92 Es300 Smoking From Engine

[92ES300Girl]

Hey everybody. Im new to this site. Ive been browsing through it for the last couple of days and it seems real informative. I wanted to ask you guys if you know what might be causing ALOT of smoke from under the hood??? Im considering purchasing a black 1992 ES300 (for $1,400) w/192,000 miles, but the catch is that it is SMOKING from under the hood (supposedly from oil leaking onto something hot and burning). Im kind of scared that it might be a MAJOR and EXPENSIVE repair, but im hoping that it might be fixable without having caused major damage because I want a Lexus Sooooo bad. Ive read about Valve Cover Gaskets, Head Gaskets and O-Rings being causes of oil leaks, but if anybody can give me an educated guess (or just to tell me that its probably a heap and not to buy it) then I would really appreciate it! The engine seems to run good and I didnt see any smoke coming from the tail-pipe. Thanks!

[dcfish]

Are you able to look at the car when it is parked ? If there is any oil on the ground then it is easier to trace by looking up from the spot , Also look at the engine bay and see if you can see any obvious leaks from the head , the oil filter , or any other oil stained area , Be patient , use a flashlight [ even in daylight ] and take your time to inspect everything that you can see from the top to the bottom , You might want to take the car to a toyota dealer to have it inspected ,LEXUS DEALERS WILL JUST CHARGE YOU MORE $ Take a afriend who knows something about cars . carfax it ? get all the previous maintenance records , If none don't buy , There are a number of perfectly good used lexus on the market .

[92ES300Girl]

I didnt notice any oil underneath the car. But it might have not been in the same spot that it usually sits in when I saw the car (it was sitting at the edge of the drieway). I dont think he has any Maint. Records. I asked him about it and he said "no", and then he said "maybe in the glove box or something", but I didnt check. I dont know if its been maintained at all or not. It was smoker-owned, has a few fairly small scrub marks on the front bumper and pass. side rear door, non-factory alloys (ugly too, but I can manage), and the driver pwr window doesnt work. The engine smoke got fairly heavy after it ran for about 20 minutes and the engine compartment is a little dirty. Ive read a few bad things about 92-93 ES300's, im hoping that this might not be a MAJOR problem, because all I have is $3,000, and I can barely get a 92-93 Camry w/leather & a sunroof for that (and the ES250's are ugly).

[dcfish]

My advice sight unseen DO NOT BUY .Take the vin # and tell your local lexus dealer to run it on there computer , They should be able to tell you if any work at a dealer was done . Hunt around you will find a better deal.

[VBdenny]

The smoke is caused by one of two things. either there is an oil leak which is bad enough to run down onto the exhaust manifold, or it is blowby. Blowby means blwing by the piston rings. That is really bad and means the engine is terminal. How mechanics determine where the leak is; steam clean the engine, add a florescent dye to the oil and observe under a blacklight.. You can probably buy the dye at Autozone and blacklights are easy enough to come buy. They sell them at Home Depot.

Anything you pay the dealer to repair WILL cost a fortune.

[dcfish]

No smoke from the tail ? No blowbye unless the exhaust manifold gasket is shot, A certain amount of blowbye is certain for just about any car , If it is smoking from under the hood it is almost certain to be a gasket . Is the oil cap on ?

[92ES300Girl]

Yes DCfish. I checked under the cap to see if it had any "gunk" from Oil Sludge that ive been hearing about and didnt see any. The car is like 80 miles away from me though so I cant get it to my mechanic (who gives me deals on repairs) without buying it first, so I kind of have to make a decision on whether the car is potentially good or bad. The exhaust seems fine, the car isnt loud or anything if thats what you guys were talking about with the "Exhaust Manifold". Do you guuys think its a "high probability" that the engine could be bad or need ALOT of work to fix? The smoke IS pretty heavy under the hood once the car warms up by the way, it doesnt seem to over-heat though (judging by the Temp. Needle).

[92ES300Girl]

What kind of "Gasket?" And INEXPENSIVE Gasket or an EXPENSIVE Gasket? :D

[SKperformance]

I would only take it to a tech and get a compression test, and see how bad or good the fluids are.

As well as heaving the valve cover removed to look for sludge properly.

$3000 is ok but not if you are spending another $3000 to fix it ,

Save up and buy a newer one later, your purse willl thank you

[Lexusfreak]

I agree with sk! ;)

[xxxavier2k]

I've had a similar experience. After changing my camshaft oil seals, sealing my valve cover gaskits, and doing a compression test I still has seeing the smoke under the hood and was still smelling the burnt fluid smell. What really did the trick was a replacement of the oil seal ("o" ring) in the oil filter bracket. The oil was leaking from the bracket and running down to the front manifold down pipe.

I would suggest that you clean the down pipe with engine degreaser and check later to see if the oil (if there is any ) reappears