Rebuilt motor burning oil

[Z_Karma]

Got the rebuilt motor (valve job, valve seals, crank and rod bearings, T3 turbo) running again but it is smoking pretty good.

Is that normal?

There is no exhaust past the turbo elbow and when i rev it, copious amounts of smoke puffs out. It's not a fuel rich smell, just a oil burning smell.

Before the rebuild, the compression tests looked good but there were some obvious signs of leaking exhaust valves
in #2 and 5 cylinders, hence the rebuild. The motor has over 200,000 miles.

I guess i'll run it some more and then check the plugs.

[Gregmatic]

I gather from above that the T3 was rebuilt as well, hopefully it is only that. Is this motor freshly installed and breaking in? If so it might need a bit of running and a heat cycle or two to burn off any of the residual assembly oils in the cylinders and head and/or to seat the rings.

[reddzx]

Did you remove the pistons from the cylinders?

[Z_Karma]

Yeah, the T3 AFAIK is rebuilt...it came with my AE and has been sitting for several years.
The pistons weren't removed. I figured that since the compression was good, I wouldn't futz with them. I did use generous amounts of assembly lube during the assembly.

[jaqattack02]

Who did the T3 rebuild? An oil seal or something could have been installed wrong.

[Z_Karma]

I really can't say.
When i bought my AE, it's turbo was on it's way out and this spare turbo was in the hatch.
I gave it the once over, there was minimal shaft play, it was clean and it had fresh paint marks on the
compressor shaft from assembly.

I would guess that if it was a turbine side oil seal, i should see more smoke when it is first started because
the seal would likely let the oil accumulate in the compressor as it sits overnight. That's the symptom that
the T25 that was originally in there had.

[Augustus Maximus]

Run compression test now that the heads have been reconditioned.

[Z_Karma]

Good: Compression check came in beautiful, all cylinders 160-165.

Bad: This is what the brand new plugs look like after 1.2 miles of neighborhood driving



It idles smooth, but gurgles and pops when revved.
Am i correct in guessing that the shop that assembled the heads, installed the valve seals incorrectly?

[Z_Karma]

I pulled the intake pipe and swabbed a clean rag up the turbo elbow and didn't find any oil, they're clean as a whistle.
I guess that rules out the turbo seals. Oil and coolant are clean as well. I used Ishino/stone head gaskets.

So i guess i'll pull the top end apart again and see whats up. sonofabitch.

I'm thinking if the stem seals are installed improperly, that would allow the oil to be drawn
into the intake ports and foul the plugs.

I took a look at the other set of heads the machine shop did and atleast the seals on those are where they are supposed to go.

[G-E]

#5 could be egr related, but #2 is odd, especially considering #1 looks leaner than the rest... maybe the injector or injector harness is making intermittent contact?

[jaqattack02]

We started working on valve seals on my car the other day. The basically just push down into place. It would be hard to install them incorrectly.

[Z_Karma]

Yeah, the blacker plugs, #2 and 5 had wet oil on them. I went back and reviewed my build thread and #2 exhaust
had shit itself with oil: http://i.imgur.com/KCvUX.jpg.

So i'm now guessing that the shop that did the valve grind kept the original guides in place. That was probably an
oversight on my part as i didn't specify if i wanted them replaced or not.

Going to rip it apart today, it's 7am and i'm getting an early start. I crossthreaded plug #6 yesterday and said fuck it.
Then purposely got sidetracked yesterday with the some stuff on the neighbros Honda and a brake job on my other friends Trailblazer.
I needed the sense of accomplishment that comes from fixing something and not have it come out shitty

Thanks for the input Y'all.

[Z_Karma]

I called the machine shop that did the heads and spoke to the machinist. He said that if the valve guides were
worn beyond spec, they would have stopped work on them and called me to tell me they needed replaced.

He said it's more likely that the fresh oil is blow-by from failed oil seal rings on the pistons. Since the motor has
so many miles on it (over 200,000) this sounds plausible.

I made a coin flip decision when i was doing the bearings if i should do the rings. I thought that having decent numbers
on the compression measurements meant the bottom end was fine. Oh bother....

[jaqattack02]

Do a leak down test and it should answer that question pretty quickly.

[Z_Karma]

Thanks! I was gonna pull the heads tonight but will pickup a harbor freight leak down tester first.