Valve stem seals or piston rings?

[bendychicken]

Okay, On my 91 KA24DE 240sx Automatic. I put new valve stem seals in but I also honned the cyclinders and cleaned the pistons and rings. I've got the hole thing together and its burning oil.I think this is because I drove the Valve stem seal all the way down to the head, but the FSM says there should be a 2mm gap between the bottom off the seal and the head(lower spring seat area). All of the rings where within specs, so I reused them. They are all right side up and in the right order and in there original cylinders on there original pistons. Compression test read 165 170 175 175. Is it the valve stem seals?

[bendychicken]

Anyone? the car has 130K mi.Also, I notice there is noise that only happens when the engine revs up. It sounds like a chain being dragged over asfault at hi speed. Kind of a pinging sound.

[zero_gripS13]

this might not be your problem but if the chain like oise is comming form the front of the motor it could be the upper and upper/lower timing chain guides.. check to see if they are still installed if so remove them..they are not needed and do more harm than good

[bendychicken]

So, I can remove ALL of the chain guides? But not the tentioners.There are three guides right? The one that sits on top off the upper chain(between the cam gears). The one that sits to the right of the upper chain(between the ex cam sprocket and idler sprocket). And the one that sits to the right of the lower chain. Remove all three?

Soo, what about the valve guides? Do you think thats were I'm burning the oil? Or could it be piston rings? I geuss I'm gonna have to just RE-replace the valve stem seals. It's cheaper than tearing down the whole thing again. And if it still burns oil, I geuss I'm just gonna have to pull the engine and get the block punched out one size with new pistons and rings.

[godspeed]

i prety sure you just remove the top guide, how hard was it to replace the seals?

[bendychicken]

I had to pull them out with a big needle nose vicegrip. Not to bad, once you get the cams, shims, buckets, and spring assemblies out of the way. watch out that you don't hit the lifter bores with the pliers though.(aluminium is to friggin soft)

The trouble is, the FSM says the new seals are supposed to be driven on so they have a 2mm gap between there bottom and the spring seat area. I drove them down till they BOTTOMED OUT onto the spring seat. I praying that is what my oil leak is from and not my piston rings. Unfortunatly, no one seams to have any experiance with this sooooooooo I geuss it's trial and error time.

[bendychicken]

Did the S13 KA24DE come with moly piston rings?

[bendychicken]

It ended up being the valve stem seals. new seals with 2mm gap, no smoke.