white smoke from vent

[bwalker0510]

so im thinking i might have blew my pistons rings. i have white smoke that only comes from the vent on the valve cover. somewhat of a wrx sound but im turbo not sc so its sounded like that for awhile. and the car runs fine and pulls fine. i havent gotten on it at all though since the smoke started. anyone with real knowledge care to chime in. thanks guys.

[BLAZIN07SS]

compression and leakdown test. go now

[ItalianJoe1]

Do a compression test and find out.

How do your plugs look?

[bwalker0510]

the plugs look perfect. and i shined a light into the spark plug holes and from what i could see there was no oil or coolant on the pistons.


theres noone around here open today to do a compression test.

[ItalianJoe1]

You can buy a compression tester from Autozone or some place like that, there has to be one open near you somewhere. They aren't very expensive <$50, and not a bad thing to have if you do any work yourself.

[bwalker0510]

yeah i do all my own work minus tune and weld. dont know how to tune. dont know how to weld nor have the space in the garage. i guess ill be ordering a cosmetic head gasket and diamond pistons ina month or so. italianjoe i know you always got parts laying around. happen to have anyone of those

[Jackalope]

What they said. Also if its blown and leaking compresion then there wouldn't be anything in the cylinder cause the compression is blowing it outward. Does that make sence?

[bwalker0510]

yeah it makes sense. hince that would be the smoke i guess. but last time this happen i had cruise set at 55mph and it backfired really bad and blew out my dipstick and covered everythig in oil. and it was the number 4 piston. this time i was sitting in a turning lane and smoke started coming from under the hood.

[ItalianJoe1]

Originally Posted by bwalker0510

yeah i do all my own work minus tune and weld. dont know how to tune. dont know how to weld nor have the space in the garage. i guess ill be ordering a cosmetic head gasket and diamond pistons ina month or so. italianjoe i know you always got parts laying around. happen to have anyone of those

Have both, but used

I gotta pull down my old shortblock (the one with the split sleeve) and see how the pistons faired, they probably are fine, just ring damage. That motor only had 5K miles on it before it decided to give up on me.

[bwalker0510]

so you do have some diamond pistons?

[ItalianJoe1]

Originally Posted by bwalker0510

so you do have some diamond pistons?

Yeah, Diamond 10:1 with ceramic coated tops, but like I said they are sitting in my old block under the bench in the garage. Once I get the other LSJ down there off the engine stand, i'll toss mine up there and take it all apart, salvage what I can and scrap the rest.

[bwalker0510]

wouldnt that compression be to high for my turbo set up and 20psi.

well i took the breather filter for the valve cover off and wiped the inside with a cotton swap. its m**her fu*k*ing milky. so yeah i guess something is blown. anytips on how to rebuild this thing lol. anyone got a book for it.

[ItalianJoe1]

There is an LSJ build book out there, you can get it all online or buy an acutal copy. Or get a Haynes manual, has all the instructions and torque specs and stuff. These motors are fairly straight-forward to put together, not bad at all.

Compression is up to you. Higher compression makes more power, I was doing it because of the bigger cams I was running. You get a loss in effective compression when you increase overlap, so I was basically going back to stock compression instead of dropping below it.

[bwalker0510]

so with a good tune i should be safe though right. i have a really good tuner so im not to worried about it if its up to the quality of the tune.

[ItalianJoe1]

Originally Posted by bwalker0510

so with a good tune i should be safe though right. i have a really good tuner so im not to worried about it if its up to the quality of the tune.

Yep, it's all in the tune.

[bwalker0510]

ok well just send me a pm with the price in what not and ill have the money ina about 2 weeks. now will i be able to use the rings already on there or do i need to replace them. also is there anything i can do with the head other than cams to lower the compression abit. while its off im going to port and polish it. but im keeping all the stock valve train.

[ShortStack]

could there be a oil feed problem?

[ItalianJoe1]

Originally Posted by bwalker0510

ok well just send me a pm with the price in what not and ill have the money ina about 2 weeks. now will i be able to use the rings already on there or do i need to replace them. also is there anything i can do with the head other than cams to lower the compression abit. while its off im going to port and polish it. but im keeping all the stock valve train.

Thicker head gasket or a little material removal from the combustion chamber, it's only .5 more than stock though, not that bad. You will need new rings, there isn't any good time to re-use rings, and the ones on the first cyl are probably damaged from where the sleeve let go.