jc95148

I have a 1992 Civic Si, 218,000 miles. It started smoking a lot with white smoke recently but still runs very strong. Had a mechanic look at it briefly today and said it can be either a pison ring or Spark Plug Tube Seal Problem. So how do I distinguish if it is a Piston Ring or Spark Plug Tube Seal? Because if it is just a tube seal, I can just repair it myself since I have done it before to my other cars. My spark plugs are wet also with oil but my spark plug wire ends are dry. What can it be? Thanks!

Former User

In general, bad spark plug seals would just cause an external engine oil leak.

If blue smoke is coming from the exhaust, then bad rings, valve stem seals, and head gasket are common causes.

White smoke in the exhaust, however, is as sign of coolant not oil burning in the cylinders, which is generally caused by a blown head gasket.

jc95148

I'm talking about the seals under the rocker assembly.

GhostAccord

The O-ring seals under the rocker assembly don't have access to the combustion chamber. Besides that, oil does not burn white, it burns blue/grey.... RonJ@HT already mentioned that.

If it is indeed white. You should have a compression test and a coolant system pressure test conducted to find out where the coolant leak is. You could also pull the spark plugs and check to see which one is really clean/and or smells of coolant....