just recently my car had overheated due to one of the coolant lines popping off. all my coolant came out and my car started overheating real fast. i shut it off but was about 5 min from home. so i decided to drive the car in quick bursts. i would turn on the car punch it to about 50 or so and coast it to a stop. i did that about 5-6 times and i finally made it. i added more coolant and everything was fine. or so i thought when i decided to drive it to make sure that everything was ok. i saw smoke and just thought it was leftover coolant burning off the header. then i noticed it coming out my exhaust. it mostly burns and smokes a lot when i get on the pedal pretty hard. normal driving is kinda better. so anyway i did a compression test on my gsr to see if i had fried my rings or glazed the cylinders. the test came out pretty good. i got #1-215, #2-210, #3-210, #4-215. thats pretty normal right for a 96 gsr? i did happen to notice oil only on the #1 spark plug. it was on the combustion side of the plug. so i kinda ruled out the rings thinking that maybe it could have been the valve seals. is there anything else i can test for. am i going in the right direction with this problem or is there a way some can lead me in how to go about this. oh and by the way i just done an oil change just before this happened and the oil is still clean and not milky. with that said can i rule out piston rings and head gasket?

 

What color is the smoke thats coming out? Blue or white? I have a feeling that it is your headgasket. Hopefully there isn't any damage to the head.

 

Do a leakdown test to see if the headgasket is blown and go from there. anything more than 10% and you have a headgasket issue.

 

thanks for all the tips. i cant really tell what color smoke. how dark of a tint is the blue smoke supposed to be. is hard to do a leak down test. can i do it myself.

 

would a bad head gasket cause burning oil. i always thought it was just water that was burned when that happened. would that also cause oil in my #1 combustion chamber.

 

The headgasket seals water AND oil passages so its entirely possible to burn oil with it blown.

 

Ok makes sense. now why would that cause oil to be oil only in the #1 cylinder. is it because the head gasket is blow from that side only.

 

i am having a similar problem. I am throwing black smoke out the exhaust. i keep losing coolant and i have to add oil once a week

 

Yes, that's probably the case.

 

It ounds like you have ring issues. burning oil like that is the same problem i had when i had worn rings.

 

A good idea is to get a compression checker from auto zone $20.00 then check ur compression that way and when you find the cylender with the low compression put a cap of oil in it and re check the compression if it shoots back up to high numbers you have got problems, but if it stays the same it's prob not a big deal head gasket or something.

 

just some background i have rebuilt gsr and the only thing i can think of is that i didn't drive it hard enough for the rings to seat properly. the engine only has about 5,000 miles on it.
i think it is the piston rings. i did a compression test a while back with 1,000 miles on the engine and my numbers were
1-150
2-170
3-170
4-170
I added a cap of oil and then the numbers went up about 15. i am going to do another compression test tonight and see if it is any better. i will post the results.

 

last time i did the test i think i wrote down the wrong numbers. the gauge has two sets of numbers. psi and kPax100. so on the psi scale for my last results would be
1-220
2-245
3-245
4-245

this time i did it i got
1-205
2-240
3-215
4-235

after i added a cap of oil to each cylinder i got
1-230
2-300
3-290
4-270

we did my friend's gsr just now and got
1-230
2-225
3-170
4-230

 

so i just pulled off my head and the gasket looked fine which really confused me since i was looking for a blown head gasket. i sent my head over to be checked out for warpage. they are going to resurface it if needed, change valve seals, and pressure test it to check for cracks. hopefully will stop my smoking cause if not i dont really know where else to check. i will repost once i get my head back.

just out of curiosity but how high of a compression is a normal gsr supposed to have? mine was about 210-215 which seemed average.

 

yea please repost. and an update: i went to this road course on friday and my car was blowing white smoke but only sometimes. i am guessing it's the head gasket but i'm not sure. since then it has only been smoking a little when i get on it. i have a feeling i could be running lean also. i have a gsr with itr pistons and cams. stock p72.

GSR CRX: your compression numbers seem fine. what you also need to look for is how far apart the numbers are from each other. they should all be within 15 of each other. one last thing, is your car running slower than you think it should be? because with itr pistons and cams in my crx i was looking for a 14.0 second car but i am running 15's and also raced my friend with a gsr in an eg coupe and he pulled on me.

 

my car felt fine before i pulled the head. the only problem is that it bogs when i reach 8k. i think that is only because i retarded the distributor and i have a bad tdc sensor. other than that is was ok just smoked a lot especially when i stepped on it.

 

okay. i'm guessing it is my rings but since my car is smoking white i'm not sure. my car bogs at like 3k and then runs fine but it's just slow. piston rings would make sense for the loss of power due to low compression. i am going to save up and have it looked at by someone that knows their stuff.

 

so i had my head resurfaced, valve seals changed, and head pressure tested. they said everything checked out so i put my head back on with a new headgasket. i torqued it down to specs and put everything back together. after all was done and i turn it on guess what happens? oil starts gushing out all over the place. im thinking what the hell. after i do some research i find a post that has the same problem. it was my headgasket. it was flipped over cause completely ignored the up which is hardly noticeable if your not looking for it. anyways i fix the problem and the second start everything is good with no leaks. now i test drive it normally and i notice no smoke so i was like alright cool i fixed the problem. then i want to see if it still performs the same so i get on it hard. i start to notice smoke from the tail pipe again. could this be left over oil residue that is inside the exhaust piping that is just burning off? i changed almost all of my top end seals: valve cover, grommets under the valve cover, ex cam plug, in and ex manifold gasket. i also did a compression test before the resurface and all cylinders were about 210-215. is there any other reason why it is smoking?

 

it could be extra oil. give it a few days and check if it is still smoking. I am trying to find a car to drive while i take my engine out so i can change my rings so it might be a while until i fix it

 

I am not going to change my rings for a while because I found out the main reason my car is not running right is because i need an ITR map. I have ITR cams and pistons and I am running a virgin P72. I will probably get that done next weekend but that doesn't relate to this thread so... Good luck with your oil problems guys.