Jeep CJ7 Smokes Badddd needs guidance?

Question

My 1983 Jeep CJ7 has in I6. I had a minor oil leak, which seemed to have turned into a seam leak across the whole valve cover... I was driving when it made a pop and sizzle sound and it is smoking really bad. I have oil in my spark plugs and water in my oil res. Somebody told me that I have bad piston rings, and possibly some bad seals and gaskets. One guy thinks I should change out the engine. Is this repairable? Can I do this repair myself? What would I need? Please advise....... I dont want to spend 3k.... my budget is like 1k, and I am somewhat mechanical.

engine is smoking from engine and exaust...

Answer 1

Could be a blown head gasket. It will be bad for the engine to be run with water in the oil, it will loose lubrication and foam the oil. You could try replacing the head gasket yourself, but you will need a torque wrench. Hopefully this will also resolve your oil leak that sounds like it drips on the exhaust header and causes the smoking in the engine compartment.
By the way, if your piston rings were bad, the smoking would be coming out the exhaust pipe, not inside the engine compartment.

Answer 2

It's always repairable, but the question is, "Is the repair affordable?". Any engine that's 25 years old will be expected to have some leaks.

If you heard a sizzle and pop, it might have dripped oil onto the exhaust manifold. That may just be a bad valve cover gasket.

A compression check would give you some idea of the condition of the rings - have you done that yet? If not, I'd do that before I did a lot of other work. If it shows good compression, and similar numbers in all cylinders, then I'd clean the oil and dirt and crud off the engine, and watch for where the oil leak stains show up first. You might need to just replace the valve cover gasket.

Answer 3

The best thing is to stop suddenly like I did. Not even finish the pack. There's no real easy solution, you just need alot of will power. Try substituting with something you really like. If there is a sweet you love have one or two every time you fancy smoking. Treat yourself to what you want instead of one. It's worth a try. Good luck! There's no point cutting down either. It doesn't work.