white smoke, low compression

[darkstar1313]

I was driving on the freeway doing about 85mph up a mountain when the engine seemed to loose power. I looked in the mirror to change lanes when I saw tons of white smoke coming from the exhaust. When I got the car stopped the engine died and I had to floor the throtle to restart it, when it was running again, it ran very ruff and had cloads of white smoke from the exhaust. I did a compression test and 3 cylinders came back at about 135psi and 1 cylinder came back at 25psi. The engine had been leaking oil from the timing belt side but I could not find out were with the cover on. I hade not noticed the engive over heatting or any lose in coolant. The spark plug for the cylinder that was low had oil on it, I have read many posts on this topic and have asked two mechanics. One mechanic says it has to be the rings or a hole in the piston, another mechanic, and most of the posts I have read seem to believe it would be the head gasket. I am going to research and prepare to remove the head. What would a blown head gasket look like. Any opinions or advice would be great. thanks

 

[Mitsu RacerX]

Sounds like you fixing to have to have a good time. I would vote for the head gasket. But it also could be the rings becuase of the white smoke. Rip the head off and just look at the gasket and the rings.

 

[underpressure25]

Yeah definately sounds like the head gasket. When you did the compression test was their coolant in the cylinder that was lowest in compression? To further diagnose this you could also do a cylinder leakage test. this will tell you where the compression is going.
Goodluck

 

[darkstar1313]

I have also noticed that the waste gate actuator is not working. could that have caused this problem.The turbo is a td04hl.

 

[mopardwh]

Sounds like you fixing to have to have a good time. I would vote for the head gasket. But it also could be the rings becuase of the white smoke. Rip the head off and just look at the gasket and the rings.

Kind of hard to see the rings by just having the head off. But yes you should be able to tell if the gasket was blown.

 

[mopardwh]

I have also noticed that the waste gate actuator is not working. could that have caused this problem.The turbo is a td04hl.

That doesn't sound likely either. Pressurize the cooling system to check the head gasket.

 

[vsalas793]

this sounds familiar. this happend to my 2g head. i was leaking oil around were the timing belt was and white smoke from my exhaust. i pulled my head and it was my headgasket and i had 3 holes in my head. but your mostly likely is the headgasket.

 

[oldman]

1. Do not pull the head until a leakdown test is performed, once you pull the head there will be no way to tell for sure.

2. What do you mean by "wastegate not working"? How do you know this? How much boost were you running with the wastegate "not working"?

3. Have you checked your timing marks yet? 25psi aside, 135 psi isn't exactly considered healthy either, assuming the compression test was done properly.