86_firebirdTA

Hi guys, the other day I took my car out for a drive and thought I heard the engine pinging. It sounded like pinging but also like it could have just been something rattling. The sound started at 2300 rmps consistently and continued until the trans shifted. No sound in the lower rpms or at idle. Yesterday, I was going to show my friend the sound to see what he thought, and about a minute after I started the engine, the car started blowing blue smoke out of the exhaust which i know means im burning oil. The car has never smoked at all before now. My first thought was that maybe one or more piston rings are shot. Today I did a power balance test by unplugging the injectors one by one and the all seemed to be contributing pretty equally and the car is still smoking. Could it be bad piston rings even though all 8 cylinders seem to be contributing equally? I was going to do a compression test as well but now I'm wondering if I need to. The car is an 86 TA with a 355 TPI. According to the previous owner the engine only has about 5k on it. Thoughts?

ploegi

Do the compression test. Dry first, then wet, post the numbers here.

skinny z

X2

zraffz

Granny shiftin' not double clutchin' like you should. You're lucky that hundred shot of NOS didn't blow the welds on the intake! Now, me and the mad scientist got to rip apart the block... and replace the piston rings you fried.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

With a "rebuilt" engine, almost ANY internal malfunction is a possibility.

Bear in mind: NOBODY does a top-notch "rebuild" on a motor, then sells the car; unless of course TV cameras are involved, and someone else is paying for the "rebuild" (aka sponsors). IN REALITY (which does NOT include "reality" TV) the sequence of events is invariably one of the following: people ruin a motor and decide to sell the car, and they slap in the absolute cheeeeeeepest thing that will push the car around and dump it off on some unsuspecting victim; or, they buy a car cheeeeeeeeeeep with a trashed motor, and THEN with the express purpose of turning a profit, do the slap thing; or, they buy a car with no motor at all, then "profit", then slap. Not too many other ways you're gonna end up with a car at a "good" price with a "freshly" "rebuilt" motor in it.

Selling a used car brings out THE WORST in the human race.

May sound harsh; but that's Just The Way It Is.

Since all "rebuilds" are not equal, FAR FROM IT in fact, there's absolutely positively definitely NO WAY WHATSOEVER to guess from outside, what may or may not have been done right or wrong, what was done AT ALL, what wasn't done that should have ben, what damage to some new part(s) might have been done during this "rebuild", or anything of the kind.

Some of the crappiest engines I have ever seen in my life were "freshly rebuilt". Some of those were even what we lovingly referred to as a "Krylon rebuild": somebody just squirted acoupla cans of red-orange paint all over some ragtime POS without touching a single part, bolted on some "chrome" "dress-up" items, and called it "rebuilt".

That too may sound harsh; but also is Just The Way It Is.

Sounds unfortunately like you might have something of that nature going on here.

Unfortunately, some serious detective work may be in order; as in, tear it COMPLETELY down, inspect and MEASURE every single part, evaluate the machine work that was/wasn't done, etc. Get the casting numbers and see if you didn't get stuck with some kind of smogger crap or TBI garbage for heads, see if you got low-compression dished "rebuilder" pistons, see how round the cyl walls are, and so forth.