Oil on Pistons (pics)

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Mar 25, 2008 | 11:01 AM

xxxhp

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Oil on Pistons (pics)

Pulled my heads to do a swap to TFS 235cc and found oil on most pistons. Also all pistons where loose in their bores. The heads were completely dry. The only cause I can think of is too big piston ring gap. The engine was running fine but it would blow white smoke every once in a while.

What are your suggestions on the cause & what corrective actions should be made (other than new piston rings)?

Mar 25, 2008 | 11:27 AM

Tiago

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From: HOUSTON-TX

maybe turbos are leaking oil into the compressor???

Mar 25, 2008 | 11:28 AM

ls1290

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From: Colorado

White smoke is usually a sign of coolant burning. If you are not loosing oil, then I would guess it is not oil, but coolant. When you say the pistons are loose, how loose are you talking?

Keith

Mar 25, 2008 | 11:42 AM

Inspector12

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From: Pearland

Yeah I would be looking for oil getting into your intake track like Tiago is suggesting. The white smoke can be either coolant or oil depending on where it is entering the motor it can also be blue or black which is more comon. And runnning a car real rich can cause build up on the pistons also usually not so wet looking though.

Mar 25, 2008 | 11:44 AM

stevieturbo

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From: Norn Iron

Where's the oil ? Doesnt particularly look anything too bad in those pics ?

Mar 25, 2008 | 11:51 AM

Inspector12

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From: Pearland

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevieturbo

Where's the oil ? Doesnt particularly look anything too bad in those pics ?

Actually you are right stevei I looked again and really don't see anything that bad I saw the one picture that looked wet, but forgot about pulling the heads and coolant etc... Looks like a little bit of carbon buikd up and not much more.

Mar 25, 2008 | 12:05 PM

xxxhp

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiago

maybe turbos are leaking oil into the compressor???

Nope. The turbos, intercooler, intake manifold, cylinder heads are all dry

Quote:

Originally Posted by ls1290

White smoke is usually a sign of coolant burning. If you are not loosing oil, then I would guess it is not oil, but coolant. When you say the pistons are loose, how loose are you talking?

Keith

Iam sure it is not coolant as I haven't burned any. On the other hand my engine has always been using oil, initially it was 1 quart for 1k miles then prior to pulling the heads it was 1 quart for only 200 miles.

The pistons are rocking up, down, left & right in their bores. kinda like the piston slap thing. Looks like pistons/rings to wall clearance is too high.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevieturbo

Where's the oil ? Doesnt particularly look anything too bad in those pics ?

If you look closely, the pistons has 2 layers of black coating on it ( you can even notice two colors). The lower coating is the regular carbon build up, while the top one looks like oil mixed with carbon.