91civicZ6

about 2 weeks ago, just driving home not racing or anything (highway speeds), my car (14B@10psi, y7/z6 mini, comp 59300 cam) started bogging. when i got to my house, it was running on three cyilnders. I pulled the plugs one by one, and #4 cylinder made no difference. I checked for spark and there was spark. A compression check revealed 180-180-180-90

anyways, yesterday i got around to pulling the head off. I expected to find pieces of piston everywhere. instead, i see perfect cylinder walls, unscarred pistons, unscarred combusion chambers, and a nice dark brown hue to everything (not lean). the MLS head gasket which was new when i installed the engine/turbo less than 1,000 miles ago looked pretty fucked up. especially compared to ones that i've reused before with no problem. Only a week before the car shot ----, i noticed it was starting to get hot and burn water.

anyways, my question is this.....Is it possible to see ringland damage without removing the pistons; is it safe to assume that since the top looks good and so do the cylinder walls that the head gasket is the culprit?

if anybody has experience please help me out. I really dont want to tear down this block only to find out its just the head gasket. BTW, i reused headbolts numerous times.. think its just time to get a new gasket and some new OEM head bolts or are my ringlands fried?

sohcrxsi

get some new head bolts and a new oem head gasket.


also, check the head for warpage

W O T

I dont know howd youd check for ringland damage, maybe you can pour a bit of oil into cylinder #3 and 4 with maybe a 1/4 cup or something at the same time (extra set of hands) and maybe if the ringland is broken it will leak out of the cylinder quite a bit quicker than #3. I dunno, just came to me.

Was #4 part of the headgasket mangled?

88crxSi

fill the cyl w/ oil and see if it drains out

also, re-using a headgasket!?!? NO NO NO!

get ARP head bolts and a y8 or z6 gasket and you'll be good to go.

loosing coolant is probably a bad gasket sealing around the water jacket.

91civicZ6

i didnt reuse this head gasket, im saying that, this new MLS gasket looked 10x worse with only 1,000 virgin miles on it than ones i've reused in the past.

91civicZ6

anybody else have any ideas? Abaz? I know you've blown quite a few engines.. whats your take on this situation?

SparkleMotion

If you were burning water and overheating, then probably the headgasket. Or at least that wouild be my guess.

J-SMITH69

when i broke my ringlands the walls were not scarred at all. id put a new HG and new head bolts in it if the hg looked jacked up

88dx

I would spend the extra half hour to take the #4 piston out just to be 100% sure it wasn’t a ringland. Im super lazy and wouldn’t want to take it apart again when your so close now.

J-SMITH69

if he takes it apart, that means new rings/hone cylinder, new bearings. checking clearences ext.

dont take it out!!!!!!!!!1