Newbie in trouble already, oil burning / piston ring help?
Posted
#1143180
(In Topic #136626)
Settling In
Newbie in trouble already, oil burning / piston ring help?
I'm a first time MK1 owner and a newbie to this site.
I bought a MK1 1.8 Cabrio 1983 last week only to find it is burning a lot of oil.
I checked the oil before setting off and it was full, I then drove it 170 miles up the motorway and found that the oil level was not reaching the bottom of the dip stick at the end of the journey. 8O
Did not notice ant smoke whilst driving, just a little when starting from cold.
Looking under the bonnet I noticed that oil was getting in to the air filter and inlet manifold, also 2 of the plugs were quite oily. I did a pressure test and was getting between 160 - 180 across the cylinders.
I then started to remove the head to have a better look at things. Now I can see the tops of the pistons and there is a slight bit of movement on these, they are also very black and quite oily?
I will be putting a new top end gasket kit on the engine, but was wondering should I change the piston rings too? And if so should I use original rings or try the TOTALSEAL rings (Would these help? :dontknow: ) to hopefully stop the oil from coming up the pistons again? And avoid an expensive rebore and new pistons.
I have never taken on an engine rebuild before so any help, advice with this matter would be a great help at this stage.
Thanks in advance…
Posted
Settling In
Posted
Settling In
Would you say it is worth putting the head back on after replacing the valve stem seals to try it out?
Keeping in mind that if the problem is returns i would have to take the head off again.
Could replacing the seals and gaskets on the head also improve the performance? as the power as it did feel a bit poor? or is it more likley to be down to lack of compression due to the piston seals???
Posted
Local Hero
Posted
Settling In
I need help…
Posted
Settling In
paul_c said
Possibly a blocked oil breather - its in the rocker cover, and can normally be revived with a good soak in petrol.
I have done this, but again I would need to put the head back on to see if this has helped me at all.
Is it worth doing ? or should i replace the piston rings too as I am 1/2 way there now? :dontknow:
Posted
Local Hero
Posted
Settling In
stupid i know but that is where i am at now…
Do you think that a combination of the blocked breather and valve stem seals could have caused my oil loss and loss of power?
and if so should i just replace the head now and not replace the piston seals?
Posted
Local Hero
Yeah just replace the head now, and see how it goes.
Posted
Settling In
If you still get probs you know the stem seals and breather are ok so most likely rings and go from there.
Just my 2p
Posted
Settling In
Thanks for you help so far, the more I read about this it looks to be pointing to the valve stem seals.
For now i'm going to sleep on this one.
Any further ideas are of course welcome
Cheers
Posted
Settled In
Just done a full engine rebuild on my 1.8 DX and it's a much bigger and more expensive job than the top end option.
Posted
Settling In
I removed the valves yesterday and the old seals were in a very bad state, so i hope this is all that needs doing.
Going to give it all a good clean and put it back together with the new seal & gasket kit over the next week or two.
Also been cleaning the engine bay whilst I have better access, and the top of the oily pistons.
Will let you know the results when I put it all back together and try it out.
0 guests and 0 members have just viewed this: None.