Any help would be great. Hi guys, My 1997 (r-plate) escort 1.6 16v si started smoking blue during its emissions test, really bad @ approx 2500 rpm. , removed plugs and found no:- 3 cylinder full of oil, removed head and replaced all the valve stem seals on a whim hoping it wasn't rings lol decoked the head, re-lapped in the old valves and fitted new head gasket and retested. Still burning oil on n0:- 3 cylinder much to my dissapointment . I've been told I can't fit new rings as the bottom end cant be stripped down due to the nature of these engines when they are put together from new?? It's not worth a new engine obviously, just hoping someone has had the same issue or has any ideas? cheers for now.

have you cleaned the pcv system as a blocked system will blow oil past worn rings
The easy test is to lay a light piece of paper over the open oil filler
with the engine running at idle. If your PCV system is good and clear,
the paper should stay sucked to the opening. If it bounces off, you
likely have bad rings on at least one cylinder .. OR the PCV valve is
clogged.

Thanks mate will give that a go and let you know what the outcome is. Thanks for the reply. Jake

took off the oil filler cap and placed a piece of paper over the neck on idle would not stay on, took out pcv pipe and small valve and checked them ok, still smokes like a good'en, lol guess this beauty has had its day, shame as its got great body work excellent interior and i've just put on, new cat/front road springs/rear wheel bearing,lower arms/new tyres/rear wheel arches and cills, gutted its got to go to scrap after all that as it just aint worth another engine.

[quote name='kenko' post='32239' date='Jul 9 2009, 06:38 PM']took off the oil filler cap and placed a piece of paper over the neck on idle would not stay on, took out pcv pipe and small valve and checked them ok, still smokes like a good'en, lol guess this beauty has had its day, shame as its got great body work excellent interior and i've just put on, new cat/front road springs/rear wheel bearing,lower arms/new tyres/rear wheel arches and cills, gutted its got to go to scrap after all that as it just aint worth another engine.[/quote]

Id try these first,,,
do a compression test to establish if there is much compression and to rule out any warped / cracked head oil passages that could cause leaks,,

look for damage on bores if you have head off to see if the piston rings are snapped,,,
if they are snapped ( usually there will be scrapes on bores,,, its a new engine,,

heres the good news,,, if they arent snapped and are just worn i would try these two products ( they do work as I have tried them and checked the compression after a few hundred miles and its increased it ,, but depends how serverely low it is,,, anyway, get yourself to halfords and buy some holts piston sealer compression paste, its like black toothpaste stuff that seals up the piston when put down the plug hole thus increases compression after 50 miles driving,,,, also try amtech oil additive from ebay, it fills in all the scratches and rebuilds the metal surfaces youd need about 1 litre of it added to fresh oil and filter,, its not cheap though,,,

worth a try before buying a new engine!!

Ok, Done a compression test and all 4 cylinders look good- 175 psi accross the board. Got some holts piston sealer anyway and followed instructions- still got heavy blue smoke (bad). I would guess that if the piston rings had gone i would get poor/low compression on that cylinder? So kinda stuck for where to go next with it, susspect i'll have to take the head back off and inspect with a fine tooth comb this time although I don't expect to find anything Anyone any ideas lol

Going to put a second hand engine in on saturday form a ford breakers, £100, can live with that

Second hand engine in and running sweet, bit tapperty for about first 5 mins but settled down with new oil and filter (5w30).

Sound good buddy

Well done on the fix.