posted this in tech/misc but it's not getting any response over there.

First off, if you are just going to say "white=coolant, blue= oil" please don't even bother to post. If you have some good input please please post as I need some direction at this point

A little background:

H23A1 in 92 prelude
173k miles
Been sitting for 2-3 years without running at all
Drained and cleaned gas tank and refilled with fresh gas
Car starts and runs great, has plenty of power, etc.No oil leaks or anything like that


Symptoms:

A lot of white smoke with a slight blue tint to it. Smoke does NOT smell anything like coolant, but it does have a strange nasty smell to it. Kind of smells like a mixture of burning oil and something else. like old gas or something.

I changed out all the gas because that was my first instinct. Didn't fix anything.

Cleaned PCV valve.

Checked valve cover breather when fully warmed, and there is NO smoke coming out of the breather, just air like a good running engine should have.


Warm compression test results (wet is with one capful of oil in each cylinder):

----------4-----3-----2-----1-------
dry----167---190--191---195-------max variance= 28 or 16.1%
wet----175---201--204---201------max variance = 29 or 16.5%


Judging those numbers, I would think that the rings are not the culprit for the low reading on cylinder four, but please give input.


Coolant has a brown nasty *** color to it, but no oil floating around anywhere, no smell of oil or gas in the coolant. I know that coolant can turn brownish after a long period of time from sitting, so I'm unsure if the coolant is just nasty and old, or if there is something leaking into it.

Exhaust ports are covered in oil, as are piston tops and combustion chambers, but that very well might be because of my wet compression test (I wish I would've ran the motor after testing to clean it up).

Spark plugs are clean but a bit oily.


Possible Problems that cause smoking:

-Bad headgasket (seems most likely)

-Valve stem seals (won't cause low compression though right?) Thinking these because of the length of time it's been sitting.

-Cracked head/sleeve (not too likely, can't see anything that would point in that direction)

-Bad piston rings

Here is where I need input

My plans are to refresh the head. New valve stem seals and headgasket, along with a resurface and cleaning.

I want to be 100% certain that it is not another problem like the rings or a crack somewhere else etc. Is there any way to verify 100% outside of a leakdown that it's the headgasket or valve stem seals ?(don't have $130 for the leakdown tool and head is already removed).

I'm a broke *** college student and I can't afford, nor do I have the time, to redo the head, just to find out that I need a new shortblock as well.

Here are some pictures to help make the decision on what might have been the culprit.

Here is the headgasket




Here is cylinder 3 & 4 on the heagasket, notice the missing coating along the edge of cylinder 4. Is this a positive sign that it was the headgasket or could that coating have just scraped off when I was removing the head?
Is this what your failed headgasket looked like?




Cylinders 1 & 2




Block deck




Cylinder 4 up close




Exhaust port cyl 4


Exhaust port cyl 3


Exhaust port cyl 2


Exhaust port cyl 1



Spark plugs, less than 100 miles on these (I know I know, NGK, I didn't pay for these)




My guess right now is a mixture of bad headgasket on cylinder 4, along with old valve stem seals leaking down into the cylinders on all 4

Thanks for your help guys

 

I agree completely with your analysis.

I noticed the black marks near the holes into the water jacket on #4, which suggests that the HG was letting a little something by over there.

The compression numbers don't look half bad, so at this point I wouldn't be overly worried about needing anything on the bottom end side of things, but it looks to me like there is some definite visible scarring on the cylinder walls, which will cause a big of oil consumption and blowby, but unless they're big enough to catch your fingernail, you can pass doing that up.

The valves look like a mess from the leaky seals, if you can, maybe take it to a machine shop for a basic valve job, that will make it drive a bit nicer with a fresh seal at the valve seat.

Good thread. Only if everyone who wanted help presented info like this

 

I generally agree with your assumptions, but one indicator of bad valve stems seals is oil visibly burning at idle that diminishes with increased RPM.

I will add another compliment about your thread. I think the only thing you missed is stating the color of your car. Very good detail!

 

thanks for the support on my decisions so far.


I should have noted, the car smoked at all RPM levels, when idling or driving. But I did make one longer trip with it (55 miles) and the smoking was clearing up during the trip, and got to the point that you couldn't see it anymore toward the end (but could still smell it), but once restarted later it was back in full force.