I took the head off today because the engine is blowing heaps of smoke and getting worse.

Heres a picture of what I found. http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/drekkus/engine.html

Hardly suprising its blowing heaps of smoke but wheres the oil coming from.?
Compression is quite good and even across all cylinders.If the rings were bad enough to let that much oil past would I still get good compression?

compression wouldnt be marvelous.. but then again it could be something that happens when the motor is really warm, or the opposite.. there could be some sort of leak in the hole the valve goes through.. which could be letting oil in when it opening, and still closing up giving good compression?

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Potato

I would simply get the head recoed and see how it goes. It's something you need to do if ya rebuild the engine, so if it doesn't fix the problem, atleast you wont have to do the head when the engine gets done.

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That was the way I was looking at going but I thought I would get some opinions as well.

The compression rings control the compression.
The oil rings control the oil.
You can have excelent compression and blow a heap of oil.
You can have very little compression and use no oil.

As thier is Oil pooling ontop of the pistons I'd say the Oil rings have gone....which would mean a rebuild..my 2c

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Stop Licking the Dog...I Don't Care Who Started It

Could have happened when he took the head off... the head still holds a bit of oil just sitting there.

No not that much pooling

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Stop Licking the Dog...I Don't Care Who Started It

He may have shaky hands?

sounds to me that the valve seats are gone and oil s running down them onto the pistons oil collets in the head around the top of each valve could be shot to just guess though

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Cheers Dan

FIRST COMES THE MONEY, THEN COMES THE POWER, THEN COMES THE WOMEN.!!

Oil control Rings for sure. I seen that when old engines run synthetic as well as it can beat the oil rings on worn bores.

If it is oily after sitting overnight it's probably the valve stem seals or the valve guides are worn.

If it runs smokey then it's the rings or something else

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

I doubt the head would account for enough oil loss to cause that appearance on the pistons. A reconditioned head is likely to put even more load on worn rings and compound the problem. I have a strong hunch there are ring problems here.

Al

The valve stem seals were replace a couple of months ago at the same time as the extractors were fitted.There was a small amount of smoke at the time usually on start up which is why I replaced the seals.Its just progessively got worse until theres no way you could drive it.
I'm starting to tend towards the rings as being the problem but I can live in hope its just the head.If I do end up having to have the engine rebuit then the head might as well be done.
So I'll get the head recoed or a known good one and see what happens.It will only cost me some new gaskets and some time.
I was going to rebuild my original engine at some stage so it could be sooner than I thought but I really don't want to pull the engine unless I have to, too much of a pain.