Hello,

Today I took out my oil dipstick while the car was running. I have a small, but noticeable amount of smoke pulsing from the dipstick channel.

What can cause this? Could it be a blown turbo seal, with the excessive oil burning and causing blow-by? Could it be a blown head gasket?


Please help! Thanks,

Mike.

 

Blow by.

Do a compression test and leak down test.

 

Prob ring landings. Just being honest - I have a fair bit of experience with this

 

How can I confirm it is the ring landings?

 

Thats exactly what was happening to my old motor. All you can really do to see if a boost leak test and compression test to see where you are loosing conpression

 

Boost leak test? Do you mean "leakdown test?"

 

Typo**

Lol sorry i meant leak down

 

If the ringlands are done, compression test should be pretty obvious, fubar'd cylinder will prob be in the ~100 psi range, where the rest will be at 160-180

 

I can buy ring landings myself, right? And install them?

Might I as well do an engine build while I'm at it? Forged pistons do sound really neato...

 

Ring landings are part of the piston itself. The ringland is the part of the piston that surrounds the grooves the rings fit into, hince theyre a landing for the ring ;) On stock pistons they are relatively thin and are made of a cast material, so get combustion temps a little too hot and theyll fracture off the piston. Heres a pic of what a broken ring land looks like -



If you plan on continuing to push the engine further, at least run a set of low comp forged pistons. Id also recommend going ahead and tossing in some K1 or BC rods while youre at it for extra security even if you dont plan on going for big power.

Also, when the ring landing fractures it tends to scar the cylinder wall pretty bad, youll need to get it bored out to 89mm in most cases and run a .5mm larger piston (shelf pistons are avail in 88.5,89,89.5,and 90mm)

 

As for doing it yourself, building an engine is one of the most difficult DIY projects for most. It requires a good bit of knowledge, the right tools, and attention to detail. If you know what youre doing and feel up to it, go ahead, if not, just pull the motor and pay a machine shop to perform the teardown and rebuild, usually full assembly for a 4 cylinder long block runs $500-700 depending on the machine shop (+ machining costs, such as bore/hone, balancing, etc)

 

If it's just the ring itself, would it cause the same symptom?

 

Oh... so when I see pistons of various diameters on Dezod.com, it's for when people have ended up boring out the cylinder walls? Is there a reason why you'd choose to do that - instead of having to, in order to fix a problem?

 

you would have to bore out the ylinder if it was scared by a broken ring. so if the ring is not broken and the wall is not scared then no you dont need to bore it out. but in this case as it seem you could have a broken ring it would be wise to bore it out and go to a larger piston

 

Now that I have it in daylight, I think it might be air or steam. It's not blue, its almost colorless, and it isn't very hot.

 

Compression test results, with iEquus compression test gauge:

Cylinder: 1 .. 2 .. 3 .. 4

Test 1: 180 180 175 190
Test 2: 179 182 175 190


Note: This is with the engine warm, engine cranked 5 times for each measurement.

 

Hmmm thats weird. What year is your tC?
Try the OEM brand, rent it from autozone

 

and now do a leak down test.

 

I did rent an OEM, but it failed while I was testing cylinder 2. It went POP, and then i noticed a hole in the hose. That's when I went to the other brand.

Before it failed, the OEM gauge measured 160 on cylinder 1.