Well as i was driving home from work, i was just normally boosting, and when i came to a stop light, the motor was idling unlike normal...I then saw some whitish vapor coming from the side of my hood. So I pop the hood, and my catchcan breather is puffing vapor like mad, so i pulled the oil dipstick and puffing like mad from there...Shit...Did a comp test: #1= 200 psi #2= 195psi #3= 200 psi #4= 95psi :( I'm almost positive i blew the head gasket. Cylinder #4 is notorious for that, and i had no detonation what so ever, but i guess i cant rule out a cracked piston or ring.Poured some oil in the cylinder, and no more psi. It makes me wonder though, this happend right after i took out the PCV valve, and just vented the line to my catchcan. Maybe too much positive pressure in the crankcase didnt help the HG any..dont know for sure...Matt_95tgs and I will tackle the HG this weekend, so we will see what happens..I knew the HG would go eventually..But 10 PSI felt damn good :) I'll be taking pics, so look out for those..Time to get greasy!!

Bummer....

That sucks man. I hope it's nothing too serious.

Hope it's not a piston.. I'd do a leakdown just to make sure.

Bet ya $5 it's a piston.

>Hope it's not a piston.. I'd do a leakdown just to make
>sure.
>
>Bet ya $5 it's a piston.


Haha,shit, dont say that :) Well Matt_95tgs is gonna bring one of his old pistons from his old block, just in case i need to swap it into my block. I can do that right? I dont see why not anyway...Of course the rings wont be seated to that cylinder really well, but hopefully it will get my by for another few months until the rebuild..I still think its the HG..but you never know..Will I be able see a visible crack on the piston when i get the head off, if that is it?

No.. which is why i recommend a leakdown. If you go through all the trouble of yanking the head off, you still won't be able to tell if it's a piston or not. the ringlands that crack are on the sides, not the top.

Do a leakdown. if it's not a high % crankcase leakdown, i'll paypal you $5.

hmmm..How would a leakdown test tell if it is a piston, or the HG? My symptoms is that cylinder pressure is leaking into the crankcase. If the HG blew, there are little oil drain holes right adjacent to the edge of the cylinder, which if that blew out, would leak pressure right into the crankcase. I guess what you are saying is that if ther is a lot of pressure loss, then its a piston? Or do i have that backward? I dont have a leakdown tester, but i do have about 120 psi of compressed air available.. Oh, and can i do what i said above by swaping pistons? Would that be ok? Also, i poured about 4 oz of oil into the cylinder, and the comp didnt go up at all.. I would think too if it ws the piston., that i wouldnt be gettin 95 psi of compression either...

u could possibly put in that used piston but u would have to ahve the motor out, well u could do an in frame but that takes more skill then the average joe, the piston will work, will it go boom? maybe?

nah, you dont have to take out the motor, after the head is off, i'll just drop the oil pan, the take off the rod bearing cap, then push out the ol piston. Damn, now i may have to find a ring compressor..

attn ********* low blow ********** attn

maybe you should have purchased the R/T that you almost bought before the clipse ;-)

*** low blow over ***

anyways, that sucks dude

Even when it's smoking the eclipse looks better ;)

Well after some discussion with Dino, I think it def may be a cracked ring land. Matt_95tgs brought over 2 of his old pistons from the old block, thinking we could use those, but BOTH of his pistons have cracked ring lands! He blew at 10-11 psi also...Well looks like i may be eating my own words about how our motors can handle 10 psi :P BUT, i did get a slight bit of detonation when i was tuning my boost controller, i spiked to about 13 psi, and heard that funky rattle...i backed off right away, but it may have been too late...Well we will see tomorrow when we take the head off..

dualgen or dave, was boosting at 10 psi on stock internals and blew his ring

My car had the same symptoms for my cracked ring landing.....I can tell you that if you put the pistons back in with used rings you will regret it,(speaking from experience, I still get blow by from the used rings, although not alot but ehough to make me rebuild again) shoot you can buy a whole set of rings from howell for 89.99, you are probly better off just getting a whole set and replacing them all at once. Although you won't be able to boost for quite a few miles....

That sucks man, but you will move on and overcome this and I'm sure the car will be pulling better than before once it's put back together......too bad you don't have an extra $1100 laying around, heheheh......rebuild time! Good luck Matt and keep us posted!

I also doubt its the headgasket. Our stock pistons liek to crack ring landings off. I was only running 8 psi for a yar and then my ring landing cracked. I actually cracked both ring landings right in the same spot. Break out the old credit cards and get the howell bottom end kit and slap that sucker together. Your going to need to do it one day anyway. If you rebuild it with stock parts its just going to happen again. 10 psi is too much on stock internals.