I've got my head at the machine shop for testing and possibly a rebuild. While it's off, I'm working on cleaning off the tops of the pistons.

I noticed that the oil and coolant that came out when I pulled the head and pooled in the cylinders was gone the next day. I've been putting some seafoam on them, and that too disappears down into the crankcase.

Now I don't think the cylinders are meant to be water tight, but I noticed some people talking about leaving it to soak overnight. Mine can't really soak overnight because it doesn't hold the seafoam that long.

So...would you consider that to be a problem? Should the rings be holding liquid up in the cylinders and not allow it into the crankcase?

 

Seafoam and coolant is very liquid to come to any conclusions in my opinion, try with some atf and check again, it's hard to say, my worn out block would hold atf with a bit of acetone for a weeks time, but it would consume 1 quart every 200km, and the head was completely rebuilt, no leaks anywhere. From all the advice I got, letting seafoam and atf and acetone, or mystery oil or whatever kind of detergent product you use will only help rings that are very stuck, as in an engine that's been sitting around for years. But there are much better ways to check ring condition, for example a dry and wet compression test on a warm engine will tell you much more than the time it takes for seafoam to go down to the crankcase. Remember that on a cold engine the ring gap is slightly bigger and even if everything was brand new and set right, the rings won't have proper seal if the block hasn't come up to operating temp due to metal expansion.

 

Any liquid will leak down through the rings given enough time .

The thinner the liquid the faster it will go.

If you have installed your rings they all have a end gap it takes time but it will happen.

Then the older the rings the faster it happens.

Sealing for compression is different then sealing for a liquid

 

Cool, that's kinda what I was thinking. Thanks guys.

I'll probably do a compression test at some point once everything is back together. I started burning oil last summer and am hoping it's the head. Hoping the bottom end is still in good shape.

 

Usually, when the oil burning comes from the head, it will smoke at start up, or if you rev it up a little after being on idle for a while, good luck.

 

Yeah, I posted here a while back, last summer, when it started doing it. People were leaning toward head.

There are some specific instances where it smokes a LOT, but I won't get into those again here. I'll just report back once it's all back together and driving again. That should be late March.