A friend of mine is running an ITR motor. He recently put in CTR pistons, and after reassembly, some interesting things are going on. The motor now has 500 miles on it and he says he hasn't run it hard. The problem is the smoke. I opened his engine bay and it was sooty. The underside of the hood was almost BLACK. Looking around the block where the head and the block meet, there was a TINY amount of moisture, and running my hand along it, I found out it was oil, not much, but oil nonetheless.

He said that his mechanic torqued the head down to Honda spec's, and he's using a stock head gasket. The head stud holes on the block were also heli-coiled for extra strength. Is it possible that the stock head bolts aren't doing the job holding the head onto the block and he might need to upgrade to ARP bolts instead? We don't want to take the head off before we explore other possibilities. Any suggestions?

 

not enough info

did he put in new rings? were the cylinders honed? is there a CEL? code? all spark plugs working? did you check the plugs at all?

 

1) yes, new rings
2) yes, the block was honed, LIGHTLY, just to prep it for the new pistons
3) no CEL
4) all plugs are working, they are brand new and look so
5) add'l info: the exhaust seems to be coming from where the valve cover and the head meet, the oil from the headgasket area.


[Modified by eternal21, 6:52 PM 10/23/2001]

 

Compression test??