I just bought my dads 93 4x4 ranger 4.0. He said he rebuilt the whole engine 32k ago. I drove it 1500 miles to get it home and noticed it's smoking blue quite a bit. Used about 1.5 quarts of oil on my trip home but is also leaking from the front main seal and valve covers.
He said he didn't replace the rockers, push rods or lifters (yes it's a bit noisy) and put back in the old ones thinking he'd do it later and never did (UGH!) ...question is would any of this cause blue smoke? I recently read the pushrods in these get bad and worn in this engine. He also said he put on new heads and new pistons/rings. I sold my darn Hummer because it was such a problem...was hoping not to buy another problem but my luck seems to have failed me.

OH he also rebuilt the rear end but says he didn't shim it right so it is growling..I was told if I don't fix it it could seize up when driving. He's been driving it like this 3+ years before I got it last month. Concerns me as I need to drive it to NM next week...I think its a 12hr trip .

Any thoughts? I appreciate all effort for any replies. I want to restore the truck and keep it since it was dad's but really hoping I don't have to rebuild the engine or rear end as that was never in my plan when I bought it.

 

Forgot to mention he said he put on new heads also. Tomorrow I plan to pull some spark plugs and check the condition.

 

I'm not going to be much help on the blue smoke, but on the rear end, is it growling all the time or just on decel? I had a R&P that was improperly setup before and it howled pretty bad on decel so i put 85-140 in it and rolled with it. That axle is still running today in Fordzilla80's truck.

 

No howl to this day. lol. #senditbud

 

When does the truck smoke? While accelerating, decelerating, startup or while your just driving down the road normally? Could be a lot of different things..

 

Blue smoke is oil
Lifters, pushrods and rockers can't cause oil burning

If there a puff of smoke starting off after idling then its valve guide seals, or if it smokes after coasting downhill and then accelerating at the bottom of hill

New "complete" heads, would have new valve guide seals, it he got just new heads then he would have swapped over the old parts

Pull the spark plugs and have a look at the tip of each one, some will be blackish from oil, hopefully not all
You can install new valve guide seals with just valve cover off, its not simple but is doable
Its the intake valve guide seals so there are only 3 on each side
There is really no other way for oil to get into a cylinder to burn except piston rings, and its hard to screw that up


Un-shimmed rear differential "can" seize up anytime, and anytime means from when put on the road to end of time, no one can predict it

 

It howls all the time when driving.

 

I changed the spark plugs which look a bit on the hot side, the smoking has decreased since being replaced, only a little now...plan to rebuild (again) the top end with lifters, push rods and rockers and fix the valve cover leaks too and see where that goes. Truck was smoking on idle and acceleration...smelled like oil pretty bad when I had someone drive behind me to check...now I think the smell is coming from the actual oil leaks.

 

THANK YOU! I will ask pops if he did get new valve seals...one would think he would but then again he did put in other worn out parts like the push rods.
As for the rear end...I'm driving it to the Grand Canyon and NM in a week which is a long trip, I will take caution as best I can as I don't have another vehicle and can't pay $400+ for a rental. He DID shim the rear end, he just said he didn't get them in right.
Plugs are whitish, a little hot?? No oil on the plugs.