Okay gang, our yellow Rex began smoking the other day, it's burning oil for some reason. It seemed to come on a little sudden, no really a progressive deal, just started burning it one morning.

So I ran a dry compression test and came up with 160-160-155-160, which seems pretty good to me. How does that sound to you guys? This a D16A6 engine BTW.

The oil burning seems a little erratic, none when it first starts up, then fairly steady, and much heavier under acceleration.

We replaced the valve stem seals this weekend, and it really didn't help. Also put in a new PCV Valve. Then ran compressions tests again, dry, then wet. Dry was the same, all the wets were near 200 PSI. (Not that I expected dry to change, just ran it to make sure earlier reading were correct.)

One thing I noticed is when the car is running and you open the oil filler cap, there is a bunch of air coming out. In fact it sounds almost like an exhaust pipe. Anyone else have a lot of air pressure inside the valve cover/crankcase?

So now I am thinking that there must be so much blow by, that oil is getting pushed into the combustion chambers, past either the rings or the seals.

Does this sound like a proper diagnosis? If so, how little work can I get by with? Hone and Rings? If I do those two, do I need to replace anything else while I am in there? (I realize that there are a ton of improvements I can make, but this car races in stock class, so I can't be doing any mods.)

I need to keep the car stock for this season, because I am way ahead in points. Once the season is over, I can do whatever I want to it, and prolly will. Until then, I want to do the minimum, yet keep it running correctly and reliably. (Also don't want to be a gross polluter.)

Thanks for your constructive input!

Craig @ Tuner Toys

 

TTT for help

 

was the block stock to begin with?

turbo on the engine?

miles onthe engine??

 

Thanks Chad!

All Stock, no mods. No Turbo.

180K on the engine

CRaig

 

Its been posted here before, your comp rings can be good with your oil rings bad. Comp rings only have 5lb of spring tension so they dont scrape oil for dick, thus the oil rings. The comp rings only seal once combustion has occured. So comp shows up good but you can still be burning oil in 1 or more cyls. I'd put in some new plugs, drive them for a couple days then pull them and check the differences. If theres noticable diffs then you've narrowed down which cyls it is. And most cars have the air out of the valve cover however its hard to say what is a "reasonable" ammount. A leakdown test would show whats up better.

 

Yeah... I agree w/ blah13

 

Cool, Thanks! I've been wanting a leakdown tester!