what do you all think?
is this a decent test or is it not going to tell me anything usefull?


i was told to test to rings to see if i fried them by doing this.
i was to take the head off the car and have the piston exposed.
then add very light engine oil into the cylinder.
leave it over night.
now im not sure about this next step. it was too clear on what i am looking for.
but the oil either should leak very little or non at all over night.

i did do it last night and some did go through to the pan.
not all just some.
i did move the piston up and down by turning the balancer. just to get an even coat on the walls cause they were rusting.

i am basically tryint to see if i need to take out the piston for further inspection after some overheating and probably detonation.

taking out the oil pan is a huge thing on my car. i have to remove the tranny. to remove the tranny i need to take the engine out first. and before that i need to remove all the parts to take out the engine.
why?
honda decided to block a small portion of the oil pan with the bottom part of the tranny.
so far i do have some of the stuff off. the hard parts are the tranny part so im really not too sure what to do at this point.

I would say if your engine doesn't work after overheating it, you tried a new head gasket already, still bad, you need a new engine.

Also for major work it is much easier to just pull the engine/tranny as a unit and work on it outside the car. Actually quite simple once you know how.

have not put in new headgasket yet.

since i have it all apart right now i thought i would just save the headache from retaking it all apart again, to just check it now.

i have taken this engine out before.
so i have the knowledge of how painfull this process is.

thats a stupid test. piston rings have a certain amount of gap to them, when the engine is cold, that gap is at its largest, so unless the engine is at operating temp, oil is going to seep through. the best quick and dirty test ive found for rings, is with the motor assembled, you do a compression test, then back it up with an identical test right after pouring a few drops of oil into the spark plug hole. if the compression goes up noticeably with the oil, your rings are going.

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Yes, there's a "Replacement for Displacement". Its called Volumetric Efficiency.

that makes sense. i just wanted to make sure before i slap it all back together or take it apart further.

im about half way either way.

to take out the oil pan i have to take out the tranny or at least move it over about a foot.
that alone is going to be a pain in the ass.
cause that requires me to take out the engine too.

Do not take it apart further. Put a new head gasket in and see how it runs first. By the way, the tranny can be removed without removing the engine. This is the normal procedure for clutch or transmission service.

i am worried that if i dont take out the pistons that it ill have to do it again and i wont have the time to go that route. since i have the whole thing pratically apart, that i should just at least check out the pistons and rings.

i have a 91 civic with 4wd. the casing has a lower portion that is under the oil pan. the pan has bolts as well as studs comming out of the block. when i took off all the bolts and nuts i cant slide out the pan.

my plan of attack is to take it out this time but remove the studs. that way if i ever need to get to the piston and rods i just need to take the bolts out and then slide the pan out. but for right now the pan is stuck, till i take out the tranny or that section of the tranny.

to properly test your piston rings you should get a compression tester and take out the spark plug to whatever cylinder you are testing and disable the ignition by means of removing a relay to the fuel pump or ignition . crank the engine for about 3 to 4 sec see if the compression reading on the meter is uup to spec if it is and does not drop after a few secs or if it does not hold pressure you can test the rings by squirting oil in the clyinder and if it holds pressure or does not drop the rings are bad becasue the oil filled the gap between the cylinder wall and the rings. if you squirt the oil in the cylinder and compression test it and it still does not hold pressure then you know you have a potential vavle problem , head damage, or gasket. hope it helps

nice thanks it does. ill have to get the tools before i can use the techniq.

thanks again.