rings or head gasket

[dominicano]

car is smoking, cant really tell if its blue or not and doesnt smell sweet, didnt open valve cover yet to see if oil and coolant mixed. one spark plug is covered in oil on the bottom but the others are fine. you guys think rings or head gasket? thanx.

 

[Slammed90Lude]

it would be easier to tell if you had some more observations- the color of the smoke would be helpful for one

 

[pills_PMD]

white smoke = headgasket

anything else is more than likely rings.. and judging that your spark plug is covered in oil.. i'd say that there is oil in your combustion chamber then... so rings

 

[cws13]

Rings for sure. A head gasket would not be causing oil on a plug. You needs you a rebuild.

 

[dominicano]

so how difficult is it to change the rings and any sites with details? thanx.

 

[Slammed90Lude]

just buy a helm's manual- it's not the easiest thing to do though and you're gonna need a special tool or two- specifically a ring expander and that silly looking sleeve that compresses the rings so you can slide the pistons back into the block among a few other things- and IMO it's NOT fun at all-

 

[dominicano]

well i got an 89 si motor sitting here i picked up, guy said just had high mileage but no issues, you think itd be easier just to swap that in instead of fixing the dx engine? thanx...

 

[Slammed90Lude]

well you could swap them and while you have the other motor out, you could throw in the new rings and while you're at it, build it- I figure if you're replacing rings, why not replace the pistons and the rods too, if you have the money- but yeah, IMO it's a bigger pain in the ass to do rings while the motor is still in the car, when we did them, we pulled it- so i figure if you have the shitty motor out anyway, why not swap the other one in and reduce you're down time- that's just my 2 cents

 

[NotUrAverage_Si]

Originally posted by Slammed90Lude@Feb 7 2004, 07:32 PM
and IMO it's NOT fun at all-

sure it is.

 

[Slammed90Lude]

then you have a very warped sense of fun- hahaha

 

[9sech22civic]

to help diagnose bad rings.... I know everyone here knows how to do a dry compression check. Well do that and write down your numbers, now you need to do a wet compression check( drop 5-6 drops of oil down your spark plug hole) and do another check, if the compression jumps 10-15 percent higher on your wet compared to your dry. then tada! you have bad or worn rings.

 

[cws13]

Unless you already have oil coaking on your plugs...

 

[CRX_B16B]

could be valve guides, just my two cents

 

[9sech22civic]

then do a cylinder leak down test. that will diagnose where the leak is coming from.