I have a slight problem with my motor. It is a b18a with gsr crank and rod with p30 pistons and built b16 head(itr valve train). I just wanted to confirm my thoughts on what is going on. When my car idles and I take off it will smoke blue oil smoke in 1st and 2nd gear and sometimes third. but once i get to cruising speed(65mph- 75mph) and floor it I get nothing…no smoke and the car pulls hard. If I rev it in 1st to over 4.5k it will start to smoke but seemingly random .I drove for 6 hrs today and after a long stop of more than 10sec. it would smoke on take off but once I was cruising around town or the expressway it seemed to be fine. I have not done a compression check yet because of work schedule but should have some numbers by tomorrow. Anyone have this type of issue. Like i said i am confirming my ideas on what is wrong so any confirmation would be helpful. If you have to have compression numbers I will have them tomorrow. Thanks
have you noticed any oil consumption?
my b18a had bad valve stem seals and I would burn 3-4 qts of oil between oil changes… just swapped for a b20z2- problem solved.
could also be piston rings… were they changed when you did the lsvtec?
yeah the whole motor was redone. but like i said before it seems to be random. I know that it smokes in first gear in vtec, 2nd gear in vtec, and 3rd gear. but once i get on it at cruising speeds it will not smoke at all. Piston rings would be less random. They would pretty much smoke when ever you put load on the engine or during engine decel. I have noticed no engine smoke on engine decel(engine braking) at all just on acceleration in the short gears. I will have you some numbers later.
you think its the valve seals… were they replaced? what are your compression numbers?
well my worst fears have been realized. Number1 is 160 while the rest are at 210. So i guess that is the culprit. I will still have to drive on it for atleast another 2 wks then I will drop in my built b20vtec that has been sitting on the engine stand for 2 months now. Guess it isn’t a total loss. Thanks for your help guys
did a second compression test and found that I have 210 across the board. The comp. tester that i used before has a faulty needle. I use 2 quarts every 300 miles. Also like I said before the engine was rebuilt but the car also sat for like 6 months before I drove it. The previous owner said that he drove it 2 times during that six months and it did not smoke as much but I drive it daily and it smokes alot sometimes…very random though. I don’t get it but will be putting valve stem seals in her tomorrow afternoon as well as my ctr cams. Any more guesses if this doesn’t work…thanks
What do your spark plugs look like?
I am getting detonation. So num.1 had chunks of porcelain missing when I took them out today. But really only number one. I put the valve stem seals in this afternoon but can not tell if it is still smoking because it is dark. I also did a vavle adjustment because the valves were loud once the motor was warm. I retarded the timing quite abit and put 4 gallons of 110 oct. in it and it is not pinging anymore at low rpms. I checked the valve clearance on the guides and the valves are fine with no movement while in the guide. When I got the car it had ngk 5s so I put 6’s in. The bottom end is a b18a block w/ gsr crank and rods with p30 pistons. What kind of compression ratio should I get with that. I am also running really rich when I hit vtec which is kinda normal but I have an abnormal amount of black smoke. I still believe it is burning oil but can’t tell til tomorrow.
another problem. My car will start to heat up if sitting at idle and I have to rev it to get the coolant to circulate. that my be un related but could I have a head gasket issue because the more that i think about it the smoke will sometimes be blue and sometimes be more white. I know that a compression test may or may not show this but could this be an explanation for random smoke since I just replaced the valve stem seals and did a compression test??? Thanks
- Did you do the valve adjustment when the car was cold or warm? The proper clearances given are for cold valves
- compression calc: http://www.c-speedracing.com/howto/compcalc/compcalc.php
- Bad flow of coolant can be many things. First try an OEM replacement thermostat. You could have bad bearings in your water pump, or a partially clogged radiator.
- If your headgasket is blown, you will have a mix of coolant and oil in your oil pan. Drain the oil and see if it is a milkish color
Yeah I know all of this just clarifying it with pple that might have had some similar issues. I drove her all day and I have come to some less random conclusions. Mostly smokes at less than half throttle and lower rpms but even then it is still random. Valve guides??? I don’t think it is the head gasket but just wondering if anyone had this symtom. No milky oil, no low coolant, and yes the engine was cold when I adjusted the valves. It definitely smokes less with the new valve stems. Num. one exhaust did have very little play in the guides and was the only cylinder that had any. I will do a leak down and see if I get anything that way. Again thanks for the replies guys…this is helping a bunch. LSTEG thanks for the list I will go through everything again tomorrow after work.
if the compression calc is right I have 11.6 cr. If that is right than my compression test should read higher right? 210 is low for 11.6:1 cr right?
Talked to the guy who I got the car from and he says he never saw it use oil. I changed the pcv but again today it was random smoke mostly at less than half throttle.
Of course he’s going to tell you that it was perfect before you bought it :roll:
He has been fairly straight forward about everything else and hasn’t been evasive so all I can do is trust him because he might not have noticed. I think that it might be crankcase pressure because I took off the oil filler cap and man that changed the way the car even idled when I did that. I put a new pcv vale in but this thing is making some seriouse pressure. There is no visible blow by(misty gas smelling smoke) just alot of pressure. I think I am going to take the plugs out of the back of the block and put b20 adapters in there to see if that is my problem. Or drill holes on the valve cover and put nipples on it that way. What does everyone think of that.?
I feel like an idiot but I had no idea that this was the problem. I have a fully built motor with stock exhaust and cat. I looked under the car looking for my rachet I had drop and notices that the cat was glowing. Took the cat off and it was damn near completely stopped up with junk causing my exhaust to build up pressure and push hot gases back in to the cylinder and pressurize the engine causing it to blow oil past the rings. I just put on my new n1 catback with cutted cat and fixed the whole problem. Never heard of that before but that is what happend.
How many miles have you put on the car since making this revision?
Do you mean engine rebuild…about 3k maybe more. Just put a catback on it thought that was helping it but now it smokes at idle and anytime I push the gas. I give up!!!
Ok so I think that I have the wrong dipstick in. I have searched yet I have found nothing. My dipstick is 10" from the bottom of the rubber stopper to the tip of the stick. I saw one other post on here where a dip stick was 11.75 " from the same points on the stick…can anyone confirm this.