I think I knew this a couple of months ago and forgot. ;-) I ran the car with the oil filler cap off and the smoke still occurred. So I think that relieves all doubt on the venting issue for crankcase pressure. The oil ring problem would explain why the car feels incredibly strong (good compression) rings, yet still smokes. I suppose the compression rings are expanding once warm and dramatically reducing the amount of oil finding it's way into the cylinder(s). That said, the plugs all look perfect and exactly the same. I've never had a car that burns oil, but I'd suspect that the plugs would show some evidence of that. Perhaps not if it's only severe on cold start...? The other that confuses me is that given the excellent power (I've driven lots and lots of NA 1.6s), I would guess that compression rings are in good shape, which makes me wonder how the oil rings are damaged? I'd buy the idea of them being stuck, but maybe not so much now that the engine has 500 or so miles on it.
I suppose the next logical (and most simple) step is to check the intake for oil and make sure the issue is isolated to the engine. If I don't find anything, then I'll probably try soaking the rings with some seafoam in hopes they're just stuck. And if that fails, it may be FE3 engine swap time, garage or not. On Nov 8, 2009, at 12:44 PM, Bill Cardell wrote: > Remember, a compression test tells you essentially nothing about oil > consumption, same thing with leakdown. You could have totally hosed > oil > rings, which would give you great compression (essentially always a > wet > test). I'm not buying oil past the outside of the guide. How about > baffles in the valve cover? Is there oil in the intake manifold? _______________________________________________ Miatapower mailing list [email protected] http://list.miatapower.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/miatapower
