legacycentral bbs

So I guess I dont get to install the twin cam heads this year. I got home from Denver, CO sunday night (two pretty good concerts) and Literally the stop sign before my house, my car starts running like absolute crap, all bubbly and everything like a blown headgasket. I had an odd feeling and popped the hood, unscrew the oil cap and the thing shoots off at me will some oil. sweet.
I repaced the pcv valve. Noticed water in the pcv lines, but none on the dipstick.

Restarted the car. ran better but wont idle well. Checking the exhaust pipe, my friend gets a face full of blue smoke. Sweet, I am burning oil. And this is just after startup, so I dont think it was coming from the turbo.

So these symptoms as well as my consumption of 1+quart of oil on my trip leads me to believe my rings are going. I also had my heads done, as you all know, in november. Lately I have heard horror stories of the particular company I used screwing up valve guides (more than a handful of cases I wish I would have heard before..)

So We conclded that with the new Turbo (thanks matt) that we would go ahead and redo the bottom end, hopefully before much goes wrong. hopefully. SO the engine is coming out next saturday. I am planning on new bearing and rings, as well as getting the tops of my pistons ceramic coated and the sides coated with something like butter but more permanent(sorry couldnt help it).

So for the next month, I am going to be traveling via Honda trail 90.

Any reccomendations on anything I should do? THe valveguides are replaceable correct? I was using Mobil 1 synthetic 5w30 at first but this last change took Castrol Synthetic, any thoughts on that?

Thanks all, wish me luck.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions here... if you think rings are the problem, a compression test will easily shed more light on the issue. If the company you dealt with tends to screw up valve guides than the valve seals won't last long and could easily be the factor causing you to loose oil and burn blue smoke. The valve guides could have also caused the rough running if a valve was hung up.

Youd be better off going through proper diagnostics before tearing your engine out, rebuilding and winding uo with the same exact problem.

Could be a burnt valve.

Was said head company in Denver?

no the company was here in casper. Western Engine and machine.

OK so compression test. If the rings are bad I should hear air through the oil filler neck correct? What about if I have a burnt valve or bad valve seat.

Oh and the other thing, when I was in denver, my friend was following me around town, he said when I shifted/ let off throttle, a puff of white/blue smoke came out the exhaust.

Like Junior said....do a proper diagnostic before you pull the engine.

It may not be as bad as you think.

WHat about my milage? I am at about 150,000 on the engine, that I am about to throw a bigger turbo on and pump 15-17 psi through? Wouldnt that be at least good measure of safety? or should I have nothing worry about?

I will take it down to get a compression test.

150k... it's a baby .... when you're at 510k you might start thinking along those lines

Well,
Regardless of your test results, you will be able to get a visual inspection of the bores and measure taper and out of roundness when you pull the heads to install the DOHC ones. That will give you an even better idea of whether to rebuild or just keep running her...

Thats the thing. I cant afford this summer to rebuild and get new engine management for the heads. Remember I make a lowly bike mechanics wage.

Well,
pull the motor and start the work towards the head installation BEFORE you buy the EM. Then if the block needs to be gone through, you can do that instead.

yeah... your probably right...... damn I hate it when your right...

sucks about your engine.
what were the shows?
bmxpunk, come down and ride edora with me some time.

206er, Ride what? Edora? ( i ride lots of stuff so I am confused sorry)

Yeah will do some tests to find out for sure. I kinda jump to conclusions sometimes, but the tech that was looking at my car said the same about the rebuild. It was he who actually put the doomsday thought in my head.


By the way the shows were Friday- Throwdown, Agony Scene, Black Dahila Murder, Red Chord. Saturday was Thrice, As I lay Dying (yes!!) Atreyu, Deftones (left before them) Coming down to see alkaline trio, then inflames and throwdown again. Sorry Jason for the off topic.

shoot, sorry to hear this it seems like whenever yours was running, mine wasnt, and now that mine finally is perfect this happens!!! good luck diagnosing.

fyi, i just did a compression check on my engine (finally) and...
1: 135 psi
2: 140 psi
3: 142 psi
4: 150 psi

if you want to use that as comparison, although im not sure what it SHOULD be right now (got on here to try and figure that out and saw this thread), i have a feeling 135 is too low...

again, good luck.

bmxpunk wrote:206er, Ride what? Edora? ( i ride lots of stuff so I am confused sorry)

the concrete park here in ft collins

206er wrote:

bmxpunk wrote:206er, Ride what? Edora? ( i ride lots of stuff so I am confused sorry)

the concrete park here in ft collins

Yeah will have to do that. thats the one down from the spring creek track isnt it? I like that place. Fell a ton last time Iwas there, cause I was used to wood. Have any trail down there?

that anti graffiti stuff they put on edora is retarded slippery, is that what you are talking about?
in ftc there are some crappy jumps in a field that I was digging on last year, some equally crappy ones in some ducks unlimited land, Ive heard the V down in denver has a big flowy line built now.

ok figured I had let the car sit enough. (well that and its too frigging colt t obe driving the honda 90)

so fixed the slight vaccum leak that I had. The ninstalled a new PCv vavle. went for quick drive and everything was fine other than the blue smoke at startup. any way come back, turn the car off and look under the hood. I have something spraying out of the pcv line On the 90 degree bend part of the lines on the front of a wrx intercooler. the substace was creamish-yellowish-white. however there is no sign of water in the oil (on the dipstick or inside the cap) and its too hot to open the radiator cap and check at the moment.

any body know what it is?!?!?

then i opened the oil cap and a decent amount of blue smoke came out.

bmxpunk wrote:ok figured I had let the car sit enough. (well that and its too frigging colt t obe driving the honda 90)

so fixed the slight vaccum leak that I had. The ninstalled a new PCv vavle. went for quick drive and everything was fine other than the blue smoke at startup. any way come back, turn the car off and look under the hood. I have something spraying out of the pcv line On the 90 degree bend part of the lines on the front of a wrx intercooler. the substace was creamish-yellowish-white. however there is no sign of water in the oil (on the dipstick or inside the cap) and its too hot to open the radiator cap and check at the moment.

any body know what it is?!?!?

then i opened the oil cap and a decent amount of blue smoke came out.

you need to check the coolant, you can't really get a good judgement if there's water in the oil by looking at the dipstick; the coolant will have definite signs of it though.

if your crankcase is under pressure like that (blowing out the PCV valve) you probably have a blown headgasket.

that is exactly what I was hoping you wouldn't say. it is running just like when I blew it the last time.....

I tried that "restore" oil addative last time i did an oil change if that makes a difference.

bmxpunk wrote:that is exactly what I was hoping you wouldn't say. it is running just like when I blew it the last time.....

I tried that "restore" oil addative last time i did an oil change if that makes a difference.

no, and I'm afraid that's probably what it is, blown HG.

happens to the best of us.

ok so thats 2 sets of head gaskets since september, I had them torqued properly and milled last time. I am running 15 psidoes that have anything to do with it? Is there a better head gasket out there?

Kelley (Rallitek) and I got some sets of gaskets that look really nice, ALL metal, no composite.

We got them from Discount Import Parts. I will try to get the part # for you.

also, napa has victor reinz stuff, which makes the all metal head gaskets too. they seem really nice.