diagnosing an oil burning problem

[camcamdaman90]

I bought the car from a buddy who had it for a few years before I did, he wasn't very hard on the car, and rarely "let it rip". He left to serve our country and I bought the car from him when he did. It had been parked because it had started to burn oil and produce a huge thick persistant cloud of blue grey smoke. It had been diagnosed by a mitsu tech ( mutual friend) that it had a blown head gasket. I went to work on it shortly before the winter set in and managed to remove the head and clean the surfaces, and it indeed was cracked between 2 &3 and a small crack on the intake side of #2. i got back to work on it that spring and became to busy with work to finish it . I sent it to a shop to have the head put back on and put together. They did an okay job but to my dismay I found a few odds and ends that needed finished ( vacuum lines, intake tube) they informed me the turbo needed replaced because of excessive oil in the intercooler pipe. so I shopped around and the mitsu tech sold me a remand' 14b he had just used on his talon. We installed it and buttoned it up in a day ( very proud of myself) and upon start up the car seemed fine, until it warmed up and the smoke started to roll, again. Compression/ leak down test came back as follows

Cylinder# : dry/with oil psi

1: 110/125
2: 75/150
3: 75/180
4: 90/125

Any ideas as to what the cause may be? It's beginning to stump everyone I know so I thought I'd ask the braintrust of dsm knowledge. If you need more info just ask!

 

[RadDsm]

If the test was done when the motor was warm and at WOT, it's the piston rings.

 

[camcamdaman90]

But would a piston ring problem appear suddenly and on all 4 cylinders? My thoughts are the head gasket job was done incorrectly, ill be taking it back really soon.

 

[nickk90]

Do a leakdown test. Like the other guy said if the motor was fully warmed up, throttle plate open and battery fully charged your rings are probably shot. Only other thing it could be is valve stem seals or PCV valve.

 

[hretter]

I recently replaced the head gasket and rings on my 4G63 turbo and compression readings (warm engine) are:
170, 167, 168, 170.
Oil in the intercooler could be coming from the rocker cover vent line. I put in a fuel filter between the rocker cover and intake to trap the oil. It's quite a bit and over time it ends up lining the intake piping.

 

[camcamdaman90]

Alright ill do a leakdown test this weekend and check the pcv valve. I'll post the results as soon as I get them. Anything else I should be looking at/for while I'm under the hood that might be the culprit?

Also hretter how easy was it to do the rings? I'm a 4.6 ford guy switching to dsm so I'm a newb for sure with imports

 

[hretter]

Alright ill do a leakdown test this weekend and check the pcv valve. I'll post the results as soon as I get them. Anything else I should be looking at/for while I'm under the hood that might be the culprit?

Also hretter how easy was it to do the rings? I'm a 4.6 ford guy switching to dsm so I'm a newb for sure with imports

Drop the oil pan and the rod caps are easily accessible. Make sure you cover the rod bolts with something (I used some large diameter heat shrink tubing) as you remove/insert rods with pistons. You do not want to scratch the crank faces with the exposed rod bolts.
You might also have to put in new rod bolts according to the manual because they are torqued then tightened 1/4 (1/2?) turn after that. That can stretch the bolt. I put in new ARP bolts to be safe, but it looked like the original bolts were ok. The test is to spin a nut on each bolt and if there is any binding along the way, it stretched.
It turned out to be pretty easy, even lying flat on my back on a tarp with one of those LED headlamps on my head.

 

[camcamdaman90]

Drop the oil pan and the rod caps are easily accessible. Make sure you cover the rod bolts with something (I used some large diameter heat shrink tubing) as you remove/insert rods with pistons. You do not want to scratch the crank faces with the exposed rod bolts.
You might also have to put in new rod bolts according to the manual because they are torqued then tightened 1/4 (1/2?) turn after that. That can stretch the bolt. I put in new ARP bolts to be safe, but it looked like the original bolts were ok. The test is to spin a nut on each bolt and if there is any binding along the way, it stretched.
It turned out to be pretty easy, even lying flat on my back on a tarp with one of those LED headlamps on my head.

You did it without head removal? Estimated time it took?

 

[Cdc1221]

As far as i know, on any engine ive ever done, the pistons come out the top deck and go in the same. Not sure if the casting design will allow you to pull them from the bottom. But then, ive never built a 4g. Maybe they have magical blocks?!? Lol

 

[nickk90]

As far as i know, on any engine ive ever done, the pistons come out the top deck and go in the same. Not sure if the casting design will allow you to pull them from the bottom. But then, ive never built a 4g. Maybe they have magical blocks?!? Lol

No they come out of the top. Im not sure if I would try to re-ring and a block still in the car. I'd be worried about honing material getting between the crank journals and bearings.

 

[Clutch450]

Your rings are definitely shot. Those compression numbers are low.
Before with the bad head gasket the compression was escaping through the bad HG, but now since that is all new and solid it's just leaking past the old worn out rings.

You can replace the rings with the block in the car, but I would recommend against it. It's much much easier to do with the block out of the car. And while the block is out I would send it to a machine shop to have it properly decked and resurfaced.

 

[camcamdaman90]

Good stuff, what I'm trying to see is if the head gasket job was bad, ### the car ran fine before the head gasket was changed and I myself didn't do it when I should have. When you want something do.e right....

 

[GSTurbo1]

Have you had the head pressure checked for leaky valves?

 

[camcamdaman90]

Have you had the head pressure checked for leaky valves?

Pretty sure a leakdown will tell, I just haven't had time yet, if the head is leaking the you'd hear it between cylinders. We shall see when I get it done.

 

[camcamdaman90]

Through some stroke of luck and about 5 hours of idle the compression reading went back up to normal, the engine isn't consuming oil but has low oil pressure due to a homemade oil pressure return line I made. The smoke is still rolling but the popular assumption is that the exhaust is full from the initial head gasket failure. Ill try and dry it out/ swap it out and let you guys know how it turns out.

 

[camcamdaman90]

Fixed it! New exhaust welded in today. Removed cat ( found previous turbos turbine in there...) Resonator and welded straight pipes in, also welded a flowmaster muffler in and the smoking is gone!!!! Old muffler was completely soaked, and the oil consumption problem was found to be a leak on my turbo return line... Rtv fixed that. Gonna take it out tonight and see Whst she's got!! Thanx for the help guys!