New Coupe

['A20A3']

Wait a second...if my rings were bad, wouldn't I be burning oil? I have no blue smoke and it never smells like I'm burning any...

[FatDave]

if the rings were bad you would be burning oil pretty bad, pull out a the plugs and look at them, if they are covered in oil its a pretty good sign that the rings are cashed

['A20A3']

So if the rings are good what could be causing the blow-by in both the cranckcase and valve cover? Is it possible that the head gasket is the problem?

[SteveDX89]

Wisps of sweet smelling white smoke is coolant. If this is coming from your exhaust, you're burning coolant. Burning coolant is a sign of a blown or leaking head gasket.

['A20A3']

Correct however it only does it sometimes. I know the head gasket is on it's way out but I was just curious if this is what was causing the blow-by problem.

[accordlxi2.0]

that smoke though possibly are not from the car..
about 2 days ago it was about 60-70 degrees out, and the exhuast on my car was a bit white, but nothing was wrong with it.

how does it drive??
i mean if coolant was getting in the cumbustion chamber it would'nt drive so well.......

['A20A3']

It seemingly runs fine. On warm up sometimes it idles high and then drops and then idles high and then drops a few times, sometimes it has sweet smelling white exhaust smoke(only TINY wisps, only SOMETIMES)and it doesn't consume any oil from the blow-by, which makes me think it's not the rings because I'm not burning any. This car has really low miles and I'm just plain fucking stumped.

['A20A3']

Things I know need to be replaced:
Clutch
Plugs & Wires
Head Gasket
MT Oil
PCV valve
Engine Flush
Transmission Flush

[accordlxi2.0]

your stumped, we're in the same boat.
hmmm when you said during warm up it idles up and down,thats the fast idle valve more than likely....
but it drives good, no problems hmmm.
then your saying it's not burning any oil, so the valve cover baffle was clean??
hey also did you shake the pcv valve???
they say if it rattles the pcv is good.
plus i would apply vacuum to the valve see if it opens easily.

[FatDave]

are you sure its not condensation in the pipe being vaporized by the exhaust heat?

['A20A3']

I'm pretty sure Dave, it's sweet smelling and there's VERY tiny bubbles that come up in the radiator....

[FatDave]

damn man that sucks, thats probably why the person you bought it from wanted to get rid of it

[accordlxi2.0]

but still has oil in the intake.
not doubting your skills , homey, but you don't think a vacuum line got mixed up or something?...

['A20A3']

It's possible, I haven't done anything to this car that has caused it to run like this. When I first started working on it in school when it came in there it was like this. The only reason I bought this car is for $800 it's a steal. Paint is glossy, MINIMAL rust, MINIMAL body damage, all power accesories work, no staining or fading of the interior, and the A/C still works!

I Have another engine that runs perfectly, and that's another reason I bought this Coupe. However, I'd rather get to the bottom of all these problems and only have to pull the head at the most because this motor has less miles and I'd rather run this one. I will swap the motors if I must, but only as a last resort. I gotta figure this thing out...

[danronian]

Sounds to me like a poorly maintained engine. If an engine isn't maintained and hasn't had its oil and coolant changed regularly, this is what will happen by 144k mi.
It could be just the head gasket, but the massive amount of blow-by points to worn rings, and the oil in the intake pipe (pre-intake manifold), points to blow by in the valve cover gasket due to valve sealing problems. It sounds to me like the engine needs an entire rebuild. Doing a compression test should reveal very little compression in at least one cylinder, which will tell you for sure about the headgasket being blow. The bubbles in the coolant also point to the same thing though. You can also check the coolant with a freeze tester to see if the coolant has any freeze resistance at all. Usually after coolant is exposed to combustion it turns into the equivalent of water. Also check for discoloration in the oil and coolant, this isn't always a good sign though b/c sometimes with no discoloration there is still a head gasket leak.
First you should replace the headgasket, if you still want to salvage this engine, and they from there I would look at the oil problems. Good luck!

[accordlxi2.0]

that is a steal, so you have a cai on it or a sri??
i sorta remember you saying you got some stuff for it....

['A20A3']

Thanks for the input danronian, I agree. Yeah it definetly was a steal that's why I got it. I have short-ram intake. And my filter is fucked now...

[accordlxi2.0]

because it has oil on it, okay and the tube thats connected to the pcv valve has oil in it?.
did you shake the pcv valve or apply vacuum , like i suggested?

['A20A3']

Yeah the PCV is done. All clogged up. I cleaned it out in school with some heavy duty cleaner about 2 weeks ago and the car has been ran minimally and it has aready clogged it up again. Even after I had cleaned it and reinstalled it I still had blow-by, but it wasn't as bad as it was before or like how it is now, so I guess it helped some. I think that 'black box' you were talking about may be the cause of it, but that doesn't really solve the valve cover blowby problem...

[accordlxi2.0]

umm i know this may sound stupid. but i basically thought that blow-by was oil getting in the manafold and was burning alot of oil....
but since we concluded that the black box under the pcv, is one of the problems, how do you know your getting blow by, i'm sorry if it sounds stupid.......

['A20A3']

Here this should help you understand:

In an engine, there are two areas of air pockets in which the air is not directly related to combustion. Within these two areas, oil and air are separated from the combustion chambers and coolant jackets for the purpose of lubrication of the engine. The upper air and oil pocket is constrained by the valve cover at the top, and the valve seals at the lower end. The bottom air and oil pocket is constrained by the piston rings at the top and the oil pan in the bottom.
In a perfect world, these two lubrication areas would not pressurize. However, in real life compression leaks by valve seals and piston rings in what is called blow-by. Blow by introduces pressure into the two pockets of air and oil (the head and the crankcase). In addition, heat caused as a byproduct of combustion causes air molecules to expand which also causes the pressure to increase in these lubrication areas. If no ventilation system was employed to release this pressure, it would find the point of least resistance to escape, which could be oil seals...or worse.
To relieve this pressure, a system called Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV for short) is used. It is a closed system that takes the pressurized air and oil vapor from these two lubrication areas and introduces it back into the combustion chamber, by way of vacuum caused by the intake charge.

[accordlxi2.0]

okay....
what about a compression test?
i mean these cars do run perfectly, but it could be a compression problem.

['A20A3']

I just got a compression gauge set from my Auto Tech teacher today. I'll be performing one shortly and I'll post the results on here so I can get some feedback.

['A20A3']

I just finished my compression test.

Very surprising results.

CYLINDER 1 = 100-125 PSI
CYLINDER 2 = 50 PSI
CYLINDER 3 = 25-35 PSI
CYLINDER 4 = 30 PSI

HOWEVER - I have not tried adding a small amount of oil to each cylinder to see if my rings were bad. ALSO - All 4 of my spark plugs showed NO sign of oil in the cylinder; they were all carbon fouled, which is very understandable considering my car runs extremely rich.

Discuss please.

[buds302]

where do you go to school? maybe theycan help