changed head gasket, white smoke, oil in all four cylinders, How do you check piston rings?
 

A few weeks ago I was driving and my car lost alot of power and white smoke shot out the exhaust. I pulled the head off and changed the gasket. The number three cylinder had a piece of gasket in it and bumps on the piston and a couple of valves. I think some of the head gasket melted to them. The gasket was stretched like the head lifted or something. I didnt notice any cracks in the cylinders, put the new gasket on. I started it up and alot of white smoke shot out so I drove it around thinking that maybe it was from left over coolant, but it only got worse and the car felt real weak. I checked the plugs and there was oil on all four plugs, there is also white smoke coming from the BOV. As it was running I pulled each spark plug wire out and checked to see if the engine bogged down. The number three cylinder did do anything and I am getting spark from the plug. I guess it it getting flooded with oil that it isnt sparking.

Is there a way to check the piston rings? I read on another forum that you can tell by doing a dry and wet compression test. Whats a wet compression test and what do I look for to tell?
Whats the torque specs for the head bolts on a zc motor? (I torqued it to 61)
What else could it be? I dont have a compression guage yet.

Thanks for any help or suggestions

Re: changed head gasket, white smoke, oil in all four cylinders, How do you check piston rings? (hyb
 

do a leak down test that can tell if the rings are leaking or not

Re: changed head gasket, white smoke, oil in all four cylinders, How do you check piston rings? (hyb
 

I dont have a compressor or a leakdown tester thingy is there anything else that I can do to test it?

Re: changed head gasket, white smoke, oil in all four cylinders, How do you check piston rings? (hyb
 

you local to the DFW area i can come check it out for you i have both those guages do you have air compressor available at your locations

Re: changed head gasket, white smoke, oil in all four cylinders, How do you check piston rings? (hyb
 

a dry comp teset is a regular comp test. Do that first. When you find which cylinder seems low, pour a cap full of oil into the spark plug hole (wet comp test). Redo the comp test, and if the numbers are fixed from the oil , its the rings.

Since you blew the headgasket, i am sure you messed up the surface of the head. When blowing headgaskets, dont simpy just throw on a new one. Take the head off again, get a precision straight edge and check for warpage with feeler gauges.

Most likely your going to have to remill the head.

Re: changed head gasket, white smoke, oil in all four cylinders, How do you check piston rings? (hyb
 

Hey b18bturbo, I live in Arlington but the car is in Springtown its about 60 miles from Dallas.

If the head is warped wouldnt I be getting coolant with oil in the cylinders?

But I'm also getting oil in all four, I dont think the rings in all four cylinders would go bad.


Modified by hybridtech at 9:13 PM 5/13/2003