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Help please!!! bad rings?

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Old 09-05-2014, 03:57 AM
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Default Help please!!! bad rings?

First drive after winter noticed car not running right. Changed plugs/ wires, still ran crappy. Did compression test and ended up with 162 lbs in all but 1 cylinder. 1 was at 120 lbs. Squirts oil in plug hole and it jumped to normal. Are my rings bad ? Also seemed to have a decent amount of oil on sparkplug threads. Maybe bad valve seals? Why would this happen on only 1 cylinder after car ran fine at end of last year. Car was started every week in winter. Any suggestion or other test I can do in my own garage? How hard to remove motor from car? Thanks. Btw mods are in sig.
Old 09-05-2014, 10:55 AM
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Did you do a HOT compression test by warming the engine up all the way? Valve seal would give oil in the cylinder at startup but usually not enough to make a difference after it warms up. Could have a combo of valve seal and valve/seat sealing issue. Could be rings, but could be other things.

I don't see a sig, BTW.
Old 09-05-2014, 11:08 AM
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Don't start it every week during the winter, you're just adding lots of extra wear to the engine. That could have contributed actually...

If the test wasn't done at operating temp it isn't valid. Needs to be warmed up for a proper test.
Old 09-06-2014, 07:29 AM
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You need to do a leak down test on that cylinder, it will tell you where the compression is leaking off to. Probably broken rings or piston broken ring lands. What number cylinder is it? 7&8 are notorious for this happening.
Old 09-16-2014, 01:00 AM
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Sorry guys for taking so long. I took your advice and re did the compression on the motor while at a operating temp with basically the same results. Close to 160 on all but the 1 cylinder. Cylinder 3 was at 120. I also discovered smoke or steam comming out of oil dip stick. Performed head gasket leak test, and results seem to show no leak. Oil looks fine. I will be doing a leakdown test as soon as my neighbor lets me borrow the tester. Dont wanna spent $100 plus and use it 1 time, and dont trust a harbor freight tester. Any ideas on what it may be? Any other possible fixes? If I have to do rings is there any way to do them while motor is still in car? Can oil pan be taken off? May be a dumb question but i I've never had to take my motor out and not looking forward to doing it.thanks

Last edited by wilwhite2kss; 09-16-2014 at 01:06 AM.
Old 09-16-2014, 01:14 AM
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Originally Posted by wilwhite2kss
Sorry guys for taking so long. I took your advice and re did the compression on the motor while at a operating temp with basically the same results. Close to 160 on all but the 1 cylinder. Cylinder 3 was at 120. I also discovered smoke or steam comming out of oil dip stick. Performed head gasket leak test, and results seem to show no leak. Oil looks fine. I will be doing a leakdown test as soon as my neighbor lets me borrow the tester. Dont wanna spent $100 plus and use it 1 time, and dont trust a harbor freight tester. Any ideas on what it may be? Any other possible fixes? If I have to do rings is there any way to do them while motor is still in car? Can oil pan be taken off? May be a dumb question but i I've never had to take my motor out and not looking forward to doing it.thanks
Bad ring/s or ring land/s would allow excessive blow-by causing the above condition even at idle. IMO, pulling the engine out is the best way, since the engine will be a lot easier to work on it'll probably take less time. Furthermore if any additional work needs to be done to the engine from scaring of the cylinder bore, it's already out.

Last edited by 99Bluz28; 09-16-2014 at 01:42 AM.
Old 09-16-2014, 06:53 PM
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I know that 120 is significantly Lower than the others but I had heard that above 100 is still good. Is this true or is 120 way too low considering what the others are at?
Old 09-17-2014, 01:03 AM
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Depends on why is it that low? If the rings are broken or the piston has a broken land you better be fixing it before bad things happen.



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