Piston rings?

[Alex]

My car is running on 3 cylinders at the moment because a spark plug is covered in oil. If i clean it the car runs ok for about a mile and then it just gets covered again. LOADS of white smoke pours out of the exhaust. I think maybe a piston ring has gone? What do you lot think?

Thanks

[Dicko]

head gasket more than lilkey, or a valve stem seal completely died.

if was piston ring u wouldnt get oil on the spark plug cuz it would burn off. so its head gasket or dripin from above (stem seal)

[Alex]

right just looked and there is oil on all of the spark plugs. Head gasket then? there is no oil in the water

[Dicko]

on all the plugs :s

dont sound good

have you done an oil change or anything recently?

if the gasket has gone between oil/piston then it wont get into water.

[Alex]

i haven't done an oil change for a while. i topped it up the other day though. i suppose the only thing to do is to pull the engine apart. not looking forward to that :?

[Dicko]

how much did u put it? u didnt overfill it did you :s

when u say there is oil on all the plugs, well where about on the plug and how much?

[Alex]

i didnt put much oil in, its below the max mark. They look like the picture of the plugs at the back of all haynes manuals 'oil fouling'. If i clean them and the start the engine, they get coated in oil almost straight away. There is like a smoke screen from my exaust when you press the accelerator as well.

[Euan]

have you lost any water?

[Alex]

nope

[Dicko]

doesnt make any sense on how its doing it to all thr plugs :s

so its not actually fresh oil on them its more like a carbon buildup/flaking

do you have a compression tester or know anybody that has 1

[Alex]

not flakey just black used engine oil. I may be able to get a compression tester. at the moment i am having trouble getting to anything as the bolts for the cam belt cover have rounded off :x .

[Stuart]

are you sure its oil??

a while back i had what looked like oil on my spark plugs and it wouldnt run at all, and ahd shitte pouring out the back.

turned out to be very very very flooded with fuel (not sure why) and the carbon had been washed off and onto the plugs. it was black and thick so i assumed it was oil too.


got it running and took it for a very long thrash and tis been fine ever since (about 3.5 years now lol)

[Alex]

2 litres of oil gone in a day. I think the term is shagged engine :cry:

[Aragorn]

doesnt exactly make sense tho

if it was rings it should burn it off meaning the plugs would be ok

valve seal or head gasket would normally only go on one cylinder

you SURE all the plugs are getting oily??

[Alex]

yep. twice now i have cleaned them, put them back in and started the engine. (spraying my house with shite from the exhaust and almost killing myself from the fumes). when i take them out again they are covered in oil.

[blaiz]

wot bout da timin belt??
i kno thats wot hapend 2 me old mans old sierra, poured out tons of smoke (not sure bout da plugs tho..??)
then da belt finally went..!

[Alex]

belt is fine, it has nothing to do with that

[_JH_]

is it breathing heavily from the filler cap aswell?

[beghy]

your rings would do with a frest set but i just had the same problem on my girls 1.4 SR, once i took the head off and sent it away they found 4 exhaust guides completely worn out. So i replace it with a freash P/P 1.3 SR head and the difference is amazing.