I just did a partial rebuild on my b18c, we pulled the piston in cylinder 3 and it had a broken ring and ring land. the previous owner had 12.5:1 pistons in it, running a p28 with an itr basemap which i believe is for 11.1:1 CR, I'm assuming that's why this happened. Anyway, we fixed everything and finished up today, went to test drive it (that lasted maybe 5 minutes) and there is a bit of power loss and it's got white smoke billowing out of it (smells like oil) so badly we couldn't see if there were cars behind us and it started filling up the car with smoke, then we pulled up to a stop light, it died and wouldn't fire again. I got it home and pulled the plugs and all 4 had oil and/or assembly lube on them (electrode end). Also, it has stock cams but sounds a lot more lobey than before, idk if it's the new tune or what. The head gasket is new, the decks were fine, didn't touch the valve guides and they were fine before, VC gasket set is new, clearances on the ring gaps were fine after honing the cylinder, mechanical timing is correct, reset ignition timing, checked valve lash 4 times and i know the head gasket is on correctly, it is also on the dowels, there's no mixture of coolant and oil to be found anywhere. I dont know where to start looking for issues so any help is appreciated

Here's a list of what was replaced:
je 12.5:1 piston/rings, Clevite rod bearing, cometic .051" head gasket, intake & exhaust mani gaskets, VC gasket set, oil pan gasket, timing belt, water pump, cap/rotor/ignition coil/ plugs/wires, 370cc RC injectors + Bosch clips, Phearable ECU tuned the the info given. That's all i can think of right now.

We were very thorough about everything, checked clearances when necessary, used torque specs, gapped rings properly, cleaned mating surfaces, used assembly lube where needed, labeled everything before taking it apart and put it all back accordingly, timing is all good so I really just don't understand what could be causing this. I know it's common to have SOME smoke after a rebuild but this is a seriously ridiculous amount and it wasn't even a full rebuild! Also, i was so excited about the test drive i forgot to recheck the oil after taking the car off the jack stands so i cant say if the fluid level went down *facepalm* coolant levels haven't changed though

 

sounds like you cracked 1 or more ringlands. i assume you had no way of monitoring AFR.

 

I know that's not the case, the other pistons are fine. It was just cylinder 3...

 

uuuuugh. Bump.........

 

compression test would be a good start.
how did your exhaust valves look?

 

and i think blue smoke is oil
white smoke is coolant

 

Yeah i know, but I'm not losing coolant, it smells like oil, there's oil speckled all over the back of the car and a puddle under my header, odd but whatever. i was gonna do that today but the battery started dying by cylinder 3. Cylinders 1 and 2 had good numbers. Had to get 2 stripped VC nuts/bolts off because the torque wrench had apparently broken and clean the plugs so I havent gotten around to starting it so it can charge. I'll post the numbers when i get around to retesting it though. The valves all looked good. Keep in mind the only issue it had before all this was dying at low rpms when it was cold and I didn't change anything on the head, that's why I'm so lost

 

u sure its not water?
ur exhaust usually spits alot of water. byproduct of combustion
and it doesnt take much colant to smoke up the street.

the only way for oil to enter combustion chamber is
leaking valve seals
too much crankcase pressure PCV system not functioning properly
rings didnt seat properly

how did you break it in?
did you hone the cylinder walls?

 

I'm 110% sure. There's about a 6" diameter puddle of oil that came out of the header where i have a little exhaust leak from the previous owner bottoming out, we couldn't even drive it long enough to try breaking the rings in because of the oil fouling out the plugs. I ordered a new PCV valve, should be installed by tomorrow night. I don't think its the valve seals considering they were fine before and we didn't touch them. They would all have had to coincidentally and mysteriously just gotten ruined at the same time. Rings are a no, oil in all 4 cylinders, rings only changed in one. Hopefully the PCV valve will fix it because it's the only conclusion I can come down to that makes any sense. Maybe it was dysfunctional before and the crankcase was ventilating via blow-by around the rings?? Wasn't smoking like this but i guess it's possible

 

take it apart and see then

 

I will when i get parts tomorrow and I'll post updates when i get it done. Thanks for trying to help

 

I dont think the PCV is the issue. I forgot the hoses to the valve were kinked so my room mate had just run a hose straight from the IM to the catch can for now so it should still ventilate, and i know not having the valve there can cause it to suck up SOME oil but not this much, also, there wasn't any oil in the IM. Stumped again.....

 

I had a pcv smoke just like that. I took and plugged it off on the IM and just left the hose from the block open and it quit smoking. I have had to do this to 2 cars, one was freshly built with 0 miles and smoked that bad when it started. I mean smoking so bad you will lose the car in the fog.

 

Defintely wasn't the PCV but I think I found the issue. I wasn't aware that torque specs were different with ARP head studs because I've never installed them so I hadn't read the directions. We torqued the nuts to 65 ft lbs and apparently you're supposed to go to 80 with the moly lube and 85 with oil. Guess I'm gonna try to torque them down more and hope like hell that the gasket will still seal but I'm probably gonna have to buy ANOTHER $105 head gasket because the oil that leaked under the gasket might keep it from doing so.... Or i might just set it on fire and call it a day -.-

 

had the same problem turned out head studs werent torqued correctly

 

did you make sure the scraper rings were scraping down when you installed them?