Evo 4 problem

[TG21]

Hi guys (I'm not particularly clued up with these things so will have to bare with me!) not had my 4 for long (about 2 weeks) but am having issues.

Shortly after buying (about a week after as it had a minor leak coming from the old gasket) I had the rocker cover gasket replaced, oil and oil filter. About an hour after driving it out it seemed the gasket had pinched as it had blown the corner out = all that fresh oil literally everywhere. Either way straight back to the lockup and put it back on an all seemed fine.

Next couple of days after religiously checking oil etc before driving, it seemed as though I'd left my dipstick out and again oil everywhere! So refilled and made double sure dipstick was back in. On this same day I was wanting to get it on the rolling road to make sure fuelling etc was all spot on and get an idea of what it was running; the rolling road went ok however the bloke who did the run reckoned that the turbo was on its way out as a lot of smoke was coming from
Exhaust as the car went back down through the gears (the car made 286bhp on a bar of boost - again not overly clued up this bit yet).

Later on that night I got home and checked again and it seemed the dipstick was ever so slightly out and a tiny bit of oil seemed to have sprayed out (which once again thought was me, as I had shown some friends what I had done the first time and thought I'd been overly special and not put it back properly again!

Anyway the night before was out and when I came to a stop noticed my engine was smoking a considerable amount and in a panic turned it off and 'popped the hood' to see what horrible aftermath awaited me - I was greeted by my dipstick about half way out and all my oil everywhere once again. I refilled where I was and limped home where I checked all pipe work praying i would find a blockage somewhere so as to give me the answer to my jumping dipstick! Unfortunately nothing was blocked. All I found was a lot of fresh oil in the pipe leading to my recirc valve and the pile below the recirc valve ?

Either way (sorry for the novel and my relatively painful description!) do you guys reckon this is likely to be the pistons and what not ... I'm hopefully going to do a compression test tonight..

Thanks guys and girls !!...

 

[RsvRob]

Dipstick blown out equals pressure getting into the sump past the rings. Although a good few have problems blowing the dipstick out. But that's normally under more pressure than a bar.
New oil ring on the dipstick should help or get it tied down.

Pressure getting in the head under the cam cover would seem leaky valve stem seals. This would also bleed oil into the chamber.
Giving you burning oil and the smoke from exhaust.

Both rings and valve seals can be checked with a compression test.
Dyno guys couldn't diagnose that your turbo was on the way out because of the smoke. It could be rings or valve seals.

 

[TG21]

Thanks for such a quick reply.

Ah yes forgot to mention that oil rings on dipstick were replaced last night and drove home and no dipstick popping occurred.. Obviously unsure whether that has definitely cured the problem or not yet though.

So in the instance pressure is getting into the head what am I looking at realistically to fix the problem new valves and rings?? (Sorry for the noobish questions)

Thanks again!

 

[RsvRob]

Compression test will determine wether you have a big issue or not.
Then go from there. You may want to check the crank end play aswell.

If your thinking new rings then I'd reconsider and get a newer engine.

 

[TG21]

Compression test didnt come back great;

9 8 8 and 5 bar

On another note, unsure whether it would make a difference and probably clutching at straws, after going to see a friend who had a little look at it and has a 4 himself, we checked the oil filter (this problem didn't start till after the oil change was done) and the oil filter I have on mine was 2inches smaller than on his... Could this have any impact?

Thanks

 

[RsvRob]

I'd say no on the filter idea. You've already got results on the compression test. Which shows your problem. Fitting a different filter won't alter the compression.

 

[TG21]

Thanks RsvRob. New engine time I guess then!