Hey,
Well i have a 1997 Mitsu verada Xi 3.5 auto. has done 201,000km. Recently it has been occasionally blowing a bit of grey/blue smoke on takeoff after idling for a few minutes. i noticed on monday (18th oct)
was fine before.

When the car is cold started in the morning it starts fine, revs up as normal when its cold and puurss with no smoke or even a smell of burning oil. I changed the oil a while ago and have 10W-40 XLD valvoline engine armour in it.

I rang a mechanic and he said the oil is way to thin and my car would drink it and thicker oil might fix the problem. Is this bad for the engine (have i screwed it up buy using thinner oil?) can i save my engine with a simple oil change of the right viscosity? and could it be anything else like the EGR valve? because the car hasnt been serviced or anything (cleaning, plugs etc) for about 30,000km because i cant afford it atm (although oil has been kept healthy). Bought with 186,000km 5 months ago, has 201,000km now:) drives beautiful still, all the commodore killing power is still there:D

PLEASE HELLPP i love my verada to death
stuuuuey

If worse comes to worse you could always get another engine on ebay for $650,
theres one there right now.

change to a better brand of oil, i dont touch castol especially magnatec, or valvoline, a slightly thicker oil may help your situation. your EGR wont cause blue smoke, it just redirects exhaust gas back into the cylinder somtimes.
ive been using Nulon for years and been very happy

Dont panic mate. Its all good. Its probably just burning the oil cause its a little thin at start up, OR it could be your valve stem seals starting to go. Its a very common problem with the Mitsubishi V6s.

Valve Stem seals leak after extended idle periods then you take off, it puffs.

Swap to a slightly thicker oil (15w-xx), or something like Penrite HPR30 oil and your troubles should go away.

Heyy thanks heaps well ill try the thicker oil. I drove it this morning and noticed it didnt blow any smoke from waiting at the lights, it was extremely hot yesterday and it had low oil in it. i topped it up and it seems ok. I am confident i can solve this problem. Should i use 20W oil or as wackywheelz said 15w?
cheers and thanks heapss

try the 15 first, penrite is also good

Valve Stem seals leak after extended idle periods then you take off, it puffs.

Swap to a slightly thicker oil (15w-xx), or something like Penrite HPR30 oil and your troubles should go away.

My Magna has started blowing smoke whether idling or driving for the past 4000k'ms. Stopped driving it now till i get lights fixed and then the valve stem seals. Pretty sure its the valve stem seals. I have been using thicker oil, plus oil additives but nothing works. If it is blowing smoke then oil is burning, so your just going to keep wasting money on oil till its fixed.

Yep that sounds like valve stem seals for sure. Don't waste your money changing oil 10/40 is fine so is Valvoline. Just a note factory oil is 5/20.

Cheers Dave

Mine hasn't blown any today. None in the morning or whilst driving. It was low on oil and very hot the day it did so when i do the oil it should be fine for a while i hope

5w/20 is because of the ultra fine tolerances of a new engine (as in when it leaves the factory), 5w/20 in an older engine would be.... non optimal

First of all use a good engine flush, I can send up some of the proper workshop grade wynns for you if need be. Then use the HPR10 or at a stretch 15, dont go the 30 as is way too thick. You really need to understand how oil works and using 30 in a magna engine is way too thick for them and will do more harm than good

If you also follow up with some supreme this may help. If it is stem seals is cheaper as above to use a new engine but given the oil you are using this could be a big part of the issue

yea it defs is because its not smoking anymore since i topped up oil:s yea will flush do filter, oil etc. should be sweet after that. thanks goddd.
thanks heaps

Just curious as to what you mean by low on oil?

If you are up on your oil service and it was down on oil it sounds as though it is consuming quite a bit. What are your oil change intervals?