Valve Seats or Piston rings?
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1997 stock except headers, Honda civic hatchback DX. D16Y7 engine.
Car has welded headers and starts and runs fine. Idles great with a small amount of bluish smoke at start up. Today while driving with my coworker (her car) from 50-60mph a huge cloud of blue smoke would come out and it would slightly misfire. Keeping the car at 70-75 no smoke and below 60 was fine until we hit a hill and the same thing happened under load. Got my compression tester and got after 8 consecutive cranks;
180
179
179
180
Car has 131,000 miles on her and she says it's being doing it for the past 2-3k miles when she had a shop last do the water pump and timing belt. On one car I worked on it was the valve seats. Another i worked on it was the piston rings. Adding oil to the cylinders didn't raise the compression more than 6psi.
Car has welded headers and starts and runs fine. Idles great with a small amount of bluish smoke at start up. Today while driving with my coworker (her car) from 50-60mph a huge cloud of blue smoke would come out and it would slightly misfire. Keeping the car at 70-75 no smoke and below 60 was fine until we hit a hill and the same thing happened under load. Got my compression tester and got after 8 consecutive cranks;
180
179
179
180
Car has 131,000 miles on her and she says it's being doing it for the past 2-3k miles when she had a shop last do the water pump and timing belt. On one car I worked on it was the valve seats. Another i worked on it was the piston rings. Adding oil to the cylinders didn't raise the compression more than 6psi.
#2
If you think a good mechanic is expensive, try hiring a bad one
Re: Valve Seats or Piston rings?
General rule of thumb, assuming things like PCV and oil level are ok......
Smoke under high manifold vacuum: valve stem seals.
Smoke under load and higher RPM: Rings. Oil rings stuck.
Compression test cannot evaluate oil control rings. They could be completely missing and still show good compression test numbers.
Smoke under high manifold vacuum: valve stem seals.
Smoke under load and higher RPM: Rings. Oil rings stuck.
Compression test cannot evaluate oil control rings. They could be completely missing and still show good compression test numbers.
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General rule of thumb, assuming things like PCV and oil level are ok......
Smoke under high manifold vacuum: valve stem seals.
Smoke under load and higher RPM: Rings. Oil rings stuck.
Compression test cannot evaluate oil control rings. They could be completely missing and still show good compression test numbers.
Smoke under high manifold vacuum: valve stem seals.
Smoke under load and higher RPM: Rings. Oil rings stuck.
Compression test cannot evaluate oil control rings. They could be completely missing and still show good compression test numbers.
Weird one on me. I'll see it tomorrow at work to see if it has indeed stopped smoking.
#4
If you think a good mechanic is expensive, try hiring a bad one
Re: Valve Seats or Piston rings?
P1457 is an EVAP leakage in the canister system, completely unrelated to oil smoke and consumption.
It's DARK out, so how would anyone see smoke from the exhaust if they aren't following behind the car right now?
It's DARK out, so how would anyone see smoke from the exhaust if they aren't following behind the car right now?
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She and her boyfriend were driving home from a party. Both in seperate cars. I'll see tomorrow for sure if it's stopped. Earlier this morning it wasn't full light and that smoke came out thick as fog
#6
If you think a good mechanic is expensive, try hiring a bad one
Re: Valve Seats or Piston rings?
Maybe it ran out of oil? It can't smoke if it has no oil.
A hot catalytic converter can hide a lot of smoke.
I've seen engines with stuck rings that can mosquito fog an entire block on first startup, then abruptly quit smoking once the piston heats up and the rings can seal against the cylinder walls again.
My truck will do it almost on command if I shut it off during the first minute after a cold start.
A hot catalytic converter can hide a lot of smoke.
I've seen engines with stuck rings that can mosquito fog an entire block on first startup, then abruptly quit smoking once the piston heats up and the rings can seal against the cylinder walls again.
My truck will do it almost on command if I shut it off during the first minute after a cold start.
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Havent had much time to look at the car, shes still driving it sparingly and today I was able to pull the new plugs we put in the car to see what they looked like after 107 miles.
Looks like the tip of the plug has white powder (like they were dipped in flour)
Crown of the plug had a few white specks nothing like the tips.
Electrode is completely clean, no marks whatsoever.
I drove and it definitely does have a lot of smoke still, randomly would go away then come back at various throttle. At one point it was like fog was behind us at throttle, and at another push of the throttle none came out at all.
Told her a mechanic would be able to diagnose better than me.
Looks like the tip of the plug has white powder (like they were dipped in flour)
Crown of the plug had a few white specks nothing like the tips.
Electrode is completely clean, no marks whatsoever.
I drove and it definitely does have a lot of smoke still, randomly would go away then come back at various throttle. At one point it was like fog was behind us at throttle, and at another push of the throttle none came out at all.
Told her a mechanic would be able to diagnose better than me.
#9
If you think a good mechanic is expensive, try hiring a bad one
Re: Valve Seats or Piston rings?
Wouldn't have the oil overfilled, would it?
Baffle missing from the PCV breather tube area in the valve cover?
PCV valve broken or stuck open?
Is there a ton of oil sitting in the intake manifold?
Baffle missing from the PCV breather tube area in the valve cover?
PCV valve broken or stuck open?
Is there a ton of oil sitting in the intake manifold?
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Baffle in the breather tube area? Thats a new one on me sorry haha
There is oil in the intake manifold looking down the throtte body. I took some pics a while back and it totally escaped my mind until you mentioned it.
Didnt check the PCV valve, she is driving over tomorrow and I can then.
#11
If you think a good mechanic is expensive, try hiring a bad one
Re: Valve Seats or Piston rings?
The breather tube in the valve cover....if it were a big open hole then oil could be free to enter the tube, and that tube is connected to the air intake snorkel.
There should be some sort of covering inside the valve cover to keep it from getting liquid oil in the tube.
Just flailing in thin air here. You could disconnect PCV and breather tubes for a short test drive to see if smoke quits.
I think it'll be a combination of rings and stem seals
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Smoke stopped with the PCV tubes unplugged.
cleaned out the valve as well, just put it back together and went on a 20min drive.. no smoke!
cleaned out the valve as well, just put it back together and went on a 20min drive.. no smoke!
#13
If you think a good mechanic is expensive, try hiring a bad one
Re: Valve Seats or Piston rings?
randomly would go away then come back at various throttle. At one point it was like fog was behind us at throttle, and at another push of the throttle .
Rings and stem seals usually follow stricter rules.
At least you're on to something ...hopefully
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One month and 1200 miles later I get a call about the car smoking again. So this time I got her to leave the car here for a few days.
Leak down test has 15-18% loss in each cylinder, I can hear air coming out of the rear oil passage in the head behind cylinders 3 and 4. No air seepage through the oil dipstick area, exhaust, throttle body, and no bubbles in the radiator.
As of now the car is mine for a few weeks while she is on vacation. Told me if it's able to be fixed under 1000 then she'll pay me and my boyfriend.
Leak down test has 15-18% loss in each cylinder, I can hear air coming out of the rear oil passage in the head behind cylinders 3 and 4. No air seepage through the oil dipstick area, exhaust, throttle body, and no bubbles in the radiator.
As of now the car is mine for a few weeks while she is on vacation. Told me if it's able to be fixed under 1000 then she'll pay me and my boyfriend.
#16
If you think a good mechanic is expensive, try hiring a bad one
Re: Valve Seats or Piston rings?
How much oil is in it?
Too high or too low?
Has the oil level dropped since you last saw it? Has the driver added oil?
IDK.... air filter clogged causing suction on crankcase? Pffft.
Too high or too low?
Has the oil level dropped since you last saw it? Has the driver added oil?
IDK.... air filter clogged causing suction on crankcase? Pffft.
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I hooked up my scanner to it and drove around, nothing popped up as off to me.
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Haven't done much, car still here as they have her boyfriends Mazda to use, here's what I got some daylight to look at it.
Added oil to the cylinder after the guy who sold me my valve stem seals told me to try a old trick;
cylinder compression dry/wet:
1: 180psi/180psi
2: 175psi/210psi
3: 180psi/180psi
4: 180psi/180psi
Looks like I need a ring job on this car, someone stole my old compression tester, had to use some cheapo one that isn't exactly but that cylinder 2 looks like a problem.
Added oil to the cylinder after the guy who sold me my valve stem seals told me to try a old trick;
cylinder compression dry/wet:
1: 180psi/180psi
2: 175psi/210psi
3: 180psi/180psi
4: 180psi/180psi
Looks like I need a ring job on this car, someone stole my old compression tester, had to use some cheapo one that isn't exactly but that cylinder 2 looks like a problem.
#19
If you think a good mechanic is expensive, try hiring a bad one
Re: Valve Seats or Piston rings?
Added oil to the cylinder after the guy who sold me my valve stem seals told me to try a old trick;
cylinder compression dry/wet:
1: 180psi/180psi
2: 175psi/210psi
3: 180psi/180psi
4: 180psi/180psi
cylinder compression dry/wet:
1: 180psi/180psi
2: 175psi/210psi
3: 180psi/180psi
4: 180psi/180psi
If #2 was the sole culprit, that spark plug would probably show more evidence of oil burning than the other three.
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Shows more white residue. Yeah this cheapo harbor freight tester isn't that great but tested them all twice and the same readings at 10 cranks
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