Newbie in trouble already, oil burning / piston ring help?

Hello all,

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…

Im not sure what the compression should be (160 sounds ok to me maybe a bit low?) but I wouldnt put it down to piston rings straight away. It could be valve stem seals.

Thanks for you advice, however i'm still unsure what to do next.  Sorry but new to this, but learning fast  

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???

Possibly a blocked oil breather - its in the rocker cover, and can normally be revived with a good soak in petrol.

was also thinking could the compression test results be ok just because there may be oil in the pistons giving a false reading by aiding sealing whilst testing??

I need help…

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:

Did you do it before you took the head off though?

No, i jumped right in and removed the head, then later on I found on the internet about soaking the rocker cover to clear the breather.
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?

Rings gone is usually obvious by scoring on the bores. Have a close look at these for any unusual scratches or other marks. Also while you're there, there's no harm in cleaning the carbon off the top of the pistons. Use duct tape or similar to prevent the debris going down the oil and coolant channel holes etc.

Yeah just replace the head now, and see how it goes.

If it was me (Im tight and lazy ) I would do the rings only as a last resort. I would lap the valves in and replace the valve stem seals if you can get hold of them easy enough now you have the head off. That way you know the head is good and it can be ruled out from causing any oil or compression problems. Then put it all back together with your clean breather and run it.

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

I hope your right about this one as I too am lazy and tight

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  

Let us know how you get on, I too would just do the head first.

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.

I am going to rebuild the head only and give it a go.  
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.