I have a 91 Z-28 with a TPI ZZ4 engine. When it gets warm it will blow a pretty good puff of smoke out the exhaust and burns oil. Now i'm pretty sure it is the rings although it only has like 8000 miles on it. My question is will it hurt anything if I put new rings in without honing the cylinder? I had the heads off recently and the cylinders still look good. Thanks for any info.

 

was it before or after u had the heads off?

also run a leakdown test to verify where the problem is at
ie: rings or valves ...ill go with rings from what u say but verify first to save yourself some pain
later

 

I'll go with valve seals/guides given the low milage.

Something would have to have been pretty wrong to ruin rings that quick.

 

i agree with tpi_roc. try a compression check, then squirt a few cc'c of oil in ea cylinder and re-do a compression check. if the compression goes up (20psi) then i would suspect the rings.

 

Usually the seals are bad when you see smoke when you start your car and when you shift/WOT the engine and there's smoke, then it's the rings.

 

Hey, leave that poor engine alone!

You're sucking oil in from the intake gaskets. Fix that.

 

I don't think it is the guides, seals or intake gasket. I put a new gasket on and torqued it correctly. It only has like 1000 miles on it since i replaced the head gasket. There is teflon guide seals. There is no smoke when it is cold only when it is hot and you give it some gas with a load on it. I am almost positive it is the rings, but i'll do a compression check and try a leakdown test too this weekend. Thanks guys.

 

I'm with five7, especially if it didn't do this until you replaced the heads. You'd be surprised how often an intake gasket is the cause of mystery smoke. An 8000 mile old motor shouldn't need rings yet unless it's been severely abused, like running with no air filter off-road in the desert or something stupid like that. Check the cheap and easy things before condemning the most expensive part of the motor to fix.