A depressing story

[davidgt97]

About two months ago I blew my turbo (I thought). I bought a big 16, stainless manifold, walbro 255, fmic, big o2 housing, 2.75" downpipe, and a catback. I finished today and the car fired right up and began smoking like a train. A compression test revealed: 180, 180, 180, 120 from passenger to driver side. the spark plug from the 120 cylinder had the end broke off. What are my options?

 

[Talonracn50]

It could just be the old oil burning off that got dumped in the exhaust when you old turbo died -- mine smoked for about 2 hours.

Although 120 is low, I have seen them run at 120 -- it just depends on your specific case.

 

[hopwoodp]

You can extract the remain part of the spark plug with a bolt/screw extractor. If you don't have one, just go to a hardware store and pick one up. I had that happen before and it didn't take long to fix. That happened from me over tightening the plug. To properly install them, install the plug hand tight and tighten them down another 45 degrees and it should be set. You need to remember that the spark plug has a crush washer and it also doesn't take much to brake the spark plug off into your head.

 

[Boostin91TSi]

So you're saying that part of the spark plug actually broke off in the cylinder with the lower compression? What kind of tool did you use to remove your spark plugs? The other question is; if it broke off, is it just sitting loose in the plug hole or is it still tightened down there? I would recommend using a magnetic pick up tool to get it, only after you disconnect the battery. Now I don't know if that will work though. Good luck with that one. Keep us updated!

 

[laserspeeddemon]

Thats not information for me to help you, what part of the spark plug broke off. Did it fall into the cylinder?

 

[davidgt97]

Sorry for being unclear, only the small post over the electrode broke off my spark plug. As for the smoke my exhaust is new from the turbo back so there should be no old oil. Also oil is being blown through my valve cover breather tube. Sometimes I can hear a ticking but it goes in and out.

 

[NATAS]

If you're hearing a ticking and oil is flying out of your breather hole then you have some serious crankcase pressure. That's weird that 's going out the exhaust too. My 1st thought was rings, but that wouldn't make much sense. Was your compression perfect before the install, or did you just take it for the 1st time.

I'm thinking maybe it was already down a little and then this smoking is something different. I kind of want to say it could be the oil line from your turbo is causing too much pressure (pinched maybe?) and it ended up blowing out a turbo seal and that's why it's smoking and shooting oil outta your head. Did you change that when you upgraded everything. That's just one of many things that came to mind. It's probably way off, but I've seen it before and it blew the turbo instantly and it smoked like no other.

Go back over everything you did during the install and make sure it's done right. No oil at all is leaking though, just burning? I wish I had the car here so I could look it over. I'm sure you'll get it figured out. Good luck dood.

 

[oldman]

Leakdown test time.

 

[davidgt97]

No oil leaks. I did a comp test when I got the car about 3 months ago: 180 all 4. The turbo oil lines are new.

 

[laserspeeddemon]

Ok, well. You're going to have to open her up. Debris in the cylinders can wreck havoc on the engine. A leak down test only tells you want you need to fix. Put a cap of oil into the cylinder and do another compression test. This is called a wet test and only performs one function that a leak down test can perform. If you compression goes up. Your piston rings are not performing as designed and need to be replaced. I would still do a leak down test, but you need a special tool and a compressor and most shops don't have a clue how to perform one properly.

Here's another note. Alot of companies put a type of oil on their parts to rust-proof it while it's on the stock shelf. It burns off in a few hours. But that's just an FYI. You're car is in need of servicing since you're outside the limit of variation between cylinder compression.