My wagovan has a d15b7 with a zc head... Anyways this is what is happening:

It's smokes a lot when I'm accelerating hard, it gets worse after 4000rpm, when I let off the gas for a second, then give it more gas it smokes A LOT! I just changed my headgasket and checked the warpage so it's not that. The smoke is blue, and there's no creamy color in the oil so I'm pretty positive it's not burning coolant.

I did a compression check and going from left to right the compression was 185, 165, 190, 180.

Even though cylinder 3 has lower compression I don't think that's the cause of all this smoke

Things that I noticed when changing the head gasket: tons of carbon build up on the valves


So how do I know if it's the valves or the rings causing this wago to smoke so much? I'm planning on using it for my college commuter next year and I don't want it to blow

 

Put oil down the cylinders and do another compression check if it goes up its your rings if it doesn't change its ur valves or maybe valve seals if you didn't change those out

 

do a leak down test - not a compression test.

Driveway (no leakdown tester) check:
You can try pulling the #3 spark plug and squirting a little oil in there and then do the compression check again.
Make sure you hold the gas pedal down all the way down when you do the compression check to ensure you get full air flow with throttle plate wide open.

If the compression goes up with the water, then you likely have bad rings.

 

Bad rings