Any of you that have read my other threads about smoke coming from my breather hoses will know that i've had some kind of problem for a while.

Well,went to Powerstation today and they took one look at the car and said one cylinder is lower than the others,removed the crank sensor and turned the engine over and you can hear one cylinder lower than the others,the smoke coming from the breathers is compression gasses !!

The car doesn't really use any oil,no smoke from exhaust and no oil from the breathers and still drives fine.

Any ideas what the problem will be ?

Spoke to Ian Litchfield who will sell me a complete engine from a spec-c for £3000 but my Apexi won't run it so it's another £2500 for motec or around £1000 for a Hydra ecu ?

What other engines are capable of 1.4 bar,or maybe have my bottom end rebuilt with pistons that can handle it ?

My engine has only done around 11000 miles since being rebuilt by Api by the previous owner

Anybody throw some suggestions in my direction so I can consider all the options available to me ?

 

go back to api and see what they say, or speak to paul from zen performance, he has a great reputation for big power engine builds at very decent prices...

 

If I were you I'd give API a call and see if the motor is still within spec.... Seems the best place to ask for advice if they built it.

 

I will give Api a call but it won't be under warranty as it was rebuilt for the guy who I bought it from

 

Si, i'd remove the price of the spec-c engine, before they sell out

You done a compression test on it yet ?

 

They won't sell that fast,not when you add the price of Motec or Hydra ontop !

I know with the spec-c engine it would be bombproof but it will cost me at least £4k-£5k

Waiting for David at Api to get back to me at the moment.

 

compression gasses in oilways and low comp can be either leaky valve stem seals, piston rings, head gasket or cracked head, although my money would be on head gasket.

 

Not everyone on here will need a motec or hydra though

Not everyone looking for an engine will have a classic.

 

Would a cracked piston be a suspect aswell ?

 

sure, it can happen, although a damaged piston wouldn't remain that way for long before it starts breaking up

 

Yeh that's what I thought. Been running 1.2 or 1.4 bar hard since January and it hasn't popped yet. Surely it would have blown by now if it was that ?

It doesn't even use any oil and there's no smoke from the exhaust ?

 

Well,David has just replied to me and says it sounds like it's melted a piston !

Waiting for the price of a rebuilt bottom-end with forged pistons capable of upto 1.8 bar.

The joys of scooby ownership

 

sounds more like a cracked ring land, which might fit in with strange knock readings. A properly melted piston will give smoke.

 

Hi Paul,That's one of the things that Powerstation said to me aswell.

The strange knock readings recently stopped altogether,I never got any knock reading higher than 25 ? At the same time as that happening the smke from the breathers got worse ?

Would you be able to give me a quote for a rebuilt bottom-end ? Maybe with forged pistons to handle the boost ?

 

Just driven the car to work and back today,still drives fine apart from not sounding right when starting. Just checked the oil and water levels and they haven't moved !

If I had a broken ring land would that make the car use oil ? I get absolutely no smoke from the exhaust whatsoever !

Can anyone explain to me what would cause a broken ring land ?

Could it maybe be the headgasket starting to leak ?

 

please explain i have just had the same thing happen to mine (ring land cracked) would love to know what the cause could be!

 

If the oil scraper ring and piston crown was still intact then no oil would enter the combustion chamber, therefore it wouldn't use or smoke oil.


As i said Saturday... ringland 99%

not quite sure how combustion gasses get into the crankcase from it doing the headgasket, the oil drain holes are miles away, Much more likely to be honking the water out if the headgasket had gone, and as you know that's fine and dandy.

The only conclusion I can make to the lack of knock readings now Paul is that it has "worn in" where it's broken so not picking up so much.


Andy