worn piston rings

[beihl304]

so i had an ebay evo3 turbo and it pulled hard for almost a year. i began to notice a loud whistling sound and noticed my car was not pulling as hard as it did. so when i looked at the turbo the compresser wheel was hitting off the compresser housing and eating the wheel up horribly.. just like everyone says ebay turbos do.
so i came to the conclusion my car was not pulling as hard because of the damaged turbo and bought myself a 20g. the car pulled a little harder than the damaged turbo but not much more at all. i compression and leak tested my car and found out that my piston rings are bad. the test went like this
cylinder #1 150 #2 150 #3 115 #4 125
when i did the leak test cylinder 3 was showing 55% leakage and cylinder 4 was showing 47% leakage.

i know the compression spec is roughly 130 - 170 with no difference of 14.
my car runs great however could this low compression on two cylinder cause my car to loose so much power? thanks

 

[SrKegler]

It's a little strange that #3-4 have so much lower readings than 1-2. I would tend to think you may have valve problems on those two cylinders. Pour a little oil into the #1 & #2 cylinder again and then test the pressure. If the pressure goes up, it's rings. If it doesn't, it's valves.

 

[Colt4G63 also]

Is the head gasket leaking between 3 and 4?

 

[beihl304]

It's not the head gasket. I failed to mention that compression went up with the wet test and during leakdown test air came out the oil fill hole. I was just curious to see if these compression issues could harm me of so much power but still allow my car to idle normally. Thanks

 

[jp91gsturbo]

Yes if your compression is that far off it will deffinately pull down the power as you wont be getting the full effect from combustion.

 

[beihl304]

well so i am about to buy some new piston rings but i have a question.
i was looking in to getting the total seal rings but have read the only thread i could find on them and everyone had mixed opinions about them. does anyone happen to be running these and could tell me how they are? not someone who "has heard".
and i know my engine was rebuilt a while back before i bought the car but im not sure what ring size to get becuase im not sure if it was bored any. i know the only way to check is to get a bore gauge but with most rebuilds do they bore it any way or usually just hone it if it is not out of round? thanks

some one help>

 

[Coreyred95]

Yes, they would just hone it if the cylinders aren't out of round and aren't scored or anything. If you don't have a bore gauge just bring the block into your local machine shop and they should be able to tell you if it was bored over in the past rebuild. As for the ring question, I couldn't tell you. I'm about to rebuild my engine and would like to know the answer too.

Sorry i couldn't help you more.

 

[beihl304]

Thanks for the reply and help
Now anyone want to chime in on the rings?