Taking A Peak At What's Inside a B3

[bhearts]

I'm not hating. I just had no idea they could be reused. I've never built an engine personally. But I like learning what I can before I dive in.

[dalebwilson]

I didn't know you could do that. Hmm.

Bhearts...If I were building a complete engine, I would have certainly replaced everything in the bottom end including the rod bearings. While driving this $500 car 200 miles per day with 280K on the odometer, my intention here was simply to determine the cause of the oil consumption and low vacuum and repair at the lowest cost.

[bhearts]

I didn't know you could do that. Hmm.

[dalebwilson]

So you used the bearings already on the rods?

Yes...they had no visible wear and cleaned up nicely. Used plenty of assembly lube and torqued them to spec.

[bhearts]

So you used the bearings already on the rods?

[crazyrog17]

Nice job

[SWRT]

Holy crap that stuff works good. Impressive.
And good work Cheap fix for awesome results.

I couldn't believe how much crap there was in that
pickup filter though.

[dalebwilson]

Thought I would post an update for those interested.

Dirty, carbonized pistons getting a good bath in Berryman's Chem-Dip:







Pistons all clean with new rings installed:







Cylinders after a fresh deglazing:



Back together and running better than ever and parked next to my 93GL. No more smoking and the engine vacuum increased from a rough idle at 14"hg to a smooth idle at 20"hg. Spent $80 for new rings, head gasket, oil, filter and antifreeze.

[dalebwilson]

Torque....you certainly had good oil control rings and decent compression rings on that one. Because I had already changed the valve stem seals on this one, it did not smoke upon startup, only while driving. My 93GL however has 200 PSI compression, uses no noticeable oil between 3000 mile intervals, but will puff a little startup smoke after sitting overnight. I have read a lot about compression and oil control rings and some engines seem to have great compression and yet use oil. Some engines have low compression and use very little oil. Hard to figure out sometimes.

[TorqueEffect]

My B3 before I swapped it out for a B6 had a compression acrossed the board of 150-160, and the only oil it ever burned was from the bad valve seals which were eventually changed.

[dalebwilson]

Awesome pics! Thanks for sharing, make sure to take some after pics. Thanks

Thank you and will do.

[dalebwilson]

Were your compression readings low? Mine has a lot of blow by in the intake but is not smoking at all YET! Plus as you may recall my compression readings are low too. Wonder what my pistons look like?

Jim, My compression was in the 120-140 range. Your pistons probably look similar.

[Festevil3]

Awesome pics! Thanks for sharing, make sure to take some after pics. Thanks

[jimdigs]

Were your compression readings low? Mine has a lot of blow by in the intake but is not smoking at all YET! Plus as you may recall my compression readings are low too. Wonder what my pistons look like?

[dalebwilson]

Great photos. Did you have a lot of blowby in the air intake tube or was most of it going out the exhaust?

Jim, yes there is normally some oil in the intake tube. The car smokes mostly after going down a long hill in gear. During full vacuum all that blow by oil is pulled into the combustion chamber and then burned upon re-acceleration. It will fog the road in a hurry.