smoking/misfire/oil on plugs

[J240sx]

Like the title says my sr is smoking from the exhaust side, there is oil on the spark plugs on the bottom, and it feels like it has a misfire. When I parked it over night it was fine, but the next morning on start up there was smoke coming from the exhaust side and a lot coming out of the exhaust. I then noticed that the T that i had on my fuel pressure regulator was broke. I've already fixed that problem but could any of this be caused by the regulator? The engine is stock, only have a front mount and exhaust.

[zachattack_5491]

My hypothesis: Your FPR wasn't functioning correctly so you were running lean, and blew the rings and/or ring lands or worse. Test compression. What color is the smoke? Blue I would imagine if it's burning oil.

[J240sx]

Yeah its blue. I guess I will try and do a compression test over the weekend and hope for the best. I don't know anything about doing a rebuild so I hope I get lucky.

[zachattack_5491]

New rings wouldn't be that big of a project... Wouldn't be real expensive either. If you cracked the ring lands you would need new pistons and rings. Plus who knows what kind of damage was done to the cylinder walls. Good luck, hopefully it's just a small simple problem.

[J240sx]

Yeah, but I have to take the whole head off to do the rings..(which I don't know how to do) And then im sure once i have the motor open and out I am going to find more parts to replace or upgrade.

[CRyan]

Meh, all SR's smoke a little I'll keep you in my prayers, brother.

But I'm also a "worst case scenario" guy, that way when I do find the problem, and it isn't as bad, I'm excited.

You could have toasted rings from running insanely lean. Did you ever notice anything VIA temperature during your cruise the day before? The engine could have ran a bit warmer in such lean conditions.

If you want, take a look at the top side of your pistons. If they have oil sitting on top of them, you know what has happened. Be prepared. If they are burnt, like irregularly (best way I could put it), you also know what has happened.

While its on my mind, what did your plugs look like as far as the ceramic part? VERY white?, there should be 2 sides of it, one will be slightly lighter than the other. If it isn't close to a 50/50, you are running lean, but if it was bad lean, you would see no gray.

Good luck man.
Corey aka CRyan

[J240sx]

The more reading I do I also think that it is the rings. I still haven't done the compression test yet but hopefully it will get done this week. I didn't notice any thing off temperature wise the night before I parked it, but I could have missed something.

The looking at the top side of the pistons is a good idea, but the taking the head off is what im scared of. I will most likely have a friend do it or help.

As far as the plugs.. There was some gray but not a lot. I will post the pics up soon. Also since I didn't have anything to do I changed the fpr and put some new plugs in. It does run better, but still the same problem, the engine shaking and the smoking. I just need to test the compression and then move on from there.

[PyR0NiAk]

FSM tells you exactly how to take the head off. So does a thread on here. sr20de-t-head-removal-t255165.html

[J240sx]

Yeah, but I just feel that a lot of things could go wrong. Either way, im going to give it a try. Also, i assume that I should tow it to the garage where Im going to be working on it? I don't want to mess anything else up but if i didn't have to pay for a tow truck..

[PyR0NiAk]

If you follow that thread I just linked you to, you really shouldn't screw anything up man. Just make sure you take note of how everything comes out, so YOU can understand how to put it back

[J240sx]

Update: I took the head off, which wasnt as hard as i thought it would be. There was no oil on the pistons which was what i was hoping for. There was oil on one section on the top of the head gasket and underneath. Im thinking this is the cause for the smoking/misfire. If so would this be caused just by having a bad head gasket? I'll post pics up of how much oil there was and where it was.

[J240sx]

fixed the pictures.

[J240sx]

Any suggestions?

[PhopsonNY]

What the end result of all this...?

Let us know so it can help others