i have some oil on the top of my #2 piston only. the spark plug has a little oil on it also. im just confused because my compression is 200,200,190,190. that seems fine to me, so im a lil lost on where the oil is comming from. i have zero oil/smoke coming out of the valve cover and the pcv is normal. i do burn a little bit of oil out of my exhaust above 6000 rpms (97 b18b). if my spark plug o-rings on the valve cover were leaking, would the oil make it into my cylinder?

 

Sounds like it is the spark plugs o ring. When you take out the spark plug the oil leaks down on the plug and stuff. It is common it happend on my b16a and i was freaking out at first, until i found out why. Try and clean the oil out from the spark plug area then and after a day or 2 of driving check it out agin.

 

the oil on top of the piston looks kinda grungy and caked on, its pretty gross. there is no way its my rings right? just wanna be sure cause im gonna boost this bad boy soon

 

semi-update. it only really burns oil when i go on long drives on the highway (4k rpm for 2+ hours). the inside of the spark plug holes are dry around the o rings. is it possible to have leaky valve seals and still pull good compression. ive got a speculation that the head was hot- tanked and the valve seals were not removed/replaced

 

A stuck oil ring doesn't show with a comp.test.If it was a seal, do to the head being tanked it probably would be all cylinders.If the car was driven short distances and the oil wasn't changed often it can gum up and stick the oil ring.
Glenn

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by blackeg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">semi-update. it only really burns oil when i go on long drives on the highway (4k rpm for 2+ hours). the inside of the spark plug holes are dry around the o rings. is it possible to have leaky valve seals and still pull good compression. ive got a speculation that the head was hot- tanked and the valve seals were not removed/replaced</TD></TR></TABLE>

Leaky valve seals aren't going to cause compression problems but they will cause oil consumption problems. Is the plug becoming oil fouled? It is possible that your oil control ring in that cylinder is stuck and that will never show up on a compression test like the NJIN BUILDR said.

How much oil does your engine consume? Do you constantly have to add oil or is something you recently noticed?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AutoEng2002Si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Leaky valve seals aren't going to cause compression problems but they will cause oil consumption problems. Is the plug becoming oil fouled? It is possible that your oil control ring in that cylinder is stuck and that will never show up on a compression test like the NJIN BUILDR said.

How much oil does your engine consume? Do you constantly have to add oil or is something you recently noticed?
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well i just did the swap, so the motor has a little less than 1000 of my miles on it. when i would rev it over like 6 grand it would smoke a tiny amount of oil out the exhaust, but not enough to notice on the dipstick. it was not until i made a couple of highway trips at 4k rpm for 2 or so hour each way that i noticed it. for a 5 hour total trip driving at least at 4k rpm ill burn a little less than 1/2 quart.

 

yes valve seals. i have the same problem right now. the comp will be fine since the problem is in the head and not in the block

 

This may be a little tough to tell whether it is coming from the valve seals or the rings. If smoke comes from the tailpipe under hard acceration it is the rings, if it comes from the tailpipe under decel in gear it is the valve seals - that is the normal test but your cat may be able to burn the small amount of oil.

A compression test is useless for determining whether or not the oil control rings are good. You could take the oil control rings out (and leave the other rings in) and your compression would be fine. As a matter of fact it may be better than with them in because the extra oil would help seal the cylinders.

You may be able to change out the valve seals without removing the head by putting compressed air into the cylinder and removing the keepers/retainers/springs to get at the seals (of course you need to get the cam and all that crap out of the way first). Someone make special tools to compress the valve springs while they are still in the car, I do not remember who but I am sure a Snap-On dealer could find it for you.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AutoEng2002Si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This may be a little tough to tell whether it is coming from the valve seals or the rings. If smoke comes from the tailpipe under hard acceration it is the rings, if it comes from the tailpipe under decel in gear it is the valve seals - that is the normal test but your cat may be able to burn the small amount of oil.

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yea but if i have oil leaking down into my cyl, its gonna burn and exit the exhaust valves and through the tailpipe anyway. i currently do not have a catylitic converter

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by blackeg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

yea but if i have oil leaking down into my cyl, its gonna burn and exit the exhaust valves and through the tailpipe anyway. i currently do not have a catylitic converter</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm not sure what you mean by the oil is leaking down into the cylinder. How do you know it is not being burned off the cylinder walls? Or are you physically seeing oil dripping from the valve cover gasket into the plug well? Also remember if the valve seal is leaking it will be from the intake valve (because it is the only one where there is a pressure differential that would cause oil to flow into the cylinder) and you should therefore see oil on that side of the plug and possibly the piston.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AutoEng2002Si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I'm not sure what you mean by the oil is leaking down into the cylinder. How do you know it is not being burned off the cylinder walls? Or are you physically seeing oil dripping from the valve cover gasket into the plug well? Also remember if the valve seal is leaking it will be from the intake valve (because it is the only one where there is a pressure differential that would cause oil to flow into the cylinder) and you should therefore see oil on that side of the plug and possibly the piston.</TD></TR></TABLE>

by down i mean comming from the head/valveseals down into the cylinder, rather than from the crankcase and rings. my spark plug well is pretty much bone dry, so its not leaking from there as much as i originally thought it was.


a motor with shitty valve seals will still hold boost right?(the compression is still good). im just gonna boost it till it completely blows up anyway because im getting a spare motor with 1/2 the miles soon.

 

Oh, it'll hold boost all right. The problem is it'll pre-ignite from the glowing carbon deposits left by the burning oil in the combustion chamber - regardless what octane or ic you run. If that doesn't happen, it'll sure as hell detonate. Solve the problem <U>first</U> & get the chambers & piston tops cleaned up <U>before</U> you boost it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Denny Crane &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Oh, it'll hold boost all right. The problem is it'll pre-ignite from the glowing carbon deposits left by the burning oil in the combustion chamber - regardless what octane or ic you run. If that doesn't happen, it'll sure as hell detonate. Solve the problem <U>first</U> & get the chambers & piston tops cleaned up <U>before</U> you boost it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

do i see seafoam in my future