what turbo please ????

[Jonny Wilkinson]

A sound CA engine is good for 320 bhp or more without upgrading the internals so there isn't much point fitting uprated pistons, rods, valves etc. Save the money and get more power by upgrading the fuel pump, boost controller, exhaust, air filter, plugs, chip, intercooler, turbo, injectors and AFM...in roughly that order.

[dotzero]

Nice one. I already have hdev stage 1 chip ,apexi filter, complete ss exhaust, colder plugs,walbro fuel pump. Would love to go stage 3 just not sure i can afford the extra bits with the rebuild and obviously the bigger turbo to boot aint cheap. Will update the thread when i saved some pennies though :-) thanks for all your help, gives me confidence with going forward from here.

[green_rs13]

I would rebuild it and fit a decent T28 and stage 2 chip at the same time. the stock wing mount will cope with that whilst you run it in/ be sensible with it till you can afford a front mount. id stick an aftermarket turbo elbow on it too at this point.

assuming your valves and valve seats are not knackered. you would be looking at these sort of parts and my guess at rough costings.

full OEM gasket set £150 (stock HG is fine and this set includes all new turbo gaskets) get off desa on here
oil pump rotor or a whole pump £80 desa again
water pump ( if current one is unknown) £30
cambelt kit £50
piston rings £30
big end and main bearings £80

then you have extra costs for things like getting the crank polished and getting the bores honed/de-glazed. the 'show stopper' will be if they are scored or worn.

TBh you could probably just rebuild the head your self and pay to get the bottom end rebuilt which would save a chunk of money. CA is a pretty basic engine. you would just need a valve spring compressor (£30) and a valve grinding sucker/paste (£5) a big plastic tub and some jizzer (£10)

ive seen worse compression results, I would be tempted to use it all summer then pull it to bits in the winter.

[Jonny Wilkinson]

If the cambelt isn't due for a change, the oil pressure is good, the rings/bores aren't worn and he doesn't mess with the big ends, I just saved him £240 right there

I would do the water pump and use a top end OEM gasket set...and the cambelt if its unknown or due using a Gates kit.

From what he has said, I don't think he could do the job himself. I had rebuilt bike and kart engines and even a Spitfire engine when I came to do mine and I was still glad of some tech support from my mate when it came to getting the cambelt lined up and lifting the head off etc. I also took shedloads of photos so I had some idea how to put it all back together.

Now I know my way around a CA, I'd happily tackle it but 20+ years of pissing about with them makes quite a difference.

[dotzero]

I appreciate the advice and encouragement but in all truth i have got 2 boys and a house I'm trying to renovate alongside working long hours so as much as i would love to do it to build my knowledge i just don't have the time. Turbo changes, the usual servicing bits brakes etc and fitting the stage 1 bits including the mentioned ss elbow are all no problem and i enjoy it but the rebuild is not something i want to start and then realise that it's to time consuming and most importantly wouldn't want to get it wrong. Jonny, i am due a cambelt change as well matey, what were your thoughts on stage 3 with a bigger turbo?

[green_rs13]

im gonna gamble that the rings are worn on a 20+ year old engine.

I bet a 'head rebuild' gasket set and 'turbo gaskets' are about the same as a whole gasket set.

I sometimes forget that just whipping an engine apart and rebuilding it is not second nature/an easy task to some people, I would be more nervous about making a decent lasagne than rebuilding a CA.

[Jonny Wilkinson]

Pretty sure the top end OEM gasket set includes tubby gaskets but not the sump/crank seal bits you get in a full set. Worth checking though.

Looking at your description of the problem and your compression results has made me think though...

White smoke suggests water is getting into the cylinder and being emitted as steam from the exhaust. The most likely place for that to come from is either head gasket or a warped or cracked head. Neither of those is going to get better if you put some oil down the bore though.

If the smoke is actually light grey smoke and smells, its more likely oil smoke from oil getting past the rings into the cylinder.

The rings can go for three reasons.

They can stick if the car is left standing and compression will be poor but can get better with use. This is the best scenario as all you have to do is drive the car.
The rings can just wear out. This will be a very gradual process and the deterioration and smoke will get worse over a period of months.
Detonation. If the car has been running lean or the timing is out or whatever, detonation can occur and this causes the ringlands to collapse leaving lumps of piston and rings rattling round inside the engine. This is very bad and usually pretty catastrophic happening over minutes rather than months.

So tell us more about your symptoms...

[dotzero]

ok, so on first start when the car is warming up it has white smoke. it's not excessive or anything but just seems a little more than usual and it also smells, to me it smells fumey and oily but it won't stay smoking all the time for example after a few miles the smoke is not present but the car still really smells from the exhaust. i have had a couple of s13's now and the others didn't smell at all. The car has 55k on it all original parts other than what i have fitted and it was garaged for a good few years before i bought it so it may have been left unstarted for this period of time. I've fully serviced it changed all the brakes, done a5 stud hub conversion, fiitted turbo back exhaust, air filter, walbro pump and drove it to hdev for a stage one chip and tune, they obviously felt the engine was healthy as they never mentioned on the health check there was anything wrong and it made 201bhp. I did mention the car being smelley to them and they agreed it stank but it was getting late in the day so they kinda just skirted round the issue when i was enquiring about it. the whole reason i put the thread up on here is because i felt the car was lacking a bit in power, for example asides from the start up smoke on full first boost of a drive it will kick out a bit of grey smoke but then after that it will boost with no smoke but the car doesn't really feel as though the turbo kicks in till about 4-4500 revs and feels a little sluggish leading up to that point. my heart dropped when the 4th cylinder registered at 7 because i genuinely thought the turbo was my issue and the oil seals might be gone on it. another thing to mention is that it doesn't seem to loose any water at all but i think it does use a bit of oil but i don't drive it to far to work so it's hard to tell really.

[green_rs13]

white smoke this time of year is probably just steam.

what year is it?
try unplugging the lambda

[dotzero]

1994 facelift and i know you usually get a bit of steam etc but it seems more than that and it shouldn't smell like it does. I'll try and put a youtube vid with link on the weekend :-)

[Jonny Wilkinson]

What does it smell of ?

Just wondering if you have a boost leak and that is causing rich running and late boosting. If its a fuely smell...

The other thing that occurs to me is what sort of petrol you have in the tank. Petrol that's gone off smells rank before and after its burned. If you have water and stale fuel in the tank that could explain the steam and smell.

Did you drain down the tank after it was left ?

[dotzero]

Got a couple of peeps at work to do the taste test and it smells a bit of both fuel and oil! You may on to something with the boost leek though as i gave it a good blat on the way home and the it sounded like pressure was escaping however the boost gauge read at 16-17 yet it was set to 15 by hdev! In answer to the fuel being stagnant, i have had the car for a year now and it is driven regularly on the go faster 97 ron optimax or tesco own version ( forgotten the name of it)

[Jonny Wilkinson]

My guess would be that you have a boost leak and maybe a broken ring on Cyl 4.

Tesco's 99 RON is pretty smelly stuff too as they put more ethanol into it to boost the octane.

[green_rs13]

find some one with a 'smoke tester' to check for boost leaks.

[dotzero]

Cool. From what's been said the ring on the 4th and boost leak sounds bang on an would explain how the car feels it think :-) thanks so much guys for all your help, it is really appreciated and although it's going to take me quite a while to save for the engine work i will update the thread when I've found a garage to do a smoke tester ( or can you buy one? )