Burning oil

[Russ_T]

Hiiya,

My girlfriends car is playing, it runs on three cylinders these days because cylinder 2 plug is oiling up.

It burns a bit of oil, but not loads and there are no visible leaks. You can see a puff of smoke on acceleration away in first and the exhaust is blacked up.

At first I assumed rings, but it's been like it so long now I'm thinking valve stem seals.

It's done 100k.

I should do a leak down test but it seems like hard work on my drive, trying to find TDC on the dodgy cylinder.

Are there any known common faults or good ways to start diagnosing please?

Thanks

[marque]

Hi

It's not hard to do a leak down check, and is what you should really do first it's cheep and easy.
If rings and and valves are with in an exceptible limit you may find you have a dirty or bad injector.
See if you have any fault codes if you have access to a diagnostic tool
Also check your air filter make shore it's clean, are the spark plugs new or old ?

[Russ_T]

Thank you very much

Yeah you're right. I have a leak down tester and a tool to find TDC. What I couldn't figure out is how I get the questionable cylinder to TDC on my driveway. Do I jack the front up and rotate the wheels whilst it's in gear until I find it, take out all the plugs to make it easier without compression?

Interesting idea on the injector. And the car hasn't been serviced for ages, but I'd have thought it more than just a tired plug because it uses oil ... hmmm

Can I get the fault codes on the dash? If not Saturday I'll take it to my brothers mechanic friend and get it on his computer.

Best go buy some new plugs tonight then in anticipation, that and airfilter, oil filter and oil ready for a service at the same time

Thanks again

[marque]

Hi

Sparkplugs.co.uk are a good place to get spark plugs from very good and quick service
You won't be able to get codes on the dash, so it's a trip to your mechanic mate.
As for finding TDC I normaly take of my cam/valve cover take out all the plugs put it in gear with hand break off and rock it back wards or forwards then you can see which cylinder is on the compression stroke set your TDC put your hand break on get someone to sit in the car with there foot on the bake then do your test. Unless its an auto then it's a case of turning the crank pulley to find TDC
If your car is not running right ie getting hot not firing properly bloked air filter that can cause oil consumption.
A good service never goes a miss
Hope this helps :-)

[Russ_T]

Excellent thanks, I can just clean them up for now they're not totally gone ready for Saturday and order some today online

That's a great help, what a muppet, take the cam cover off and just roll it... d'oh! Have to find somewhere a bit flatter than my drive but sounds like a plan.

Cheers!

[Russ_T]

Found the NGKs cheapest on Ebay for anyone looking at this thread, gone for

NGK BKR6EQUP as they're OEM, here's the spec taken from a thread on here. I would post the link but I can't until I've posted 15 times, search for "A basic guide to Spark Plugs." by Czar.

R50: NGK: BKR6EQUP tightening torque: 25-30nm (18-21.6 lbs/ft) thread diameter/pitch M14 x 1.25 socket size 16mm, electrode gap: pre set, heat range 6

[Russ_T]

Hmm saw the mechanic today.

Only 30psi compresion on cylinder 2 vs 100psi on cylinder 1. Could be a burnt out valve but it's nearly as much work to find that out as it is to change the engine, so looking for a replacement engine with half the miles now and be done with it. The book reckons 8hrs so I'll allow 20hrs.

Also there is a hole in the backbox, are these different on the chilli pack cars or is it just a bolt on tip and standard box?

All this bad running may have killed the cat but that'll have to wait and see come MOT time.

Also could do with new HT leads and coil pack as this one looks tired.

And cylinder 2 was quite dry so possible new injector or two... might stick some injector cleaner in it a week before the engine is swapped and see if it revives any of them.

If anyone can recommend someone online for back boxes / coil packs other than ebay that'd be great.

If the weather is nice tomorrow I might do a leak down test and hopefully prove to myself it is the rings so I don't have this nagging "maybe it'd be easier to do the head" thought...

Cheers!