So all of the sudden ( wasn't over much time) I could hear a misfire. I replaced the spark plugs and swapped coils to find that these were not the culprit. Well, it turns out that the spark plug was the affect of the culprit. When changing out all the plugs, I could clearly see that plug 1 was dark like it was burning oil. I was definitely getting a lot blueish smoke coming out at start up. This would go away after a minute or so but I could still see the smoke coming out under hard acceleration. Just to verify that it was only cylinder one I unhooked #1 coil and sure enough, I'd get a misfire of course but there was no smoke out of the exhaust. Turn it off and hook the coil back up, restarted and there she blows!
I would think then that the compression has been compromised, but am I still too early to make that assumption? I was going to go buy a compression tester, but then thought "I know it's going to be low". So I decided to ask you all first. Again this happened quickly as one start up with no problems, and then the next start up and here I am.

You never know till you actually compression test it. I'd say your rings gave up the ghost, based on the narrative, but there's always a chance it's something else.

I've been told that I need to pull the fuel pump fuse before I run the test. Is that a big deal? After all, it ran without a coil on one of the plugs without an issue besides a misfire.
I've cannot for the life of me find this fuse. Can someone lead me in the right direction?

golfprowanabe wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 30, 2017 12:19 pm

I've been told that I need to pull the fuel pump fuse before I run the test. Is that a big deal? After all, it ran without a coil on one of the plugs without an issue besides a misfire.
I've cannot for the life of me find this fuse. Can someone lead me in the right direction?

Have you tried looking in the FSM?

http://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual? ... an/2012/PG

See PG=23

Telcoman

Yes over the weekend I've been going through the FSM trying to find it but it's not easy to follow! lol

golfprowanabe wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 03, 2018 7:57 am

Yes over the weekend I've been going through the FSM trying to find it but it's not easy to follow! lol

http://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual? ... an/2012/GI

http://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual? ... an/2012/EC

IPDM E/R
Intelligent power distribution module engine room

See page EC-58

Telcoman

Ok so I bought a compression test kit at Advance Auto Parts and found the fuse for the fuel pump. I think the gage I bought is probably off because I was getting readings of around 255-260 psi for each cylinder. I took comfort in the fact that it's the difference between the cylinders that's a lot more important and there wasn't but 5 lbs between them, including cylinder 1! Does this eliminate the rings being bad? Any other ideas on why this cylinder would burn oil?

255 psi for each cylinder? I'm not sure the tester is reading correctly. Did you do the test while the engine was warm?

Too high numbers to be correct. I used to get them that high back when I ran a 13/1 bigblock Chevy in my racing days. May not be rings, you can have a bad valve seal and burn oil.

amc49 wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 15, 2018 4:07 pm

Too high numbers to be correct. I used to get them that high back when I ran a 13/1 bigblock Chevy in my racing days. May not be rings, you can have a bad valve seal and burn oil.

That's now what I'm thinking... valve stem seals. It burns the most when starting. That means oil has had time to drip from above I'm thinking. I know those compression numbers on that gage were off, but it was consistent between all cylinders which I think is more important here.

Anyone know where there might be a write up on how to change the seals yourself?

Just because it was a cheap and quick fix, I changed out the pcv valves. The old ones seemed like they were ok when trying to shake them, but there was a lot of oil on them. There was also a lot of oil in the hose lines that go to the intake.
After changing the pcv valves there was no more blue smoke. Can someone take a poke at the physics of why the old pcv valves caused more oil to get sucked into the intake? It would seem to me that if the valves were stuck shut, not much of anything would get through. If it was stuck open, then it would just let air back into the valve cover. I would think the only way that a significant amount of oil getting through would be if the intake was creating a vacuum inside the valve cover(crankcase). If the intake is at high throttle, then it will suck through the pcv valve. A working PCV valve should allow the sucking action to take extra pressure away from the crankcase anyhow so why would a working valve not allow as much oil through as a non working valve?