Just today when i left to go home from my college class i started up my lancer and it was ticking and it was pretty noticable. It has also been burning oil since i have got it. So i got home and checked the oil, it was terribly low and i added about a quart to the valve cover and it's still ticking. There is also burned oil residue on the exhaust headers and at the center bottom bolt is covered in the fresh/burned oil. My exhaust system (kamakazee headers w/ magnaflow exhuast) has no catalytic converters on the pipes and the car does idle kind of rough. The Ticking is right about in the center of the motor towards the back. Any suggestions? Should i just go ahead and be ready to get a new motor for it in a few months or just rebuild it? The motor and body have 208,000 miles on it as well. Anything would help guys thanks.

 

At this point, I would look towards a rebuild for a few reasons that you stated.....

constantly burning/leaking oil
ticking that wont go away

as for no cats, does it have codes or a way to get it to run right? is the CEL on? I would personally put cats on it, but that is me.. while you may not have emissions testing, it is still illegal to remove any cat that was there from the factory, as a federal law.....

 

I didn't remove them it was like that when i got it. I can only wonder how much this rebuild is gonna cost me.

 

First thing you should do before anything is run a compression test and leak down test done. This will tell you if you need a rebuild or replacement.

Does it smoke at all? I know the valve cover gaskets go on these as they harden up and don't seal very well with age/mileage.

 

Upon starting up it outs out some blue smoke, and ive been thinking it's the valve cover gasket and the exhaust manifold gaskets(which includes the spark plug gaskets), and seeing if that helps it any. And any other places that smoke is at the bottom center bolt on the exhaust manifold there is enough oil for it to cover the threads and bolt. thats why i was assuming the manifold gasket. I ws thinking of getting the codes and some pressure tests done on the motor to find out further damage.

 

I don't know these motors from the back of my head, but general knowledge tells me that there is no way oil would be leaking out from an exhaust manifold gasket. Maybe Intake manifold gasket, but that's on the firewall side. Blue smoke on startup is usually valve stem seals. Does it smoke while driving, accel, decel, etc? Either way, perform some further tests or take it in to a shop, shouldn't cost much to perform compression/leakdown.

 

If you have burnt oil residue on the exhaust manifold. You should probably replace your valve cover gasket. Only 20-30 bucks and you can change it in about 15min. Just make sure not to over tighten it. The noise you're hearing is probably valve lash, you can adjust the valve lash. But if it's not that bad, I wouldn't worry about it. As for burning oil, as long as you're continually adding oil when it needs it, you should be fine as long as you still have compression. Me personally, I wouldn't even bother building the motor, unless you're planning on a turbo setup or keeping the car for a long time. A junk yard motor would do perfectly well and they are relatively cheap to pick up. But I wouldn't even bother unless it gets worse or the motor finally goes.

 

Sorry for the late reply, but that was my plan for the future is eventually putting a turbo on the motor but i don't know if it is worth it. I heard it's hard to add hp to this motor due to the high pressure it is already at and it is very expensive to do apparently. And i was going to replace the manifold gasket and valve cover gasket to try to solve the problem. And i keep oil in it for sure. How much do you think a turbo + install would cost by the way?

 

It's not very expensive to do. Anywhere from 2-4k depending on the route you go. You don't live very far away, if you were really committed and had the parts. I'd be more than happy to help ya out. We could bang the install out in a wkend. I have been boosted for about 5yrs with about 30k miles on the setup. I'm currently at 114k on my car and I'm still running a stock motor. Putting down around 220whp

 

Yeah man you're about 3 hours away. And thats pretty good honestly. I was looking at some turbo kits and they run about 4k for the real good one that everone suggests. I found this kit http://www.roadracemotorsports.com/s...&products_id=3 . And i think it's the one worth getting to make sure everything works right but thats pretty expensive tbh.

 

I was an idiot when I first started and I bought the rrm kit. I ended up eliminating the 5th injector and tuning it thru the Ecu. You're better off getting a Evo 8 turbo, a custom manifold for the car, and the Evo 8 intercooler and piping. If you piece it together. You could do it for around 2k if you buy parts from people on the forum

 

That sounds wayyy better and i'm new to turbos and all the stuff i need for it. Ill havw to look for it all though

 

There's a lot of good information on the forums about everything you need for a turbo setup. If you run into issues either PM or make a post about it.

 

I sure will man ill send you a pm so i can have you in my box just to have you on there so i don't lose contact

 

the ticking is the lifters from having low oil level due to burning. possible that valve job and new lifters could fix problem. also there is a tsb about taking lifters out and giving them a bath in kerosene(sp). ive fixed lifter tick on lots of vehicles by replacing lifters....now if its a rod bearing because of the low amount of oil. new bearings could be installed by pulling oil pan and installing new bearings.