oil ontop of pistons?

B

b6gtxawd

Member
:
2003.5 MSP
once apone a time i had a fast car that was fun to drive....

so i am in the middle of checking my timing and pulling my IM off to pull out the VICS and VTCS and cut the middle of the runners out to have one big port. while doing this i figured i would pull my spark plugs out to try and find tdc. after doing this i noticed there was alot of oil or gas ontop of piston number one and the rest were a little damp as well. could this be gas from my car running really rich at idle because of a really bad idle or is it most likely oil from maybe a valve seal gasket that has or is going bad??
 
Was their oil in the spark plug wells? If the spark plug o rings are shot the valve cover gasket probably is too, has to be changed anyway in that case. Are you running rich because of tune?
 
no oil in spark plug wells just in the actual cylinder ontop of the piston and only number one. or the one closest to the timing belt, thats number one right haha. and yes running rich because of tune and something else which im not sure of yet but am trying to hunt down. im thinking its a mix of crap tune, old slow reacting BOV (turbo xs rfl im thinking, came wth car when i bought it), and maybe a timing belt set up wrong.

im checking the timing tomorrow and taking off my IM to check for issues there and to delete vcts vics.

car does buff the odd amount of blue smoke when i initially hit the gas after costing down a hill in gear for a good period of time..

also does anyone know the correct timing marks on the cam gears to go by to check timing, there seems to be a few.
 
Maybe someone else chime in on the timing mark, but sounds like you're on the right path! Maybe the gasket change will help your rich problem, vac leak and or compression loss from bad gaskets would cause a rich condition, just went through this myself with my 4x4.
 
Usually when you find oil on top of the piston is usually due to a bad head gasket. I could be wrong, but it does sound like a possible culprit.
 
75,000 miles. got the IM off just now. flappers all look good but im going to hack them out this week anyways. im thinking you are right about the valve seal, im just going to ride it out, and try and clean the oil off before i put my VC back on..

after i put them IM back on im going to check my timing again. on the cam gears everything lines up like it should but i am unsure about the crank pulley being right. if i look at the mark on the pulley it is between the 10 and the T while car is not running, looks like its at 4 degrees, but i am unsure if that would change when the car is actually running. so once the IM is off i can be sure on that. as for the cam gears they seem to line up pretty good, with the intake I at 3 oclock and the exhaust E is at 9 oclock.

does anyone know how to tell if a BOV is faulty? i notice when i give it throttle the piston in my BOV doesnt open more then a cm maybe at most and is very very slow to close after..

i am also going to clean throttle body and my IAC valve while everything is apart. try and clean as much as i can.
 
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turns out the oil was some gas either from running super rich or a shotty fuel injector. seems to all be evaporated now :)
 
If you take the cams and head off you can check for leaky valve seals by pouring water over the valves and look for leaks on the other side. If it was oil and the car never over heated it was your valve seals if it was fuel then you have a leaky injector.
 
For the crank pulley line up the U cutout in the timing belt cog with the casting line on the block. see picture

DSC01071.jpg
 
I was getting oil in the motor from valve seals in the past. I was all inside the intake mani (It was really bad)

it sounds like a simple head gasket as long as there is no obvius damage to the cylinder walls..
 
Flspeed said:
If you take the cams and head off you can check for leaky valve seals by pouring water over the valves and look for leaks on the other side. If it was oil and the car never over heated it was your valve seals if it was fuel then you have a leaky injector.
Click to expand...

if i injector is leaky would you notice issues when driving or would a car seem to drive normal? i guess depending on how bad they are leaking
 
Usually they just get stuck open which would casue a misfire, you can ohm out each injector however and see how they are doing. They all need to be within 14.2-14.8 ohms.
 
powderider87 said:
Usually they just get stuck open which would casue a misfire, you can ohm out each injector however and see how they are doing. They all need to be within 14.2-14.8 ohms.
Click to expand...

awesome thanks for the advice, your the man. car runs pretty good minus the lack of power so im thinking they are probably good, but i will for sure be testing them as well.
 
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2.0t03speed said:
For the crank pulley line up the U cutout in the timing belt cog with the casting line on the block. see picture

DSC01071.jpg
Click to expand...

just wondering if that "u" notch on the gear matches up with the yellow mark on the pulley that you match with the timing marker on the timing belt cover.
 
b6gtxawd said:
if i injector is leaky would you notice issues when driving or would a car seem to drive normal? i guess depending on how bad they are leaking
Click to expand...

If the injector gets gunked up it will cause a slow leak. When you start the car you will notice it will crank longer than usual before starting. I really think you probably have oil on your pistons from leaky valve seals. How does the car run normally?
 
well the oil isnt there anymore which is why i think it was fuel. oil doesnt evaporate to my knowledge. how ever the tops of the pistons are a little gunked up looking. car starts great runs really good other then lack of power which im pretty sure is due to my timing being out of wack from the idiot that did my timing belt. also i do notice every once in awhile while coasting downhill in gear, once i get to the bottom and initially give it a bit of gas i get a small buff of blue smoke. the car only has 75,000 miles on it. iv had it for a year now, car came with a few mods on it and i have added a few myself. i think the guy who had it before me beat it up a bit, where as im pretty nice to her.

also im pretty sure my bov is messing up on me. opens and closes very slow and does open very wide when its operating, as in maybe a 3/4 in an inch

the car is parked at the moment so i am doing some manifold work to it and im going to redo someintake piping and move my maf a bit further away from my bov and i would like to try and recirculate once i get a new bov ordered.
 
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