Ive never had valve seals go on me before but I was just trying to figure out how much oil can get in the cylinders if they are gone? Right now I am trying to diagnose a problem I am having with my motor.

The motor is a sleeved block, wiseco pistons getting 220psi at WOT on all 4 cylinders.

The head however is stock and has been sitting a while, my assumption is the valve seals have dried up since the problem only persists when it is in cold start and in normal operating temperature it stops burning the oil.

I just took off the head now to put my built one on and the head is black as day on the exhaust ports in each combustion chamber. The tops of my pistons also have a bit of browning on them as well and the motor has only been run about 15min.

So im just trying to figure out if its anything else or stick with my orignal diagnostic of dried out valve seals

 

Sounds like valve seals to me.

 

If it's the valve seals you'd see it in situations like you're describing, when you first start it up, after it's been idling a long time and you go, etc.

 

these are some pics

the royal purple was added in after to prevent rust, but see the oil build up on the brand new pistons


more oil caked on

 

just set the old head down on some papertowel's pore in some oil, fill up past the valve seals, let sit, then move head and check for leakage.

 

ya i'll do that tomorrow see what happens, I just want to make sure its not the bottom end first before putting the built head on

 

bad rings maybe.

 

OP's origional post:

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jdmcivicferio &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

wiseco pistons getting 220psi at WOT on all 4 cylinders.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by A- &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">bad rings maybe.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I think not.

 

Why not? A compression or leakdown test tells you if the compression (top 2) rings are working, not the oil ring. I can get good leakdown numbers with no oil ring. The only way I could see liquid oil as one of the pic's show, would be no valve seals.

 

It may just be the picture, but there looks to be some scoring on that cylinder.

 

looks to be some scratches on the cylinder..could have messed up the oil rings during install

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DonF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Why not? A compression or leakdown test tells you if the compression (top 2) rings are working, not the oil ring. I can get good leakdown numbers with no oil ring. The only way I could see liquid oil as one of the pic's show, would be no valve seals.</TD></TR></TABLE>

True. OP also said that it only does it after the car has been sitting and on cold startup.

 

I really think its the valve seals now because after having a smoke I noticed pen marks on some of the spring retainers (meaning to me those were bad valve seals). I guess it was a bad idea using this "mystery" head on a built bottom end. I tried the oil trick but it just leaked into all the oil passages giving me just a mess of oil.

Is there any other tests I can do on my own before I go to the machine shop to get there answer? Either that or I just slap the built head on but its going to really suck if its the bottom end....