Piston Rings ?

[scooby_doo_do]

What are the affects and costs of damaged/Faulty Piston Rings ?

My car seems to be smoking ocasionally on start up...and i've been driving it around this morning and noticed it smoked a bit when i started it up after not driving it for 30 mins. I only saw a slight bit of smoke (If you blinked you'd of mist it) but its starting to panic me....

More money i suppose........again.....:(

[Scarface GTti]

If it`s not smoking all the time and only on start up and under load then it sounds more like valve stem seals.

[dude]

Its the stem seals , theres allready a thread going about this but it can be sorted for £400 + parts , inc a cambelt change if you want !!!

Dude:flame Dev

[Ian C]

Sounds to me like you are the very early stage of the valve stem seal problem, as far as I know you can go for aaages with this prob and as long as the oil levels stay OK you haven't got a problem. So save your cash up for the job :)

-Ian

[jagman]

yes it certainly sounds like the valve seals,but I would attend to them sooner rather than later,because I suspect over time you would get a build up of carbon on pistons,which would get worse over time as the carbon sticks to the baked on carbon,this would effect the efficiency of flow in the head / performance,but I think a worse effect would be to encourage the onset of detonation,especially if you up the boost, as we ALL WILL.
It would be interesting to know how much carbon build up there is but I dont think many cars have had the head off to check.after suffering long term stem seal wear. A £400 trip to Dudes seems like a good idea to me-saves covering cats/dogs/kids with a cloud of smoke on start up too
:)

[dude]

Ive just changed the exhaust valves on a car with iffy stem seals and you wouldnt believe the carbon build up on the valve .

Dude :flame Dev

[Ian C]

Fair enough guys, if you've seen an associated problem with stem seal wear then it should get sorted sooner rather than later :thumbs:

-Ian

[scooby_doo_do]

Thanks for your reply's chaps...

I had a quick look at the spark plugs during my rolling road day and i had them changed (about 2 months ago) as the car missfired and there was oil in the 5th (furthest away) hole (engine was just hot as it had been off the limiter a few times!... It seemed like fresh oil, and the chap told me not to worry about it.. Haven't checked the plugs since.. (Might do this week)..

So would that be valve stem seals ?

If So......Dude i'm coming over.....:)

[Jake]

You can check the carbon deposits on pistons with an endoscope. The only problem is that they cost a fortune so not many places have them. I think Chris Wilson has one.
Doesn't Toulene do a good job of removing carbon deposits from valves, pistons etc?

[dude]

Originally posted by Jake
You can check the carbon deposits on pistons with an endoscope. The only problem is that they cost a fortune so not many places have them. I think Chris Wilson has one.
Doesn't Toulene do a good job of removing carbon deposits from valves, pistons etc?


Its on the back of the valve Jake and you wont see that with an Endoscope .

Dude:flame Dev

[scooby_doo_do]

free bump to my above question :innocent:

[attilauk]

Originally posted by dude
Ive just changed the exhaust valves on a car with iffy stem seals and you wouldnt believe the carbon build up on the valve .

Dude :flame Dev

was that mikes car dude?