4AGZE problems. BHG?

[shazeal]

Hey,

About a week ago my gze decided to change note while I was driving it (After the SC kicked in). It now sounds like a damn hot rod. It was really sluggish after that, so I had to give it some gas to get it moving which kicked the SC in again and it felt like normal, at which point I pushed the car home (lucky I was just around the corner). Ive had it off the road since.
I did a compression test and its running 150/60/60/150. Retested it a few times just to be 100% sure. Its blowing what smells like 2 stroke fumes, blueish colour.
Im pretty certain its a BHG, but before I go out and pull it appart and spend my limited student budget on the parts. Could it be anything else that I can confirm, like blown rings? Im not really sure how to go about testing that kind of thing.

Thanks.

[rollaholic]

can you describe the steps you took to do your compression check? give some more details about the car? km's, mods etc

you can do a leak down test, if you hear the pressure in the two low cylinders escaping through your coolant then its definitely the HG, i wouldnt expect compression rings to give such a sudden change as you described - then again it sounds like you are burning oil if the exhaust smoke is blue. should be white / steamy if coolant is being combusted. whats the oil color like?

pray for BHG imo.

[Crucible]

its more likely to be blown between the two cylinders IMO.

[rollaholic]

that could also be confirmed by a leak down test, though it wouldnt explain the blue exhaust smoke

[pidge]

Blue exhaust = engine burning oil
That could be any one of damaged rings, pistons or HG, or valve stems seals completely giving up.

Milky-white oil
Take the oil filler cap off and look underneath it.

If their is milky-white gunk there instead of oil, that indicates that water is in the oil, which is a good indicator of a BHG.

spark plugs
Since you've have/had the spark plugs out, compare them, and look at the deposits on them. There's plenty of info around (oil deposits on them being a bit of a give away, I must admit...), I just don't remember it off the top of my head. Water shouldn't be their either, another good indication of a BHG.

Not that I've heard of many (stock) 4AGZE's blowing a HG. It's something that a 7MGTE is more inclined to do...

[shazeal]

Hey thanks for the replies.

For the comp test I disabled the fuel injection system, removed the plug leads, removed 1 plug, inserted compression tester, cranked car for 10 seconds or so. Checked levels and moved on to next cylinder after replacing the plug.

The car has about 210k kms, as it isnt leaking oil from any of the usual 4age places Im guessing its been apart at some stage for a fix up. The coolant was changed about 2 weeks before this happened and does smell suspicous (kinda petrol smell, but that could just be the different brand I used to normal).

Only modification to the car is a pod filter (which Im planning on getting rid of in favor of the original setup). I dont drive it hard, although when I bought the car it had 2 bald tyres... I knew I was taking on something that had been treated unkindly

The plugs are all a blackish colour with carbon build ups, with 1,4 being slightly cleaner, more of a grey/black than the 2 suspect cylinders.

There is no creamy stuff in the oil as far as I can see, however it has been using a fair amount of coolant, nothing major but Ive had to top it up every week or two.

Could valve stems cause the smoke? It seems a little much to hope that 2 would go at the same time though (similarly for rings?). Thats the reason I was leaning toward a BHG as 2 cylinders were down, both next to each other, would seem freaky that 2 unlinked parts would go at the same time.

And yea I am hoping its a BHG, I really dont have the time nor money for rings at the moment

[pjay]

is the car running in safe mode?

[shazeal]

The car isnt running, apart from doing the comp test, and starting it up just to verify the problem. Also I have no idea what you mean by safe mode, if you mean the engine check light then no it was not on all the time as far as I remember, Id rather not run it more than I really have to.

[pidge]

is the car running in safe mode?

Yeah, just press "F8" when cranking the engine

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[Lloyd]

Do the compression test with no plugs in at all, not just one out at a time.

Compression down on those cylinders would usually be BHG between the two as a first guess, though 60 is getting pretty low.

Got any pictures of the dodgy plugs?

[rollaholic]

you want all the plugs out like HRT said, and have your foot hard down on the accelerator while cranking. you can usually hear each compression stroke on the cylinder with the tester in, i usually give each cylinder 5 strokes. though it might not be so obvious if they are only pushing 60 psi.

you want to know where that coolant is going, if either of the plugs from cylinders 2 & 3 are a brownish rusty color then its probably burning it - though it sounds like you are burning oil in those cylinders not coolant. i would seriously consider getting a leak down test done!