2003 2.5 Altima Coolant Oil Burning

[shavelieva]

Wife's 2003 2.5L just hit 151k. Did an oil change a little over a week ago. Was kinda on the low end but nothing dangerous. Full Synthentic+K&N+NGKs every 7k for past +30k. Yesterday it was misfiring, had codes checked, #3 cylinder was fouling out. Just started smoking.

In the garage since last night. Removed coils, valve cover, and plugs. Looking down into the cylinders #1 was good, #2 was moist, #3 had a pool, #4 normal. At this point safe to assume the need to replace the head gasket?

Last night I removed Intake manifold, alternator removed, electrical sensory disconnected, exhaust manifold loosened, top 2x timing chain covers.

Started working on it today and looking a bit more closely I'm now looking at coolant pooled on top of the oil. So I've not yet moved any farther. Anybody think this could turn out well? Anyone ever have similar experience?

[Encryptshun]

Hey, sorry it's been this long and no one has responded to your post. Sounds like a head gasket to me.

[shavelieva]

Thanks for the reply I reall appreciate it.

So now the head is completely separated from the block. In examining the top of the block I was wondering how much play(side to side) each piston should have before its time to start thinking about piston rings? Here are two quick videos demonstrating my concern.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNAGm3qUUE8[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNUGI33B1W8[/youtube]

[shavelieva]

So far in my research of loose pistons I've come across these
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh ... p?t=931854
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie- ... e-huh.html

The cylinder walls appear smooth and without indentation, scouring, or pits. The top of the pistons do a have a decent amount of crud so I'm kind of leaning toward catalytic crud for that part.

Anybody have any input on the matter? Should I just leave it at replacing the top end gaskets and seals?

[shavelieva]

This forum is BS, I'm out.