I changed the head gaskets on my dad's 2001 Sport Trac and when I started it up afterward, oil began spraying out of the exhaust manifold mostly on the passenger side but also a little on the driver's side. I'm showing 150 psi on all cylinders. I removed the intake manifold and found oil mostly in the back two cylinder ports. I also removed the passenger exhaust manifold and it seems that only cylinder 3 was the one spraying oil. I have already checked the PCV hose and also removed the hose to start it and it was still spraying oil. I'm assuming it's bad piston rings, but it was not doing this before (I don't think). Maybe before the oil was being burned up in the catalytic converter and the only reason I noticed was that I started it up before putting the cats back on. The new oil I put in already smells strongly of gasoline. I'm assuming I'll have to remove the engine for the piston rings? I've seen videos of people doing it without removing the engine but not this engine. Also, when cranking the engine, I can hear a strange sound. The best I can describe it is a "glug, glug, glug" sound coming from the oil pan. Almost like the oil is too full and the pistons are hitting it, but the oil level is almost below the low marking on the dipstick. I have also put compressed air in cylinder 3 and I can hear air coming out of the crank case, but nowhere else. I also hooked it up to cylinder one and the sound was nowhere near as loud coming from the oil tube, but it was still there. I know some air will always leak but even cylinder one seemed to be leaking a bit too much, but cylinder three is definitely having issues.

 

How about we start by asking some questions, What engine, miles on vehicle,
Did you drain the cooling system before removing the heads ?
Did you compare the head gaskets you installed to the old ones you removed , exactly the same?
What was the condition that caused you to replace the head gaskets in the first place?
The 150 lbs compression in each cyl and air blowing by into the crankcase is somewhat confusing
The oil being possibly heavily diluted with gasoline is another thing to look into.
Could you be flooding those cyls with gas and removing the oil film?

From what you describe , There are several things that might be going on from so much oil getting into the combustion chamber , if that is happening, to unusual amounts of gas . With all that oil how are the plugs able to fire and the engine to be able to run on all cyls is more confusing..
It sounds like there is also a timing problem. Don't know if it is involving injectors, spark plugs or something else.
What did you use to clean the block when you had it opened up?
The cats will not clean up excess oil , it just destroys them.
Hopefully some addl questions and suggestions will help out,

 

174,000 miles.
Yes I drained the coolant.
Gaskets were exactly the same
Changed because oil was in coolant and coolant was in oil. Gas was also in oil, but obviously the gasket wouldn't affect this.
I will re-check compression as soon as I can. I got 150 only after a few tries on cylinder 3. It was 120 before that.
The cylinders were spotless before putting the heads back on and the stuff coming out smelled only like oil.

I used a timing kit to time the engine as you are supposed to.
I used a plastic scraper for the heads and a metal gasket scraper for the block. Both were checked with a .001 straight edge and a .001 feeler gauge and were nearly perfect. I could not fit the feeler under the straight edge in any position.

 

Thanks for answering,

When some folks get into an engine we have no idea of their background so we ask all sorts of questions. Even had to learn the hard way when I became involved with far out suggestions and assumed things like plugs were routine , when the plugs were replaced the problem was gone. So we learn to take nothing for granted !

Do you think the injector for #3 cyl is overfueling?

 

Well the injectors seemed to be working fine before replacing the gaskets, but I can check. However, the stuff coming out of the exhaust doesn't smell even a tiny bit like gasoline...just oil. I just started learning about cars in January so I'm fairly new to this, but I've put in over 200 hours of reading and youtube since then. I feel like I have a fairly good grasp on everything.

 

I don't know if this will help you, but sometimes questions help a lot.
Let's take this a little at a time,
If oil is getting past the oil rings it goes into the combustion chamber and gets burned with the fuel. That, causes blue smoke to come out of the exhaust and fouls the spark plugs eventually causing a misfire and it progresses from there. So if you are not seeing this part, could the oil actually be leaking out of the valve covers and not actually into the exhaust? Do you know if the engine ever overheated, if so , there could be bigger problems than worn rings. Did you give any thought to looking for any cracks in the block or the heads ?
I admire your willingness to study and learn, who knows, you might just choose this as a career.
Oil in the coolant and coolant in the oil can be caused by head gasket problems, but there could be other causes also. What engine do you have in there?

Hey forum members this gent needs some help and so do I !! What do you say ?

 

I've checked the valve covers and other things already. I can see the oil literally spraying out of the exhaust manifold. I only have the manifolds on and the rest of the exhaust is still off. I have removed the passenger exhaust manifold and looked inside and I can see the trail of oil coming only from cylinder 3. I have also removed the intake manifold and there is oil around the gasket area mostly on cylinder 3 and some on cylinder 6 (both are the rear most cylinders). The engine is the 4.0 SOHC 6 Cylinder. I have checked the PCV hose for oil and it's dry and I've even removed the hose, blocked the holes to maintain a vacuum, and it's still doing the same thing. I have also made sure it's not coming through the vent hose that goes into the air intake tube after the MAF sensor. I have removed the valve cover on that side and watched the valve train and there isn't an excess of oil or anything. Just what I presume is the normal amount is coming out of the oil tube and on to the cam lobes. It is definitely oil and nothing else, since the oil level has dropped by at least half a quart. I have also even made a slow motion video of the intake valve operating through the intake port and there isn't oil dripping down into the cylinder so I know the valve seals are good. Not sure if I mentioned this already, but I also did a valve job and lapped the valves and they now seal perfectly (I know this wouldn't make oil leak unless I damaged the seals by letting lapping compound get in there but I'm positive that it didn't happen since I rinsed the valves, seals, and the entire head after the valve job). There is a small amount of blue smoke happening but not as much as you would think with this much oil in there, but maybe there's so much oil that combustion is being hindered. I have, however, hooked up a scan tool and there are no misfires. Just a DPFE code, which is very normal on these engines. The engine may have overheated at some point because the coolant reservoir was bone dry at one point. I also remember driving it this winter and if I left it running to go into a store, I would smell burning when I came back out. The engine heat seemed normal though. After filling it is when it started mixing with the oil. I don't think the heads were warped or cracked, but I'm not sure about the block, but I am sure that the oil is coming out of the exhaust ports from the cylinders. Also, when cranking the engine, I can hear a 'glug, glug, glug" sound coming from the oil pan which wan't there before doing the head gaskets.

I am trying to learn to start a mobile mechanic business, so thank you for the kind words and for your help.

 

You couldn't have picked a better project to gain experience.
I'm trying to pull a few hairs to come up with why the problem appeared after the head gasket replacement.

Not sure of this, but some engines have special bolts that go into special holes in the block where oil pressure travels. I'm wondering if that is a possibility here.
The signs and symptoms seem to point to excessive gap in the oil rings of the last 2 cyls.
The glug glug sound has my curiosity. What do the spark plugs look like from the 2 cyls shooting oil? Let's try to approach from that direction.

It would maybe be a good idea to locate an oil lubrication diagram/path for that engine and see just where the oil is supposed to go and it may provide some clue to just why the oil is causing so much problems.