Resuscitation of my Festiva

[Aaronbrook37]

I made the PCV hose extra long so I could monitor what's happening. The clamps seem excessive, but this vinyl tubing doesn't seal well enough to prevent leaks. Does this look alright to you guys? Sorry for the shaky hands... too much coffee this morning. Valve stem seals are in the mail!

[Aaronbrook37]

Unfortunately, when my valve cover gasket failed to properly seat, cylinder four's spark plug hole filled with scalding hot oil. The car continues to run perfectly fine, but it has filled the spark plug hex nut gap in melted rubber or something... making it effectively impossible to get a socket on the piece. Getting that junk out so the spark plug can be removed/cleaned/gapped for compression testing is important, but I don't know how exactly given residue from chemicals may seep into the combustion chamber and a propane torch may damage or compromise the coating of the spark plug.

Fixed. Used a propane-heated socket to melt down the rubber, and then a shop vac and compressed air to get it all out! Good as new... took about a half hour though. Fortunately, none of it fell into the combustion chamber either! Will do compression test shortly.

[Aaronbrook37]

130/120/125/135 Dry.
170/175/150/180 Wet.


Bummer...

[1chrisapple]

little low on compression ut id run it as long as most of the smoke is gone my opinion

[Bert]

Were you not in a position to fly there and drive it back? That would have been cheaper.

Indeed it would have been. My daughter was just finishing up a job in Vancouver at the time and conceivably could have piloted it back. But I have to ask you: how many times have you driven unseen custom 20 year old vehicles for 3000 miles immediately after purchase? Inevitable you wind up stranded in some God-forsaken place in the middle of nowhere with inadequate tools, parts, nor a roof over your head (in December). Then all of a sudden $1500 shipping becomes the lesser expense option!

[Aaronbrook37]

Still smoking up a storm unfortunately. Haven't gotten around to the valve stem seals, though I tried a piston soak with Seafoam over the course of three days. Seems to have improved somewhat though. It's definitely the worst in the first couple of minutes... this is what it looks like at warmed up idle.

[Aaronbrook37]

Did another compression test today just to see what's going on. 150/145/140/150 dry. Didn't have time for a wet test unfortunately. Either way, that's 20psi higher than before... all I did was take out the camshafts and lifters before putting them back in after finding out that my valve stem seals were the wrong size. Still smoking up a storm unfortunately.

[Aaronbrook37]

[db2u]

White smoke like that is coolant. Have your coolant checked for combustables, and drain oil and look for milkiness (if you havent already). Throwing seafoam in, cleaning pvc, etc is not going to take care of that much white smoke.

[Aaronbrook37]

Just did an oil change last week - no signs of milkiness or discoloration whatsoever. Took off the rad cap... zero signs of bubbling. Checked the head bolts this morning for good measure, and they were all still 60ftlbs on the nose. Only alarm bell is spark plug #4, which has been wet/dark and oily both times I've pulled them out. New valve stem seals go in next week if all goes well.

[db2u]

Well that much white smoke can only come from a few places. Bottom line is you have water coming into your combustion chamber. Not too familiar with the B6T, but does your intake manifold have coolant passages that go through it? If so it could just be a bad gasket there. How about the turbo, is it water cooled or oil cooled? Beyond that, I would have to say you prob need to pop the head off to really take a look.

[db2u]

Only alarm bell is spark plug #4, which has been wet/dark and oily both times I've pulled them out. New valve stem seals go in next week if all goes well.

Valve stem seals will only fix oil burning (blue smoke), there isnt any coolant that would be near those. I hate to say it but it really sounds like either a blown head gasket, or a cracked head/block as worst case. Either of those could rupture the oil passages and water jackets enough to dump both into the cylinder.

[Aaronbrook37]

Hey DB2U. Thanks for the great suggestion. I took off the intake manifold just now to find water/fluid in two of the runners and white sticky gunk all over parts of the gasket. I suspect it was leaking internally on that basis. New gasket and valve stem seals gets here Wednesday... will keep you posted.

[Rocketman]

How are you going to change valvestem seals in car? They are extremely difficult to do on the B6T / BP in-car.

There are indeed coolant passages through the intake manifold, a small port between 1&2 and a much larger port between 3&4. There is also a coolant passage through the bottom of the throttlebody, if you have not bypassed it already now would be a good time to do so.

[Aaronbrook37]

How are you going to change valvestem seals in car? They are extremely difficult to do on the B6T / BP in-car.

There are indeed coolant passages through the intake manifold, a small port between 1&2 and a much larger port between 3&4. There is also a coolant passage through the bottom of the throttlebody, if you have not bypassed it already now would be a good time to do so.

Yep - the larger port had white residue gunk near it. I believe it was cylinders two and three that had moisture puddles in them.

Believe it or not, Matt, we managed to check that single one with a small air compressor and a compact overhead valve spring compressor. For the actual replacement of the 16, we're going to pull the head so we can clean up the valves and ensure the head gasket is fresh.