bambbrose

A little background:

H23A1 in 92 prelude
173k miles
Been sitting for 2-3 years without running at all
Drained and cleaned gas tank and refilled with fresh gas
Car starts and runs great, has plenty of power, etc.No oil leaks or anything like that


Symptoms:

A lot of white smoke with a slight blue tint to it. Smoke does NOT smell anything like coolant, but it does have a strange nasty smell to it. Kind of smells like a mixture of burning oil and something else. like old gas or something.

I changed out all the gas because that was my first instinct. Didn't fix anything.

Cleaned PCV valve.

Checked valve cover breather when fully warmed, and there is NO smoke coming out of the breather, just air like a good running engine should have.


Warm compression test results (wet is with one capful of oil in each cylinder):

----------4-----3-----2-----1-------
dry----167---190--191---195-------max variance= 28 or 16.1%
wet----175---201--204---201------max variance = 29 or 16.5%


Judging those numbers, I would think that the rings are not the culprit for the low reading on cylinder four, but please give input.


Coolant has a brown nasty *** color to it, but no oil floating around anywhere, no smell of oil or gas in the coolant. I know that coolant can turn brownish after a long period of time from sitting, so I'm unsure if the coolant is just nasty and old, or if there is something leaking into it.

Exhaust ports are covered in oil, as are piston tops and combustion chambers, but that very well might be because of my wet compression test (I wish I would've ran the motor after testing to clean it up).

Spark plugs are clean but a bit oily.


Possible Problems that cause smoking:

-Bad headgasket (seems most likely)

-Valve stem seals (won't cause low compression though right?) Thinking these because of the length of time it's been sitting.

-Cracked head/sleeve (not too likely, can't see anything that would point in that direction)

-Bad piston rings

Here is where I need input

My plans are to refresh the head. New valve stem seals and headgasket, along with a resurface and cleaning.

I want to be 100% certain that it is not another problem like the rings or a crack somewhere else etc. Is there any way to verify 100% outside of a leakdown that it's the headgasket or valve stem seals ?(don't have $130 for the leakdown tool and head is already removed).

I'm a broke *** college student and I can't afford, nor do I have the time, to redo the head, just to find out that I need a new shortblock as well.

Here are some pictures to help make the decision on what might have been the culprit.

Here is the headgasket




Here is cylinder 3 & 4 on the heagasket, notice the missing coating along the edge of cylinder 4. Is this a positive sign that it was the headgasket or could that coating have just scraped off when I was removing the head?
Is this what your failed headgasket looked like?




Cylinders 1 & 2




Block deck




Cylinder 4 up close




Exhaust port cyl 4


Exhaust port cyl 3


Exhaust port cyl 2


Exhaust port cyl 1



Spark plugs, less than 100 miles on these (I know I know, NGK, I didn't pay for these)




My guess right now is a mixture of bad headgasket on cylinder 4, along with old valve stem seals leaking down into the cylinders on all 4

Thanks for your help guys

bitchasscracker

looks like seal in the head are shot. not to mention that could be the dirtest motor i'v ever seen lol





if i were you i would just drop the pan take the pistons out put on new rings and haed the head rebuilt and call it a day

Ravage70

how come the block looks like it was hit near te edge of cylinder 4

bitchasscracker

i'm assuming that is where he jammed a screw driver in there to pry the head off

bambbrose

lol no I didn't jam a screwdriver in there. I'm guessing that is from the dowel when I removed the head though, because there is a dowel near there and I had to unhook one more plug that I forgot about after I tried to pull it off.

JDMFantasy2K

jesus christ just get a d series

bitchasscracker

RotaryGeek

wow thats a good post, nice and informative. and you did a lot of research first. but yeah i would say a combo of bad headgasket between 3 and 4 leaking oil and worn out valve stem seals. freshen up the head and replace the headgasket and hopefully your good to go. cant see why it wouldnt be.

ba4turbo

173k miles....FRM motors are more prone to smoking issues. the oil in your ports? was it from the compression test? reguardless i would have done a leakdown before pulling the head cause now you really dont know whats going on... i would have also drove the car around a while car sitting like that for a long period of time, things are gonna leak into the cylinders, thru valves seals etc, expect this from an engine with that kinda milage. Exhuast is going to be full of condensation etc.. next time

Drive the damn car, give it hell a few times also
if it still smokes, note when it smokes exactly... decel idle WOT etc
LEAKDOWN will tell you where and how much
with this done its much easier and possibly far less work to figure out whats wrong... Just my 2 cents :1

get ride of those lame autolites, its not a Ford...NGK or Denso FTW

But now that you have the head off, do some NOG valve lap action new seals wire wheel the valves clean the head, pistons are right there, pull em clean them slap some new rings on clean that FRM gayness up with some hot soapy water WD40 pistons rings walls put it all back together and start it up!!
If your slow dont use WD40 wont stay there long enough