Trying to help identifying a problem before disassembly for a guy.
2.2 4 cylinder pushing a lot of oil out of dual,outlet muffler. Seems to be heavier from one side.
Ideas on cause/ problem.
I know that’s not a lot to go on.
Thanks

History? new build? 100k miles? more info please

Engine was quality build from what I know and functioned properly for good stretch. No idea if an “event” occurred but does not seem to be the case.
Apparently just started blowing serious oil from exhaust. No apparent “noise”.
Just trying to get my hands on a target reason so tearing into it is not total shot in the dark. Figured with all the experience here someone with knowledge might point out likely suspect.

Smoke upon decel, accel or all of the time?

No smoke ….oil !
All the time

Have the valves ever been adjusted?
I'm, sure you will find one that is WAYYYYYY off.

Is the engine lacking power (I have to imagine it is)
Its it running on three cylinders (again, have to think it probably is)

Whatever the issue ends up being, first thing I'd do is a compression test to see what cylinder is bad. And then give the valves a close inspection.

Zach

any chance they overfilled the crap out of it?

before you do anything I would drain the oil and see how many quarts you get out of it.

that and look for metal chunks in the strainer.

Oil is spitting out from the tailpipe?

Or super rich carbs? BLACK

Time to do a step by step diagnostic program:
1: check for proper oil level;
2: check oil pressure sending unit to see if it is leaking;
3: do a leak down test to see where compression is leaking. If only one cylinder low, do a compression test to see how bad it is;
4: clean off oil from bottom of engine then run it to see if there is an obvious oil leak from a valve cover, push rod tube, front crankshaft seal, or oil filter and oil cooler areas.

My owners theory ( no real technical expertise) a bad ( very bad) valve guide ….like it pulled out. While I tend to believe something broke, I was hoping for direction.

All the easy stuff has been eliminated…..compression check / leak down next I guess.

Trying to see if anything broken would result in oil from exhaust ….

maybe.
but you would get a ton of smoke in addition out the back on start up.
and it would run like sh#t with such a bad valve guide. it would be so fouled up.
cause we are not talking slightly worn in that scenario.

i kind of like mr @930cabman 's idea about carbs.
you sure its oil coming out and not fuel that has mixed with carbon in muffler exhaust system. cause that will be black and look pretty liquid.

agree with other suggestions here to pull the plugs.
check the oil level. drain the oil and inspect it to see if fuel is mixing in it.
cpmpression test.,

not much else you can do.
after that its time to go in for for a teardown and look see.

the only time i have seen oil coming out the exhaust pipe was when i was with my mate on a remote site inspection in his VW tourag TDI. we blew it up.

stuck injector. hydraulic locked the engine when he gassed it to climb a steep hill.
bad fuel we picked up at a rural petrol station.

either cracked the head, or the block. one of the two. its still sitting in his back yard and no one has gone inside the engine to look.

after the giant cloud of white smoke, instant loss of power, dashboard lights going off like a christmas tree and we had pulled to the side of the road i walked around the back.
there was oil, diesel and water vapour running out the exhaust pipes either side.

but thats a whole different gig, oil galleys, coolant galleys in the block and head.
and it was catastrophic failure. no running with oil coming out the exhaust pipe.

slightly off topic, but worth saying - bit of advice. steer clear of VW TDI engines with common rail injection.
you get very little warning if an injector goes bad and sticks open due to bad fuel.

No smoke, just oil?

How do you get liquid oil past the exhaust valves without burning any of it?

If the cylinder is dead its not burning the oil. But there has to be major badness for oil to flow out the exhaust, and eventually it would stop, because the oil level would get too low.

I agree its probably rich as hell, washing the cylinders, and carbon rich gas is getting blown out the tail.

Oil does not make sense out of a running engine.

Zach

It may have decent compression but if the oil control rings are toast due to bore washing it may be too late,whats the oil look like ?,thin black and stinking of fuel is a good indicator .
Best of luck on this but it really isn't sounding good.
Cheers.

Thanks for all the ideas…
I will post once we figure out the cause. Will be amusing….Maybe we could do a pool

put me in for 5 bucks, .......

I am betting on richness but I can imagine some pretty crazy oil overfill situations (and not noticing the smoke). I had a Mavis put 8 quarts in a car once....