Need a diagnosis as soon as you can, please :( :(

[Tahrey1043]

Right so i've checked my engine out

Air filter has a nice soaking of half-dirty oil on it's underside and it's coating the rim where it sits in the housing too - think it's come out of the breather originally. Need to swap the filter immediately.

Spark plugs 2-4 all look ok but for a fair bit of black soot on them (shouldn't it be grey?)
Spark plug 1 has oil on it, mainly around the metal collar part, and the soot is present but more patchy.

Compression testing, assuming i've done it right:
(I started at the distributor cap end, am i right in thinking that's pot 4?)

Cylinder 4 --- 13.0 bar rough average after 5-6 "pfft" noises
Cylinder 3 --- 13.5 bar
Cylinder 2 --- 12.5 bar
Cylinder 1 --- 10.0 bar .... or, with as much oil as i could clumsily dribble into the hole (a couple ml's), 12.0 bar.

Plus i dared to actually have it idle with the guage in place and just keep hitting the reset button - 2, 3, 4 were in the 8.5 to 9.5bar range, all well and good... 1 was more like 6 to 7bar

The outside of the block in the region of pot 1 is also quite wet with oil, too. Luckily none of it seems to have gotten on the cam or alternator belts.

So that's three different things that may be to blame for the oil use (and smell) .... maybe one, a combination of two, or all three together.

Could do with finding out while i can still get to GSF if anyone here has the know hows

pretty please with a cherry?


PS what would be the eventual result of ignoring this problem and just shoving it full of oil every 500 miles?

[ste mk1lx]

Air filter has a nice soaking of half-dirty oil on it's underside and it's coating the rim where it sits in the housing too - think it's come out of the breather originally. Need to swap the filter immediately.

The outside of the block in the region of pot 1 is also quite wet with oil, too. Luckily none of it seems to have gotten on the cam or alternator belts.

air filter- the breather box is blocked (pig of a job to do with engine in)

block oil leak- could be either the head gasket leaking or an oil leak from the cam cover,best just give it a good clean with a jet wash and then see where it leaks from (or sell it when its clean)[/quote]

[Tahrey1043]

got too much pride to flog an 81k car that's got a sparkly clean block! i think all but the terminally dim will see that coming a mile off hehe

suspected the breather as such..... i hoped it would never happen... t*ts.

[GroovyCarrot]

If you suspect a headgasket oil leak, clean off the bit of the block with the engine number stamped on it (top surface of the block, there's a recess in the head where you can see it, just above the drivers side engine mount), drive for 20 miles or so and see if there's oil over the engine number again. If so, new headgasket time. I've just written a detailed set of instructions for how to do the headgasket with minimal effort and barely any time, it's floating around somewhere...

Don't know if the compression thing will be the piston rings or not, but to be honest if you're going the head gasket it's really not much more work to get the pistons out. All you need to do is remove the sump (about 20 irritating little bolts, but not hard to do), and then you can just undo the big end shells and knock the pistons out of the top of the block. I've still got my old pistons with new rings on them in the shed, as usual you're welcome to them if you want them.

Sounds like major work I know, but to be honest it's really not as difficult as it sounds.. I'm quite sure you could do it in a day if you started at a reasonable hour. I know you're selling the car, but think how proud you'll be if you can transform an 81,000 mile old oil burner into a pristine, smooth running machine to sell on Think how good it would be if you could put on the advert that you'd recently overhaulled the engine.. huge selling power..

Good luck with it

[Tahrey1043]

All you need to do is......
and then you can just.......
it's really not as difficult as it sounds....
you could do it in a day...

famous last words dude, especially me sitting here with neither the tools nor the time to do it in! that sort of thing lead to exhaust and brake adventures not to mention others

yet, i may ask them to cancel / postpone the next week of the insurance and sort it out in my nan's garage (subject to me using the car itself to clear the damn thing out!)....

wouldnt mind having that selling power however, and thanks for the gasket tip