Is there a way to check for bad rings?

[Trying my best]

I've been chasing a white smoke problem for awhile and I brought it to my buddy. He thought the smoke was blue. I checked the oil and it's a quart low, after two thousand miles. I noticed that the smoke clears up when the motor gets warm after driving on the freeway for twenty minutes. I'm thinking bad rings. Is there a easy way to check this, like an oil thickener or something?

Thanks all

 

[riotwarrior]

Ya it's called a compression check and better yet a LEAK DOWN test, that would give you the most accurate indication of cylinder leakage and hopefully whats blowing past what....

Oil thickener...naw...don't think that is what you need to do. Might want to try Auto RX do a search on here for auto rx and read n read, lots here swear by the stuff, my personal thought is try it and if it works great, I have no experience with the stuff yet.

 

[Trying my best]

Thanks, I guess there is no easy way to check. I did a compression test a few months back and here are my numbers

Cylinder one 475
two 520
Three 480
Four 480
Five 480
Six 480
Seven 480
Eight 520

That was With ten cranks per cylinder. I have not done a leak down yet, but I have half a mind to let well enough along and add oil as needed.

Thanks

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

i have not done a leak down test on a diesel but on a gasser they are easy. the trickiest part for me is finding top dead center.

 

[Trying my best]

Yea I saw Eric the car guy on YouTube do one. He runs shop air in the spark plug hole and listens for air in the intake, exhaust, oil fill and coolant to see where it's comming from. I have no idea if my compression numbers tell me anything about oil loss? I wonder if a leak down test would be through a glow plug hole or a injector hole?

 

[RLDSL]

Thanks, I guess there is no easy way to check. I did a compression test a few months back and here are my numbers

Cylinder one 475
two 520
Three 480
Four 480
Five 480
Six 480
Seven 480
Eight 520

That was With ten cranks per cylinder. I have not done a leak down yet, but I have half a mind to let well enough along and add oil as needed.

Thanks

with numbers that high , I'd be inclined to think you are loosing the oil through the valve guides, but it would never hurt to try running the auto RX before condemning anything. It will eliminate the option of sticking rings or slightly hardened valve stem seals being the cause of the consumption

 

[riotwarrior]

with numbers that high , I'd be inclined to think you are loosing the oil through the valve guides, but it would never hurt to try running the auto RX before condemning anything. It will eliminate the option of sticking rings or slightly hardened valve stem seals being the cause of the consumption

I agree with RLDSL about the compression #'s cause those are actually not too bad at all. Auto RX at this point might be an idea to clean rings and so forth a bit, then work on diagnosing the oil issue, cause as RLDSL said it very well could be seals or guides...IMHO

 

[Trying my best]

Right, where do I get the auto rx, the Internet?

 

[MrsFordGuy100]

Valve guides is what I was thinking as well. Like RSDSL said, compression is to high, and to close to each other, for it to signal to me it was bad rings.

But I thought 7.3 IDI valve guides didnt burn oil, but the 6.9's did?

 

[riotwarrior]

Right, where do I get the auto rx, the Internet?

Try here http://www.auto-rx.com/

 

[Trying my best]

So you guys run 22 ounces of Auto RX for our trucks?

 

[MrsFordGuy100]

You are supposed to use two bottles per oil change.

 

[Trying my best]

Ok I'll give it go.

Thanks.

 

[RLDSL]

Valve guides is what I was thinking as well. Like RSDSL said, compression is to high, and to close to each other, for it to signal to me it was bad rings.

But I thought 7.3 IDI valve guides didnt burn oil, but the 6.9's did?

6.9 came from the factory with umbrella seals on the exhaust, they went to positive type seals on the exhause on the 7.3 from teh factory, but then soon found that they did not allow for enough lubrication on the exhaust valve guides ( the intake will naturally have a bit of vacuum so will draw some oil in past the positive seal to lubricate the guide, but the exhause is under pressure and pushes it out so when they put positivre seals on the exhaust did not allow for enough lubrication and the things would eat exhaust guides.) all replacement gasket sets now contain umbrella seals for BOTH engines as an*upgrade* , although when I built my engine , I installed positive seals on all teh valves , knowing that it was getting synthetic oil right after break in so I knew the valves would be getting better lubrication even with the less amount getting to them ( so far so good, with 70k miles on the oil in it, the oils is still in good shape and it's consuming at a rate of 1 gal per 5k miles which would be the same as not having to add any between changes for most folks doing changes at 3-5k miles

 

[Trying my best]

6.9 came from the factory with umbrella seals on the exhaust, they went to positive type seals on the exhause on the 7.3 from teh factory, but then soon found that they did not allow for enough lubrication on the exhaust valve guides ( the intake will naturally have a bit of vacuum so will draw some oil in past the positive seal to lubricate the guide, but the exhause is under pressure and pushes it out so when they put positivre seals on the exhaust did not allow for enough lubrication and the things would eat exhaust guides.) all replacement gasket sets now contain umbrella seals for BOTH engines as an*upgrade* , although when I built my engine , I installed positive seals on all teh valves , knowing that it was getting synthetic oil right after break in so I knew the valves would be getting better lubrication even with the less amount getting to them ( so far so good, with 70k miles on the oil in it, the oils is still in good shape and it's consuming at a rate of 1 gal per 5k miles which would be the same as not having to add any between changes for most folks doing changes at 3-5k miles

Should I even be worried about using a little oil. If your burning I gal every 5k, it sounds like what I have is normal?

Thanks