1998 Cobra Blowing Blue Smoke

by Keith B
(Wake Forest nc)

Question:

1998 Cobra Blowing Blue Smoke
I have a 98 Cobra with 150 thousand miles. It is starting to blow blue thick smoke.

I can also hear a low tick that seems to be a manifold problem. All the miles are commuting miles I drive about 48 miles way five days a week.
I'm concerned I may have to sell it if its a head basket problem.

Answer

Your 1998 Cobra blowing BLUE smoke means it more likely blowing oil. Typically, when you have a head gasket issue, you are going to see white smoke, which comes from coolant and water leaking across the broken head gasket into one or some of your cylinders.

Blue smoke could be a bad valve, rings or just plain old wear and tear on your motor.

The before you go any further with the 1998 Cobra blowing blue smoke, I'd suggest that you take it to a trusted technician and have them do a diagnosis on it. Specifically, you want to do a compression and leak down test on your cylinders to see what is the cause of the oil burning on your 98 Mustang Cobra. It will also diagnose whether or not you have a head gasket problem.

You can also get a good idea as to the likelihood of a head gasket failure by checking your oil to see if any coolant has got into it.

When coolant is in your oil (from a broken head gasket) your oil will look kind of milky, or murky.

Clear clean or dirty oil, pretty much eliminates the possibility that your pony car has a head gasket problem.

That low tick could be a number of things and could certainly be related to the oil burning problem. Higher pitched ticks tend to be head and valve train issues and low knocking sounds are more likely to be bottom end problems like a connecting rod.

Either way, get the tests done and then decide!




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