i have bad piston rings and was told that was the reason for smoke coming out of my exhaust in high RPM's. and my birthday was yesterday so i a little extra cash before i start buying my turbo setup. Well i need to get that all fixed...the piston rings themselves arent that expensive but i heard labor was. if labor is that expensive while he is in there should i get new pistons and rods too. if so is n e one selling some pistons and rods?? thanks

-chris

 

definately get the set....and, yes labor will be expensive...just find a friend who likes to drinks and good at this stuff, ...also get a Helms...

 

Pistons my be difficult if you've never done it and aren't that mechanically inclined, so you may be better off paying a professional to install them. I just bought a set of Arias pistons from Colin, ekb18c. Very good service and excellent pistons.

 

I was planning on haveing someone do it. but instead of installing only rings and paying for the instal then buying pistons and rods later on and have to pay the instal again... just get everything and have to pay for only one instal. what compression would you reccomend. im aiming for about 350-400 whp. thanks

-chris

 

hey I would suggest that you make sure that is the problem first before you go dumping all that cash into the car first. If your piston ring were that wore you would have alot more issues than just smoke of the exhaust. Now what color is the smoke and when does it usaully happen.

 

its usually about 6-7K when the smoke starts its a dark grey not like thick black or n e thing... more of a grey though like i cant even see it really unless im stopped and rev that high. but you can always smell it.

 

you can try the cheap trickst like ATF oil to see if is just carbon deposits, and that could be a temporary fix till you get a new block and resleeve it for turbo and forged pistons

 

yeah...unfortunately, Honda pistions are like glass when boost is applied..the rings literally shatter...(I'll show you mine)....as far as compression aim for 9:1 to 9.5:1...although I was told 8.5:1 is the sweet spot by a professional race car builder (who's building my car now). I'll be using 9:1.

 

Hey you said that you can smell it how would you discribe that smell. Now are you sure that the color is grey and not light black. Now this happen wether the motor is hot or cold. Well here is a little tip to help you out. There are three different colors of smoke that you will see coming out of the tail pipe one is white. That usually happens when you are burning coolant or automatic tranny fluid. Second color is blue-ish this when you are burning oil to some people it may apair that it is coming out some sort of grey. The last color is black. This means that the car is running rich. (aka dumping a lot of fuel) Also there are other reason than piston ring why that smoke is there. For instant valve seal if you are buring oil. Well here is one more thing that might help you figure out your problem. You should get and oil change and than keep ckecking on the level once a week until you reach 3k than if you only end up down about half to a quart of oil than you are good and your problem will be something else. Now I have seen a situation were a person was using to thin of an oil for his car so at high rpms he was burning the oil creatting that blue-ish smoke. So if you run to thin of oil you might be letting more oil slip through the ring than what is suppose to. So you might just have to try running a thicker oil. Well good luck

 

Some one is selling some arias 9.2:1 for like $250. should I go ahead and buy those??? thanks

-chris