SR20, smoking and misfire, found oil on headgasket

[penco]

My sr was smoking and had a misfire and there was oil on the plugs. (More about that here #/f/engine-tech/325885-sr-smoking-misfire-oil-plugs.html) So I took the head off and there was oil on one section on the top of the head gasket and underneath. Im thinking this is the cause for the smoking/misfire. If so would this be caused just by having a bad head gasket? Sorry for the big pics.

http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o476/pencoq/photo3.jpg

http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o476/pencoq/photo2.jpg

http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o476/pencoq/photo.jpg

[penco]

Any thoughts?

[nismolvr]

so your engine was stock and with stock boost? There are some things we need to know to get some idea on how to assist you and point you in the right direction.Like for instance ,How long have you had the car?What kind of driving do you do,?Are you racing around in it hard? I will try to help based on the limited info you gave.

When you described that that you had your fuel pressure regulator Teed off and noticed the hose was disconnected ,Were you running the other hose to your BOV?If you did ,who knows how long you ran it like that,you most likely blew out your t25 turbo seal and it wasnt nessesary to remove the head.If you say it was running fine the night before and the next morning when you started it and then immediately blows black smoke ,Its your bad turbo,damaged it because of a disconnected hose to BOV,your turbo was surging because boost pressure wasnt being released and damaged the oil seal and now it dumps oil into your intake and exhaust.Inspect your turbo.Replace or upgrade your turbo ,get a new head gasket .Check your inter-cooler piping for oil,exhaust system also will be drenched with oil.If you didnt run it long ,there shouldnt be much oil i your piping.

ps.dont drop the gasket guides into your engine timing cover !On the picture ,there still on the gasket.or youll have more problems...

[codyace]

1. The front cover seal should be silliconed

2. It's going to naturally be messy when you lift head off, as oil and coolant will leak from their passages

IN regard to the smoking misfire, it could be a million things. Vacuum leak, shot plugs, etc etc.

[rogersdrifting07]

Get a new gasket and put silicone on every piece you put back!
That way you dont got nothing leaking.
Misfire could be spark plug or bad timing.

[codyace]

Get a new gasket and put silicone on every piece you put back!
That way you dont got nothing leaking.
Misfire could be spark plug or bad timing.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Only on the front cover do you use silicone, not on the gasket anywhere else bad bad bad bad.

[japslapsilvia]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Only on the front cover do you use silicone, not on the gasket anywhere else bad bad bad bad.


why?
not saying you are wrong im just curious as to y it would be bad.

[codyace]

why?
not saying you are wrong im just curious as to y it would be bad.

Because the headgasket seals through itself, not through silcone. Not only will it prevent a good seal (remember it's got to seal both the cylinders, and all passages), but it ends up promoting leaks beacuse it never allows a good 'clamp'.

Also, look at the FSM...it specifically shows a bead of sillicone right around the front cover (where oil is, in the pump/timing chain area), and no where else.

Now on some composite style headgaskets you will see some people spray on the copper tack stuff, but I've NEVER had good luck with it. Plus the cost of a quality MLS gasket is so cheap now, that it doesn't even make sense to replace with OEM when Cosworth/ApexI ones cost so little (and work so well).

[penco]

so your engine was stock and with stock boost? There are some things we need to know to get some idea on how to assist you and point you in the right direction.Like for instance ,How long have you had the car?What kind of driving do you do,?Are you racing around in it hard? I will try to help based on the limited info you gave.

When you described that that you had your fuel pressure regulator Teed off and noticed the hose was disconnected ,Were you running the other hose to your BOV?If you did ,who knows how long you ran it like that,you most likely blew out your t25 turbo seal and it wasnt nessesary to remove the head.If you say it was running fine the night before and the next morning when you started it and then immediately blows black smoke ,Its your bad turbo,damaged it because of a disconnected hose to BOV,your turbo was surging because boost pressure wasnt being released and damaged the oil seal and now it dumps oil into your intake and exhaust.Inspect your turbo.Replace or upgrade your turbo ,get a new head gasket .Check your inter-cooler piping for oil,exhaust system also will be drenched with oil.If you didnt run it long ,there shouldnt be much oil i your piping.

ps.dont drop the gasket guides into your engine timing cover !On the picture ,there still on the gasket.or youll have more problems...

The car is a daily driver driven at stock boost. I've had it running for about a year. I didn't beat on it too much. The tee that I had on the fuel pressure regulator which ended up breaking was going to the boost gauge. Since that broke off I assumed it was running too lean and messed up the piston rings. I was expecting to see oil on top of the pistons when I took the head off but I didn't. There was no oil in the intake or exhaust manifold. I plan on replacing the pistons, timing chain, oil pump, and all of the gaskets while i have the head off.

The main problem I think i have to figure out is why there is oil on the spark plugs. What would cause that, and what should i replace? I assume the oil on the plugs was causing the misfire, and the smoking.

[codyace]

Oil on the spark plugs is often cuased by the 4 o rings that go along the sparkplug wells (under the valve cover).

In regard to oil on the pistons, you really shouldn't see any...that would indicate bad things.


I wouldn't change anything without knowing/diagnosing the issue. Everything could be fine and it could be something as simple as the spark plugwell gaskets leaking, or a turbo on the way out, or something else small. Did you ever leakdown/compression test the engine when it was together?

However if you do plan on working on all of that stuff, pull the engine out...SOOO much easier.

[penco]

On the compression test all of the numbers were low. They were all between 100 to 120. So that would be bad rings/head gasket? I do have the engine on a stand now and just plan on replacing some parts while everything is taken apart. Also thanks for all of the help.

[fliprayzin240sx]

With low compression, you could have dropped a cap full of oil in each cylinder to see if it bumps up the compression. If it did, then the oil is helping seal up the rings, so yes bad rings. If it doesnt, then it could be the headgasket.

Anyways, since codyace brought up the whole silicon thing on the oil pump cover. What you really need to do is make sure the cover is milled evenly flat with the block. The cover usually is a couple millimeter thicker/higher the deck, which causes the #1 cylinder to sometimes not seal properly when you use a thicker aftermarket gasket.

[401imports]

ur head or block "might" be warped. this happend to a friend of mine. his block was waped. he just had to get it decked.

[codyace]

The cover usually is a couple millimeter thicker/higher the deck, which causes the #1 cylinder to sometimes not seal properly when you use a thicker aftermarket gasket.


Most defiantly! A lot of people often forget that as well

-CA

[penco]

With low compression, you could have dropped a cap full of oil in each cylinder to see if it bumps up the compression. If it did, then the oil is helping seal up the rings, so yes bad rings. If it doesnt, then it could be the headgasket.

If the oil is helping seal the rings would it still be possible to not have any oil on top of the pistons? I did put oil in and the numbers to increase but not by a lot. I keep forgetting to bring the paper home that I wrote the compression numbers on. I still plan on replacing the pistons/rings and gasket though.

ur head or block "might" be warped. This happend to a friend of mine. his block was waped. he just had to get it decked.


I plan on taking the head and block in to get checked. Im just waiting for my gasket kit with my valve seals to come in so I can have them install them also.