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Possible big engine problems


jon.young

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As above I dipped the oil on the car the other day and it stank of petrol!!!

But through the filler cap smells normal, any thoughts on what it could be?

Oil pressure reads 5 ish on the gauge

The car does need an oil change but is this something to worry about,

I was told could have blown rings when I got it

But it sounds fine when it's running apart from where I don't have the rear lambda sensors it it's a bit loud

Any thoughts are welcome

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If you actually do have damaged or broken piston rings the symptoms are:

Oily exhaust tips

Smoke 'blue' from the exhausts especially after throttling off then on again.

Its going to pre ignite like a good'un too, so rattly when putting your foot down.

probably miss a bit, noticed when under load.

If you dissconnect the crackcase breather it will be oily and when running smoking too.

If this engine is that bad its probably got a holed piston...which means its been well thashed or run low on oil....

If it were me I would:

Clean up the exausts and see if they stay dry and clean.

Take out the spark plugs and see if any are ouly ..if so thats the end of that!

Change the oil

Pray..

BTW why did you buy it??

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Is the oil on the dipstick thin?

 

Bore wash can put petrol into the oil - still usually leads to rings/bore problems :thumbdown:

 

change the oil see what it looks like and as doctor austin says - pray :)

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Do you do a lot of short journeys?

 

As youve already said its overdue a oil change, it maybe the case that you have some fuel in the oil. I've seen cars running rich before where they have not got properly hot for some time, stopping it from being heated off

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I bought it as a project, just got all the body work up together,

Their is a small bit of smoke but it's not blue, engine is not that nosey its self, and the old oil it's as black as the ace of spades,

So doing the oil will be next see what happens

N hey if it blown just a reason to go forged

I don't know what the previous own drove like or for how long but I'm gonna get a compression test done soon

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I'm no mechanic, but sounds like you might be having same problems as me :shrug:

 

"Oil pressure reads 5 ish on the gauge" I do hope you mean at least 50. As people say, at 60 in 6th it should be 60psi or thereabouts. Low oil pressure can mean there's none in there (like mine after it drank it all!). If your car smells TERRIBLE and acrid, and if you're smoking then I've been informed it's probably as bad as we both fear! = piston rings and rebuild.

 

Mine smokes, but not a great deal. But courtesy of Abbey's little camera into the cylinder I know it IS pretty buggered. Check to see how much oil you're using as I would guess you're burning it like me!

 

Praying for you dude!

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I will drop the old stuff out an change it, shall look for any crap in the oil,

But from what I've seen it don't seam to bad of an engine to work on

I would do all the stripping down just get a friend to resit the pistons an torque the heads down,

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My engine learning experience was pre-cat days but am I right to recall it has been said that they will largely prevent oil/petrol getting pushed down the exhaust and being emitted as blue smoke? No doubt ruining the cats over time in the process. :wacko:

 

If so, that would disguise visual signs of engine damage. Best bet then is for the engine to have an endoscope check-up.

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MMmm yes I totally agree that HOT cats my get rid of oily residue from the inside of the exhaust tips...but maybe you would still get a bit of smoke...very good point though. It will be most intriguing to hear how this maps out! If you have got broken rings (over reving / pre ignition /over advanced ignition / wrong grade fuel) I would of thought that it would run rough at low speed and lack pull.

Fingers crossed its not so bad.

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Well on start up she get to about 2k an comes down slowly holds around 5-5.5 on oil pressure, and was sat for 6 months doing nothing, when I got it in a state to test it she fired 1st time, she don't sound noisy, had it running a bit longer yesterday and didn't see any smoke so weather it's where it was stood I dunno, but gonna do the oil change get a compression test done an take

Baby steps from their,, if the rings are naff won't take long to strip an fix as long as I don't need to bore it out, gives me a reason to clean up the engine,

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If the rings are broken then the cylinders will need replacing or reboring..(not sure if they are sleves).almost for sure...all seems a bit odd though! Oh and stripping one of these engines is no mean task. I have built many engines over the years but would not want to rebuild one of these. I gues I am trying to say dont underestimate whats involved...I think most would not bother and scrap to engine and fit a good used one...and even then its a lot of hastle....or maybe I'm getting too old for all this stuff!! :headhurt:

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Well on start up she get to about 2k an comes down slowly holds around 5-5.5 on oil pressure, and was sat for 6 months doing nothing, when I got it in a state to test it she fired 1st time, she don't sound noisy, had it running a bit longer yesterday and didn't see any smoke so weather it's where it was stood I dunno, but gonna do the oil change get a compression test done an take

Baby steps from their,, if the rings are naff won't take long to strip an fix as long as I don't need to bore it out, gives me a reason to clean up the engine,

 

I don't mean to be patronising, but are you sure you're reading the oil pressure right?

 

I only ask because Nissan's minimum safe oil pressure at full temperature at idle is 14PSI, and you're saying you have 5PSI on a cold start up, which would be crazily low. Mine is at about 60PSI at idle on a cold start up and 20PSI at idle when fully warm, and I have light oil in mine as well.

 

DB

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think his is like mine and is an import and it goes from 0 to 8 i think, not sure how thats measured??

 

Ahhh right, didn't know Imports had different gauges. That sounds like it's probably reading in Bar rather than PSI; 120 PSI and 8 Bar would be roughly the same from memory.

 

DB

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think his is like mine and is an import and it goes from 0 to 8 i think, not sure how thats measured??

 

 

hes on the money yeah its an import, 5-5.5 kpa, why the changed it from psi i dont know.

 

i think im gonna look at compression testing then get a garage to stick the camera in just to be safe,

worst comes to worst like it has been said buy a 2nd hand engine fit that

and break the one i have im sure theirs some people that would want cylinder heads an so on for forged builds

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