rings or fue system?

[AlphaAssault]

i went outside to check the oil in my car, and when i took the oil cap off to add a little, i got a slight whiff of something that smelled like gas. i smelled the bottom side of the oil cap and there was a definite odor of gas there. i pulled out the dipstick and smelled that, but i didnt smell any gas on that. so, theres a little gas in my oil. ive been reading, and in other threads, people seem to think that gas in the oil is either a) natural, b) caused by some kind of fuel issue, or c) caused by bad rings; and im not sure what to think in my case.

in addition to this (since this seems related), my car takes several cranks to start each morning. when its cold, it cranks maybe 3-5 times before firing, but if the engine is warm (even if its been sitting for several hours) it always cranks the first time. also when the engine is cold, the car will bog some the first time i let out the clutch in gear, but every time after that, there is no noticeable bogging. even if i drive for 20 feet, stop, then start again, it wont bog like the first time. none of this happens if the car is warm. what is going on here? where should i start looking for things to address?

EDIT: if it helps, 35k miles on rebuild, the car runs at 20vac @ idle and i get 27mpg highway.

 

[bluegs03]

first thing that comes to mind is if you have a bright silver fuel pump that would cause the stock fpr to be overrun and let excess fuel into the cylinders and thus the oil

 

[AlphaAssault]

the injectors are stock, but i have tried several times to get to the fuel pump itself, but cant get it out. i dont know if the pump is aftermarket or not. i bought the car lightly modded, so i dunno if that was one of the mods or not.

 

[Grant]

Hmm, well I don't really know what a bright silver fuel pump would have to do with gas in the oil. Is your engine high mileage, or freshly broken in?

I'm thinking that you may have some blowby around your rings. Do a compression test. That may shed a little light on the health of your engine. The only other thing I can think of, is that maybe you have slightly leaky injectors, either around the seals, or in the injectors themselves. The gasoline will either evaporate or get mixed into the oil after a bit of run time.

My brothers car does the same kind of thing when it's cold. The engine has a bit of "lag" until it's been running for a bit. Engines run smoother when they've been warmed up, due in part to the fact that oil is much more fluid when it's warm.

If you start your car cold, and then rev it up a bit, does it still bog when you release the clutch?

 

[Grant]

If you have low compression numbers, indicating blowby, that would be a pretty good reason for having a gas smell in your oil. If your oil is really dirty, and has been changed relatively recently, that's another good indicator. If the mixture is capable of getting into the oil, that's the most obvious reason that I can think of for the oil to smell like gas.

 

[AlphaAssault]

If you start your car cold, and then rev it up a bit, does it still bog when you release the clutch?

if i rev it, it still bogs, but not nearly as bad. what actually works the best is when i rev it past 2500RPMs, when the alternator kicks in. that really seems to reduce the severity with which the engine bogs when i first start out. this leads me to believe that it has more to do with the fuel system itself, rather than the rings.

If you have low compression numbers, indicating blowby, that would be a pretty good reason for having a gas smell in your oil. If your oil is really dirty, and has been changed relatively recently, that's another good indicator. If the mixture is capable of getting into the oil, that's the most obvious reason that I can think of for the oil to smell like gas.

i havnt done a compression/leakdown test. the oil has somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000 miles on it, and is still the color of honey. it doesnt seem dark at all. come to think of it, i might change the oil tomorrow...

 

[Grant]

Well if you have a walbro 255lph fuel pump, I'd honestly be surprised if your car ran decently well without an aftermarket afpr. Right now my talon is just pig rich with a walbro and a stock fpr. It bogs constantly and wont rev past about 3500rpm. You can just smell the gas coming out the exhaust.

Other than that, your car runs fine? Good overall idle, etc.

The only reason I ask is that my brother's talon had a plugged up fuel filter, and that made it a real pain to start, and lacked a good bit of power.

 

[AlphaAssault]

like i said, i dont know what the fuel pump is. it could be stock, it could be a 255, i just dont know. if i hadnt been messing with the oil, i never would have thought anything was up. idles great, runs great, starts every time, despite the cranking. in addition, ive never seen any smoke of any color come out the exhaust, and the turbo still spools strong. no play in the turbo either. can rev it all the way to redline, and its as happy as could be.

i DO notice a significant difference in power between hot and cold. the engine seems much more torquey after it has fully warmed up. i never let it enter boost until its fully warmed up, so im just referring to normal driving, not letting the turbo spool.

 

[AlphaAssault]

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/new...ve-cover-breather-hose-out-dipstick-tube.html

^that thread may or may not be pertinent to the discussion in this thread.