Yup. i tried it on my day off and the gauge was broken. It was a rental. I'm buying my own gauge and doing another compression test. My truck has 235 thousand miles, so it very well could be the rings. But if it was the rings, you'd think it would smoke while the engine is running/driving. But it doesn't.

 

By any chance, "91Toyota", is your truck a california model?

Mine's a california model, and I noticed a few things missing when I redid the head job. Looks like the previous owner tried to remove/bypass the california smog parts on the engine.

 

No it isn't...lol...it barely has anything...doesn't have two oxygen sensors and doesn't have cats. lol

 

I should do a compression test tonight. Maybe the episode of antifreeze in the engine broke the rings? lol

 

Possibly. Haven't done my compression test yet, as I haven't gotten a new gauge yet. I'm still baffled by all this. I find it hard for rings to just go bad as quickly as mine did. When I bought the truck, it didn't smoke like this. It started to smoke because of coolant. After I replaced the (100% faulty) headgasket, it started smoking consistantly on each startup.

I guess if your rings are bad, we'll both be having a piston rings project going.

-edit-
Im also thinking about going back and adjusting the valve clearance. I think I did it right the first time (when we did the head). But I was told to do it again once I broke in the new valves, so I did it again on my own a week after we did the head. I'm sure I did it right this time as well, but I was by myself so my confidence was low.

Are you sure you adjusted the valve clearance properly?

 

lol...I just rebuilt the damn thing too! haha

 

... me to
It is possible the coolant got into something else and ruined it, ie, something in the head. Valve stems, valve stem guids, valves, or ate up your bearings, and you said you replaced your vale stem seals. Alternatively, your rings may have already been on their way out, and the coolant just pushed them that much farther. Lastly, the PCV valve could me malfunctioning, or the tube is clogged or something, and the last possible place would be around the front or rear crankshaft seal. How much oil are you burning ? there really aren't to many places oil can go to.

 

I'm not burning as much oil as I used to now that I switched to 20w50. I'm using maybe a quart every 2 weeks, which is about a quart every 200 miles. Maybe a little more than 200 miles.

I'll replace the PCV valve. Couldn't be the hoses being clogged, though, as ALL the rubber hoses in the engine were replaced. If it was rubber, it was replaced.

 

Could be old clogged PVC valve.

If new seals were put on valves at a good shop, rule that out even though the symptoms point to crappy valve seals.

Who did the block rebuild? If chrome rings were installed, about this time next year they will seat.

Compression test is in order. The compression test again squirting a little engine oil in each cylinder to see if values come up. If so, its your rings.

Get that done and report back. You may also want to speak with the shop that did the block work. Did they just hone and install new rings or was the block bored over and new pistons installed?

We are anxious to know.

 

A well known guy guy in my area did the work. He bored it .030 over and he also honed it. From the looks of it...here's a pic...



I am not 100% sure if he honed it or not...I was not there holding his hand when he did the machine work. They did not install the rings...I did all of the rings and installed everything myself.

I got my rebuild from engnbldr.com...I don't think they are "chrome" rings.

Well we will see very soon whats up

 

Yes, i've adjusted them before and I've adjusted them on my brothers truck. I'm very sure I did them right. I initially didn't adjust them until like 1000 miles went by and two were a little off and needed tiny adjustments.

Compression check soon...I promise,

glad I'm not the only one who is having the same problem. Looks like we've got like 3 people in this thread that have the same problem. lol. Don't be shy either...post anything...don't worry about thread jacking

 

Okay, wouldn't squirting oil in the cylinder also possibly seal the valves too? Therefor you can't tell without doing a leak down test

 

Thats a large amount of oil your burning, it seems like it would be your rings at this point. Lastly, i wouldn't use such heavy weight oil in a tiny little engine like this, covering up a problem with heavy oil will only make it worse. Oil that heavy is for big diesel and high displacement, high horsepower, high compression engines. OR, if you live in the tropics.

 

Okay...compression test

1 - 187
2 - 181
3 - 175
4 - 177

Looks good to me. Spark plugs...#1 is black and the rest look absolutely normal...so I'm guessing something is up with either that cylinder/valves or something is leaking into it...also had slight exhaust leak from head/manifold...bolts weren't very tight...should be fine now.

Any ideas? Thanks

 

Also...this is clogged full of black soot (crammed tight)

 

It might take a minute for the rings to seat, (by a minute, i mean a little bit) so i wouldn't worry about a little blow by just yet. Thats the EGR valve, and i think thats nipple is for vacuum, but i can't remember if it goes to the intake or the egr vacuum solenoid. So, i would think it would have a lot of soot in it, unless the EGR valve is stuck closed, then i could see it being a sign of a problem.

 

I was thinking it would take awhile too. But I figured 5k rpm would help...so I did it like 5 times by my highschool (1/4 mile or so) during a football game and two cops were standing there watching me...haha! They'll probably go to my school on Tuesday...guess what? It wasn't me

 

I was thinking it was the PCV valve as well. So I removed it from the engine and looked at it. It makes the good rattle sound. But after I replaced it, I did some other body work on the truck and about an hour later I started it up. NO SMOKE! I let it sit for a minute and a half. No smoke still. I went around the front and looked at the dipstick, and it measuered "so full, it might start squirting out of the dipstick sheath." I you not. I pulled the dipstick out and from the rubber stopper downward it was covered with oil. Is this an affect of the engine running?

But again, check the PCV valve. Is yours new? I'm going to stop by autozone on my day off tomorrow and get a new one. Might be worth a try.

 

Its probably as old as the truck...so it fixed your problem? Thats great! Yes, with the engine running it splashes all over the dip stick...engine has to be off and clean the dip stick and put it back in then wait a second or two then pull it back out and check it. lol

 

I can't say for sure if it fixed the problem in the long run, but seeing as how that's the only thing I messed with on the engine between the last startup and today, it's reasonable to assume it's part of the problem. I mean, I ONLY messed with the PCV valve, and it just so happens it didn't smoke on this startup.

The only other variable I can think of would be the weather, but it hasnt changed much in the past few weeks.