weird idle/blowby/8psi boost/what should my compression be?

ASSISTANCE Forced Induction
1

my car was running okay for a while, it still had alot of smoke from a full exhaust with a testpipe when it was n/a . but i still decided to boost it. now is the 2nd time it’s been boosted. but recently, when the boost got turned up a bit. it misfired alot, then found out recently one of my spark plugs electrode had broken in a few pieces.

idle problem, it now idles alot better since i’ve done a valve adjustment. but before, it would always die out as soon as i come to a stop after driving it a tad bit hard. but now, after driving it pretty good for a while, a few spirted runs, and driving good again, when i got to a stop, idle slowly went lower and lower and started stumbling. then it would die out. start it up, and it would do the same thing, stumble, and die out. could it be because it’s loosing compression so it wants to shut off?

currently, it’s open downpipe, and smokes like hell when i drive normally, hard, and after i drive it smokes aswell.

i have not yet done a compression test or a leakdown, but will get that done asap.

while my car was boosting, it started to have a clicking noise, then it raised as the engine speed increased. i at first thought valve adjustment, so i did a valve lash. it was pretty off, alot of them were tight, others were really loose. but then i test drove it today after i did the adjustment, and now it’s still there. so i had my hood up while i had the engine running, i have a breather filter on the valve cover. but as i noticed the sound again, i saw smoke comming out of the filter. then when i opened the oil filler cap, alot of air started comming out of there. so im thinking i blew the rings in one of my cylinders, and all the air is comming out of the breather.

i have no oil catch can, but i dont see alot of oil in the lines. (pcv valve on valve cover, with line running to box and assembly on the block w/ clear nylon wrapped lines)

as soon as i get compression results, i will post them up.

what should compression results be on a car w/ 10.7:1 / 10.8:1 ?

2

ran seafoam through it, and adjusted my idle screw. it doesnt die out as much now, and runs better. smoked a hell of a whole lot…

now im going towards the problem of my turbo return line being pinched a little bit.

3

hhhmmmm sounds like you’ll be riding with me to the meet. does not sound good do a compression test on the block see what your numbers are. maybe your rings are going? I say take the turbo parts off and try driving it n/a ,so not to risk anymore damage.what kind of fuel manage ment were you running?
as for your shit miss firring after turning it up maybe you got too lean and something happened.keep us posted

4

do you have an oil restrictor on your oil line into the turbo…i have been told by many that the oil pressure is too much and without a restrictor it gets by and into the down pipe and then smokes alot…thats what i have been told anyways…so you may want to check on that

5

actually one of my spark plugs, the electrode, the white piece in the middle, one of them was completley cracked off. so there was just teh center shaft there. so im guessing it missed alot because of that. one plug was damaged, two were kinda oiled, and one was fine.

fuel, i had a 7:1 FMU and a FPR set at 40psi @ idle

im going to drive it w/ the turbo to the meet… it should be fine…

6

what are you running for timing controll? sounds like cracked ring lands to me.(pistons cracked)

7

timing control - nothing… just retarded back distributor

im going to be pulling out the pistons and head soon. everything is going to be out so i can finally find out what’s wrong.

8

hey Kev,
your oily plugs might be the rings gone bad or something as simple as bad spark plug seals.cracked porcalin from the plug may have resulted from detonation/lean situation. are you sure you wanna take your car to the Sac meet? got a bad feeling you might have probs especially if it is going to be hot out there.

9

im going to attempt to replace my return line. and fix my pcv system.

for some reason, i dont know why i thought it would work, but i had my pcv system routed back into itself.

the block has the pcv box bolted to the back of it, so the line from the block goes into the box, which should go to the pcv valve, then into the manifold.

i had the hose from the box, go into a pcv valve, going back into the valve cover. so it’s not actually breathing, so im guessing it would add to pressure being forced out. (acting like a plugged pcv valve)

so im going to fix that, and put a oil catch can in there somewhere…

and oil return, i bought this funky lookin hose at autozone which should work alot better then my hose i have on it right now. this one is bent in two spots.

one to go towards the oil pan, and another one to angle it over to the side more so it’s more of a direct line. it should work better then my partially pinched line i have now.

after that, i dont know what i can do. if i have the money, before the meet in sac, i can attempt to pull the head off, get a new headgasket and rings.

10

and i’ve replaced the plugs with iridiums.

11

This helped crack your ringlands. detonation killed your spark plug and prob. that piston. do a compression test, that will show you the bad cylinder(s).

12

oil change, pcv fix, oil return fixed

still smokes…

i was checking some pipes around my engine bay, and the one that was on the turbo was slightly loose, so i tightened it, then now it wont tighten on, maybe because i need to get a better coupler.

other then that, after i removed the old coupler, guess what i found? alot of carbon or something on the inside of the compressing housing…

so now it looks a little something like this…

kinked return line
oil in intake side of turbo
smoking alot from downpipe
pressured smoke comming out of the valve cover breather

so im still now waiting on a compression test to find out how screwed it is.

last resort, find a complete long block, and swap that in…

13

looks like that is going to be what you need to do.cuase I got this Bad feeling that it is not just a head gasket Kev.well if you want I still got my old block at the shop $100 bucks it’s yours, a cheap item for you to get to the meet if you don’t take Tezza’s car. but been really wanted to see the car since you fixed it.
mike.

14

compression test results…

ugly…

compression results (cyl #1.#2.#3.#4)

dry test : 120.180.180.100

wet test : 155.240.240.120

im going to pull the head off tonight, and oil pan tomorrow morning…

attempting to get rings and headgasket tomorrow by some money that i MIGHT be getting…

LS pistons may be going in also

time to find a machine shop to press out the piston pins to swap piston heads.

15

got the head off, there is a hole in #1 cylinder’s piston…

sux…

looking at the LS block now for pistons to throw in the block…

16

shit sounds like fun. oh well at least you know what work will need to be done.see proper fuel managemnet would have prevented this.it probably got lean and did it,was it the same cylinder where the spark pluf was damaged?good luck.

17

i think it was because of the spark plug. i’ll have to get a picture. the center of the electrode is still there, but the white stuff that normally mountains to the tip of it is gone.

i think it came from that cylinder. but then yes it could’ve been because of fuel management also… but if anything, i think i was running too rich.

40psi fuel @ idle w/ 7:1 fmu

18

hey mike, do u know any machine shops that will press wrist pins out on 8 pistons, and press 4 back in?

19

not off the top of my head there should be some good ones around your arwa, maybe Griffin auto werks in berkley. not sure if they got a in house machine shop. Gottelli’s used to have it in house. that’s in san bruno check the yellow pages.

20

hey mike, what condition is ur old motor in? didnt it have like 220k on it? all my pistons were fucked… each piston’s ring lands were all cracked in multiple places, tops of the heads were burned/almost melting, and the lands actually started falling out piece by piece when i was removing the rings.