stem guides are cracked, only replacing them can fix that, and involves removing the heads in most cases.
Worn piston rings - a compression check will reveal which pistons and how much pressure each piston cylinder has. Low compression can be indicative of other problems though. Excessively worn rings can also generate smoke. There are oil additives on the market for this also.
Bad head gasket - there are about eight ways a head gasket can go bad. There are different tests to identify a bad HG.
PCV Valve - a PCV valve stuck closed can cause oil leaks. It over-pressurizes the crankcase, leading to leaks. This is a cheap fix, just get a new valve.

Lets hope the mechanic spots a affordable solution.