Replacing Piston rings in car

[rockin86ranger]

I was saying i will have other stuff to work on. The Ranger is getting a full rebuild, and the F-100 would get a light resto/fixing up and be used as a work truck, then the countless other small projects i have going on. I don't really need another festiva either.

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

I had the same symptoms (including severe fouling of the #3 plug) on my old Fiat (Fix It Again, Tony) 128. I replaced the rings on the #3 cylinder -- from the bottom -- on the side of the Alcan Highway in the middle of the Yukon.

That didn't fix the problem. If you left the car overnight, it would make a cloud of smoke as big as a house on startup.

After 24,000 miles of this nonsense (where I'd have to stop to replace the fouled #3 plug before I'd have to stop for gas), I finally discovered that a #3 cylinder valve guide was cracked (steel guides pressed into aluminum head on steel block), and that's how the oil was getting into the cylinder, not from the sump upward.

I find it surprising to see all these new Fiat 500s on the road now. Those who fail to study the past (Fiats being garbage) are doomed to repeat it.