I just found out something new about my car. I had someone follow me and was told that after about 2 miles it would put out a pretty good puff of whiteish gray smoke from the tailpipe when I would decelerate from 4th to 3rd. This guy has no t-4 experience so he couldn't tell me what it might be. Ideas?

Valve guides. It is sucking oil past the intake guides.

Let me guess... is it carbed ?


B

Nope. As far as I know it's bone stock 2.0 w/FI.

Cool. Carbed cars that have not been properly tuned can wear the intake guides faster than a injected car.

You asked about the rings.. I would suggest doing them also if you pull the engine apart to have the heads done.

B

I will get the heads done fairly soon along with rings. Problem is the budget won't allow for a full rebuild of the bottom end as well. I'm wondering if I might be able to get away with just the top end or will it create bigger headaches later on.

I did a top end rebuild on a 73 2.0 with a documented 195k on the stock bottom end back in Sept of last year. The car has seen 80miles every day since then (daily driver) without a hitch. I installed new JAP 96mm P+C's and rebuilt heads with stock injection. Runs great. I checked the end play and rod side play on the crank before deciding on a complete rebuild. It fealt fine. I'm betting we get another 100k out of it before the bottom end needs to come apart. Oh.. it has had Mobil1 in it since 100k miles.



B

Well then I guess it's time. I don't drive it very often or very far because of the oil leak so I will be pulling it apart within the next week or so but man, I have a hard time spending 2k for head work. Thanks.

The heads should only run you 450-650$ depending on what needs to be replaced. It will be 2k if you pull the engine and take it to someone for the actual labor work of pulling off all the tin and heads.


B

Nope. I'm gonna do all the labor myself. I just want to either walk the heads into the shop or ship them off. Any idea what the cost is for having the cylinders done is. I've heard it's good to have them done at the same place so they can me machined to seal better.

How bad is the smoke? Is the engine otherwise healthy? Did you do a compression check?

Personally, I don't think I'd be eager to redo the heads for just a poof of smoke on downshift or overrun.

The compression checks at 130,130,130,115. I need to pull the motor anyway because I have an oil leak that I can't reach with it in. I just figured it would be a good time to do it.