GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I have 2003 Bib with 351500 miles. What will go first the rings or the valve stems? I use two quarts a week; lately plug one is totally full of oil, the engine is running very ruff almost seams that I have a cam. I replace the plug once a week. Can some one help which way to go.

Wow ! 351,000 miles ! Do You have a check engine light ? Any codes ? Sometimes burning oil can be a sign of a bad pcv valve. 2 quarts is mucho oil. Try doing a compression test.

Have the light on for a few month, I found out that cylinder one is miss firing , that's the one that's filled with oil. I will do a compression test tomorrow and I can bet that cylinder one is gone . That's why I was wondering which way to go.

Wow, pretty awesome that you got 350k miles off one of these. Not so good that she's on her last legs. What do you plan on doing?

If the rest of the car is in good condition, you should consider putting in a used engine. They're plentiful on Car-part.com and craigslist.

Congratulations on cracking 300K and breaking the odometer.

Valve Stem issues tend to cause tailpipe smoke, if the oil is coming in with the fuel stroke. Oil without smoke could be on the exhaust valve or rings. But if the plug is fouling out then anything is possible.

If the compression test fails, remove the dipstick try compressing cylinder one and see if air comes from the dipstick tube or breather, that indicates rings over valves, likewise listen to the intake and exhaust manifold.

Derf wrote:If the compression test fails, remove the dipstick try compressing cylinder one and see if air comes from the dipstick tube or breather, that indicates rings over valves, likewise listen to the intake and exhaust manifold.

You can also squirt just a little oil into the spark plug holes. If the compression comes up, your rings are worn. If it doesn't change, your valves are the issue.

Both valve stem seals and piston rings can be bad. If you were ever lackluster with oil changes, the oil piston ring will gunk up and get stuck, and the two compression rings will get caked in as well.

If you can do the work yourself, you can overhaul the engine for fairly cheap. I can give you a list of the gaskets you need, as you can save some money vs. getting the whole gasket kits.

The heads on the 1ZZ engines are really simple, it would be no problem to change the valve stem seals yourself. There's a chance your valve clearance could change from this (supposedly), and then you'd need to special order the little valve buckets ($12-18 each), but then again it may not.