Hello folks,

I am looking for some advice on what to start checking with my 2009 MCS.

Here's a brief description of what happened. I was driving along one day and I wanted to get around another motorist so I romped on the gas. I felt the car lose power and MASSIVE amounts of smoke started blowing out the exhaust pipe. I limped it to the auto parts store and (probably mistakenly but I was stressing out) dumped two quarts of oil in it and limped it home because I couldn't afford to have it towed.

So... The dipstick currently shows too much oil. There is coolant in the reservoir. The oil looks like oil and not all milky and stuff. The car will start and run if I keep on the gas but as soon as I let off it dies. It still blows a ton of smoke.

I read it could be the turbo so I started pulling off intake hoses. All of them seem to have a little bit of oil in them. I then read it could be the PCV valve so I pulled both hoses off the intake and started it. It blows a ton of smoke out of both tubes.

I know enough to be dangerous but admittedly I don't really know anything. I'm looking for a little direction on how to diagnose my car. Please take it easy on me folks! I'm just trying to get my only set of wheels back on the road.

Thank you in advance to anyone who responds for your time and advice.

Eric

 

I would start with draining the oil and put fresh oil in. Then, was there any codes thrown? CEL flashing? Engine light on tachometer displayed indicating it was in limp mode or was it just power was low and felt like a limp mode? Could have smoked depending on carbon build up. If you don't, or previous owner did not get on the vehicle every now and again, it could have excessive carbon that once you got on it, burned and blew it out. Since you say it's not running, I would say it would be something pcv related as like it's getting too much air to idle. Which is probably caused when you disconnected the pcv hoses. Start with basics though. Hopefully can figure it out!

 

Thanks for the reply!Hi everyone,



I eliminated the turbo and PCV as the cause of all the smoke so I borrowed a compression tester and the stupid 12 point spark plug socket. Cylinders 1, 2, and 3 all read 150 plus/minus 2 psi. Cylinder 4 however reads a paltry 27 psi so clearly something is seriously wrong in that hole. When doing the test on that cylinder I can hear a little woof out the exhaust where the other cylinders I could clearly detect a compression stroke.I stuck an endoscope down the spark plug hole and found that there is a nice pool of oil on top of the piston. Like a significant pool.... I can't even see the dome part of the piston.



I could be wrong but I don't think that much oil would come from bad rings so it has to be coming from the top. Could bad valve seals or a stuck valve cause this? Possibly a head gasket?



Looking for ideas on what to look for next or what could possible be wrong with my little car.



Thanks in advance for your time and advice!



Eric T.

 

This is the #3 piston out of my N14.



Other than excess (1 qt/~500 miles) oil consumption, the car ran rather well until I experienced exactly what you described in post #1. Accelerating up a hill, power loss, massive smoke, etc.

I would suggest you have two options at this point. You can do a leakdown test to help pinpoint if you're losing compression through valves or rings. Or - you will be pulling the head regardless of the result of the leakdown test, so you could probably skip that test and just pull the head to evaluate the damage.

My piston failure appears to be a result of detonation. The excess oil consumption effectively lowers the octane of the fuel and causes massive pressure spikes in the combustion chamber. Were you burning much oil?

Head gaskets don't seem to be a common failure on these engines. I have seen pictures of exhaust valves with chunks of metal missing, but that wouldn't necessarily cause the pool of oil you're seeing on top of the piston.

Good luck!