1995 Saturn SL1 engine smoke at high RPM

Tiny
ANDYPIERCE1987
  • MEMBER
  • 1995 SATURN SL1
  • 4 CYL
  • FWD
  • MANUAL
  • 129,000 MILES
I have a 95 saturn sl1 with 1.9ltr 4 cyl. When I bought it, it had a smoking problem. It doesnt smoke at all at idle but once it revs high (around 3000 rpm) it smokes like a french hooker, then once it idles back down it stops smoking. I replaced the valve seals in the head hopeing it would fix it. I shouldve known it wouldnt fix it cuz when valve seals are bad it will usually smoke at first start up and then quit smoking after a couple minutes. However, after putting new valve seals in the head it still smokes. I ran it without the dipstick in it and noticed smoke coming out of the tube, have a little blow-by issue. Also when I took the exhaust manifold off I noticed alot of carbon/oil buildup on the #2 cylinder exhaust tube, also on the head itself as well. I noticed this only on that cylinder as it was clearly noticeable that the #2 cylinder must be the problematic one. My question is, could this be an issue with a stuck ring or does it just need new rings altogether? OR is there something else that could cause this behavior?
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 AT 10:41 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
BLUELIGHTNIN6
  • MECHANIC
  • 16,542 POSTS
Hello and thanks for donating

I'm assuming that the smoke was a greyish/blue smoke since you are talking about valve seals, correct? If so, you could try some engine honey/seal treatment to see if it lessens the smoking. If it does, then the piston rings are most likely weak and causing the smoke issue.
Was this
answer
helpful?
Yes
No
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 AT 11:11 PM

Please login or register to post a reply.

Sponsored links