Symptoms of bad valve seals/turbo seals/bad rings

[horizontalkev]

What are the symptoms of
Bad valve seals
Bad turbo seals
Bad piston rings
Assume a leak down test is out of the question. What are the unique, detailed symptoms of the three problems? I feel this could help many people, and have it all in one place. Thanks

 

[805LegendDSM]

I'm guessing smoking would be the obvious one...one tiny drop of oil in those cylinders would cause a ton of smoke

 

[Kyogie12]

Valve seals will smoke on start up. Blue for oil.
Turbo seals will dump oil through the IC piping and blow blue smoke after a boosted pull. Check for in and out shaft play.
Bad rings will cause lower compression and smoke blue under deceleration.

 

[1G Eclipse94928]

Valve seals will smoke on start up. Blue for oil.
Turbo seals will dump oil through the IC piping and blow blue smoke after a boosted pull. Check for in and out shaft play.
Bad rings will cause lower compression and smoke blue under deceleration.

isnt white smoke oil?

 

[leepen]

isnt white smoke oil?

no coolent is white

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[horizontalkev]

What would foul spark plugs with what appears to be oily fuel every other day? Little to no smoke while running

 

[dgdsm]

I believe white smoke can also be oil burning in the exhaust instead of the combustion chamber. It's a different white smoke from coolant burning smoke. There's also normal water condensation.

 

[horizontalkev]

What does a small amount of constant white/grey smoke at idle say? (not coolant)

Also, some white smoke can actually mean you're running rich

 

[spyderdrifter]

Oil could foul out the spark plugs by leaking up past the oil scrapper piston rings.

 

[horizontalkev]

Update. All 4 pistons have black buildup on them. Number 1 cylinder, the cylinder top is wet while cylinders 2-4 appear dry.
Cylinder 1 piston

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spark plug (all four are similar)

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Cylinder 2 (3 & 4 are similar as this)

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From this information what can we say is going on? The problem can't be isolated to just one cylinder. Turbo seals?

 

[1sick_gst]

From the looks of the cylinder pictures, to me it looks like there might be oil sitting on top of the piston in cylinder number one. The only logical way for oil to wet the tops like that would be valve seals. The black build up is nothing more than carbon build up.

Also, if you are getting a steady light stream of smoke at idle, I would focus on the turbo and check for excessive shaft play.

 

[1G Eclipse94928]

I believe white smoke can also be oil burning in the exhaust instead of the combustion chamber. It's a different white smoke from coolant burning smoke. There's also normal water condensation.

I agree, I had oil all in my exhaust and it was blowing white/gray smoke

 

[99GS_Turbo]

I recently had bad valve seals...The smoke was slightly thicker than what you would see coming out on a cold and wet day on start up. It would smoke on idle after about 2 mins and go away when driving. I'm trying to see if i can find some video

 

[horizontalkev]

I recently had bad valve seals...The smoke was slightly thicker than what you would see coming out on a cold and wet day on start up. It would smoke on idle after about 2 mins and go away when driving. I'm trying to see if i can find some video

Did your leaky valve seals foul your spark plugs easily?

 

[diambo4life]

Bad valve seals...just pull the header (when car is cold...duh) and look at your exhaust valves. Most likely you will see them "wet" and oil dripping down or signs it was. Should be very obvious. Blue smoke during idle especially right after you start it up.

Oil control rings there will be excessive oil usage and the smoking especially during boost would be more dramatic than the valve seal situation. Also plenty of blowby and the spark plugs would show intense carbonation as in burnt oil buildup. Use a leakdown tester.

If it's a JB turbo especially....the amount of blue smoke will be intensive especially when boosting...and dropping the downpipe normally solves this mystery since there will be signs of major oil burning there...more so than in the other 2 scenarios. Check for in and out and side to side play of the wheels and make sure your oil drain is not restricted which would also cause blue smoking.


Just my shotgun approach to diagnosing smoking issues.


White smoke is normally coolant/water. Easier to test this when it's warm outside. In the winter, you can smell the sweet smell of coolant coming out the tail pipe as a visual test is not a confirmatory test for coolant combustion.