LT230 smoking like crazy.. Piston rings or something else?

[boughtmeablastr]

So i got this lt230 today for dirt cheap and it runs but smokes out of the exhaust and out of the manifold where the exhaust meets the head. I was told it was the piston rings, I took the head apart and the cylinder and piston and the valves look to be in greatshape, I can't tell if the piston rings are bad or not, I'm not sure what to look for. Is there anything else that it could be? Its also leaking a ton of oil where the exhaust meets the head (what's that called?) and the spark plug is about as nasty and black as i'veever seen one.I don't know what it could be besides the rings and i can't tell from looking if theyre bad or not. any ideas? Thanks for the help!

 

[Quadman1]

You probably have a leak where the exhaust goes into cylinder. Maybe a missing stud? And rings could be the problem if the valves looked good.

 

[boughtmeablastr]

You probably have a leak where the exhaust goes into cylinder. Maybe a missing stud? And rings could be the problem if the valves looked good.

What should I look for on the valves to make sure they're good? I didn't really inspect them. And is oil coming out where the exhaust meets the cylinder just a symptom of the possible bad rings or valve seal or is that a problem in and of itself?

 

[speedyslyder]

if it is burning engine oil it should be pretty apart.You will have less oil in crank case and be able to smel it.I would think if exhaust valves are bad it would not run so good,idle driving ect.If oil is coming out of a 4 stroke exhaust then obviously something is cracked or bad rings,What year is this,lt230

Compression test?

 

[boughtmeablastr]

if it is burning engine oil it should be pretty apart.You will have less oil in crank case and be able to smel it.I would think if exhaust valves are bad it would not run so good,idle driving ect.If oil is coming out of a 4 stroke exhaust then obviously something is cracked or bad rings,What year is this,lt230

Compression test?

I don't have a kit to compression test yet, it's. It's very dirty inside the exhaust valve. What would a bad ring look like? They look fine to me but I've never had one apart before to know the difference. I took a bunch of pics but the forum won't let me upload them. And it doesn't run well at all. Hard to start difficult to get it to idle or Rev up and bogs down bad once it's revved up enough to shift and move.

 

[boughtmeablastr]

But the problem with it bogging down and starting I assumed was because the spark plug is extremely fouled up

 

[harley1-5]

sounds like low compression,rings,valve guide seals should be replaced.Condition of bore head valves,and related parts shoukd also be checked

 

[speedyslyder]

30$ comp tester auto parts store,
you could measure the bore and ring end gap,but i doubt you got the tools for that lol.
either it is leaking oil past the rings or the exhaust valves,but it sounds to me that the top end needs to be rebuilt.
You need to resize the pic to 1mb or less to upload are you posting from a phone,tablet,labtop ??

 

[boughtmeablastr]

sounds like low compression,rings,valve guide seals should be replaced.Condition of bore head valves,and related parts shoukd also be checked

Is this what you're talking about when you say valve guide seals?http://m.ebay.com/itm/121033198178?nav=SEARCH
This is the first time I've had one apart and I'm not even sure what those are. Thanks for your help!

 

[boughtmeablastr]

30$ comp tester auto parts store,
you could measure the bore and ring end gap,but i doubt you got the tools for that lol.
either it is leaking oil past the rings or the exhaust valves,but it sounds to me that the top end needs to be rebuilt.
You need to resize the pic to 1mb or less to upload are you posting from a phone,tablet,labtop ??

I tried to post from pc and computer. They're about 5MB. I'll try to compress.

 

[speedyslyder]

if you upload them to tinypic,then copy the img code,then paste in thread it will work
LT230

 

[harley1-5]

those are valve guide seals,but most top end gasket sets have them included.My problem is I could show you how to install them[pretty simple actually]but cant explain

 

[boughtmeablastr]

those are valve guide seals,but most top end gasket sets have them included.My problem is I could show you how to install them[pretty simple actually]but cant explain

I'm sure I can find a video. Thanks!

 

[boughtmeablastr]

if you upload them to tinypic,then copy the img code,then paste in thread it will work
LT230
View attachment 10692

Thanks for the tip. Working on it now

 

[boughtmeablastr]

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=o6b4fs&s=8#.U6-Cr5RdU-o
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=27yrepv&s=8
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2envkll&s=8#.U6-EOZRdU-p <-exhaust port
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=125ielx&s=8#.U6-E7JRdU-o
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2z3qvjp&s=8#.U6-FYZRdU-o <-exhaust manifold
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=26032wk&s=8#.U6-F1JRdU-o

here's some of the pics i took of it. Let me know if any other pics would help. Thanks!

 

[harley1-5]

should be an east quad to fix

 

[boughtmeablastr]

should be an east quad to fix

I'm hopin so! Definitely a learning experience for me.

 

[harley1-5]

looks to me like a collapsed oil ring

 

[boughtmeablastr]

looks to me like a collapsed oil ring

Oil ring meaning piston ring?

 

[harley1-5]

yes the lower set[3 pieces]