headgasket, piston rings, or lifted head ?

[alesserfate]

sr20det with metal headgasket and arp studs

oil smoke out the tailpipe, tow home, etc etc

now, pulled plugs checked compression, cyl 2 and 4 had oily plugs and low compression

i've toasted piston rings before and normally the dipstick comes out and pisses oil out of the tube, this time that didnt happen

my question is, can the metal headgasket give ? (its an apexi mhg), or can it be that it's leaking because the head lifted ? i do know somebody who had a similar problem on his s13 sr with mhg and had to pull the cams and torque down the arp nuts some more

the motor still runs and can make boost with oily smoke out the tailpipe even in neutral, the compression on those two cylinders (2 and 4, counting from the front of the car) is low, but not zero

pull entire motor or just pull the head ? tips ? ideas ?

[clark]

newly installed head studs need to be retorqued after a few months or certain mileage.

time for a leakdown test. my compression tesster hose also came with a line where i can hook it up to an air compressor you can probably find something ismilar.

gooogle "how to do a leakdown test"