I have a b18c1 in my eg hatch and a while back it started smoking alot of white smoke, smelled like oil, maybe had coolant in it. Smoked particularly under boost. It all happened after i hooked up my boost controller to the wrong port on the wastegate and hit 5 lbs over what i was tuned to for a second or 2. anyways, i just finished rebuilding the bottom end with cp pistons eagle rods and new bearings. it smokes much less now when i drive it, and the oil is very clean looking after i check it. before it would be black as **** after even a few miles of driving even b4 the smoking issue. It smokes mostly now under compression braking, like if I down shift, and the smoke is like gray, smells like oil. WHen i got back to my garage I looked in the spark plug holes and one was completly full of oil due to me reusing the old seals for the valve cover- thats likely why it seemed to be misfiring at idle but that is likely a seperate issue. I looked in the cylinders and they have black residue on all 4 and seem slightly oily. I thus am in the process of replacing the valve stem seals and valve cover seals. Im also gonna try installing a oil catch can. ALso, I have arp studs and i retourqed those, and a new OEM headgasket I installed for the rebuild. I did not do any head work when i did the rebuild. Sorry for the long post, but im kindof lost at this point. Thanks for any input.

 

Under "compression braking" it is most likely the valve seals. The vacuum in the intake manifold tends to "suck" oil past the valve seals and then it burns off. However, did you hone the engine when you put the new pistons/rings in? That can also be a major issue. Running rich causes fuel to break down the oil on the cylinder walls which can cause the rings and hone to go bad very quickly. Either that or your rings aren't broken in yet.

 

yes I agree as well sounds like valve guides and or valve guide seals. Did you go over size on your pistons or did you stay standard size? I always recommend my customers to step up at least .5mm over to clean up there bore to have a true round cylinder for proper piston to wall and ring seal.

 

I say your problem is all in your head. I would of had a machine shop check for warping. I also agree with valve guilds and valve stem issues.

 

i got 81.5 mm pistons (.5 mm over stock). cylinders rebored and honed. I just replaced the valve seals with honda OEM ones. Compression across the board 200 psi (9.8:1 comp). i havent driven it yet, but i revved it up in my garage and there is some slight smoke generated- i.e, gets kinda smoky in my garage after a while. not terribly, but still kinda annoying. im thinking it could be residual oil left over somewhere? tonight ill unhook the crank case vent from the intake manifold and see if that helps

 

do you have a proper oil reducer fitting in your turbo? maybe over feeding?

 

it shouldnt be the turbo. turbo is freshly rebuilt, less than 10 miles on it, didnt smoke before even before the rebuild. the feed is the proper size and the drain is setup properly. no oil in charge piping. ill disconnect the piping from the throttle body later today and rev it and see if it still smokes.

 

valve guides
turbo seals
improper piston ring gap postitions.


how many miles are on build?

 

i dont think im overfeeding the turbo because i drove it around with the same fittings for a while without smoking.

less than 100 miles on the rebuild. I noticed that im leaking oil from the headgasket down the side of the block- must be because i didnt resurface the head?

turbo seals should be fine i just had it rebuilt... And if it was turbo seals i think it would smoke constantly. if im cruising at like 3k it doesnt smoke. mostly when i let off the throttle, downshift, or rev high. Piston ring gap positioins should be good- i personally didnt set them, but my buddy was making sure they were lined up properly.

Compression is 200 for all 4 cylinders, so i cant see it being likely that oil is passing past the rings into the cylinders... and the fact that its so freshly rebuilt, smoking as much as it is seems kindof unlikely that its due to passing past the rings.

im thinking its something ****ed up with the head.. but i just replaced the valve seals so I dont know, and its still as bad as before.

 

fu*k it. just smoke

 

nah dude lol. its bad i cant drive it like that

 

Oil consumption will lower the effective octane rating and can cause single cylinder detonation.

 

Didn't do a resurface? Why not?

 

didnt think i needed to. im gonna put on a b seires non turbo header today or tommorow and drive around and see if it stops smoking to rule out the turbo being the issue.

 

put on a NA header and drove around, dindnt see or smell any smoke. seems like its the turbo, or residual oil in the manifold... the later being unlikely. gonna go bitch at alamo turbochargers about the rebuild. paid 600$ to get it rebuild, dont know why it would be smoking. im assuming its leaking into the exhaust side, because it still smoked when i disconnected the charge piping. that, or the turbo being on there somehow causes oil to be sucked into the cylinders..I dont know. thoughts?

 

Blown seals probably. Are you using a restrictor?

 

i dont know how the seals could be blown already since i had it rebuilt. but yeah i have a restrictor, i think its 1/16th inch. i bought it from goautoworks. it should be fine i think

 

is the oil return from turbo good? -10an down hill?
maybe oil is getting backed up under braking/ downshifting cause it slosh's to the front of the oil pan, blocking return. shooting in the dark.....

 

i read the thread and off the bat i thought turbo. question one who rebuilt the turbo, did they use the proper exhaust and intake side piston rings? i know most ots rebuild kit say they are for your turbo, but sometimes the rings dont close correctly in the bore and leave too much gap.

the way i have always checked is to push the new seal(with out the shaft) in to the respective since to ensure proper gap. if not then i would inspect the house or try a different seal

did they rebalance the turbo after they were done(i mean most of the time you can get away with not having to rebalance if the chra is disassembled and marked correctly.

 

Wow $600? That's the price of a basic garret, or the CHRA of a smaller GT-series turbo.

Honestly it sounds more like the valve seals. A blown turbo will not pressurize your crank case. Bad seals will, which blows oil past your plug hole seals. It could also be a bad PCV valve.

The other thing is the rings. They take some time to seat, but won't smoke. If someone screwed up the oil retension rings or put the lower compression ring upside down, you will have issues.