Have you ever bought something new and right away your old reliable gadget or machine throws a fit and starts nagging.. Its like they have feelings and are aware of their master.. and I think its true

My daily driver of 9 years just did that.. Within 2 weeks of buying a 3rd car - she decides to throw a fit on my way back home from work... bellows white smoke and lost power (almost felt like was running on 2 or 3 cylinders)..

Got it towed and now have been meddling with it for a few hours..

Here is a "nice" pic of dense white smoke from the tail pipe after keying off..




Here are my observations / tests performed:
0. white smoke with a cold engine - starts smoking right away (eliminates turbo bearing seals) and says it should be happening during combustion stroke.
1. drained all oil - clean - but a bit too dark for oil that has barely 20 miles on it (also eliminates head gasket failures or any scuffing.. i guess)
2. all 4 injectors clicking - used a injector pulse generator ( elminiates a stuck open injector)
3. Rev changes not noticed when spark plug 1 (drivers side) disconnected (Probably the problem cylinder)
4. Replaced plug - no change - problem persists
5. checked for sparking from coils - all 4 spark to ground
6. Almost a puddle of liquid sitting on top of piston bowl (remaining 3 piston bowls are dull black) - Picture of Cyl 1 attached - you can see the reflection of the lamp
7. Spark plug for Cyl 1 is wet - kind of oil wet..
8. Spark plug of Cyl 2 is also a bit wet - seems like oil.

Pic of Piston1 top from spark plug hole :


Overall seems like oil entering the combustion chamber in 1 or 2 cylinders.

Are we thinking leaky valve seats? What should I be looking for?
Any pointers to help me go forward really appreciated ...

I will be performing a leak test and compression test tomorrow / Saturday on all 4. Will keep you guys posted on the results.

 

I don't see a modlist....but if I had to go based off what you're seeing(and if you are actually seeing oil, not coolant) I'm going to guess you broke the piston in cyl 1. Valve seals don't really create a lot of oil, and don't create enough to cause a misfire or puddles.

If it's coolant in cylinder I'll go hgasket possibility, but if oil-it's a piston.

 

White smoke is coolant, blue smoke is oil. That looks like oil in the cylinders though. Best case spark plug valve cover seals. Leak down, dye in oil and coolant would be my next step.

 

+1

 

Looks like the valve seals might be bad. I would pull the valve cover off and check the seals to determine if that's the issue.

Leakdown will show cylinders 1 and 2 are leaking. Compression numbers will also be skewed due to the same issue.

 

It will also help to pin point where the leak is occurring though (as I am sure you know).

 

What about no 3 and no 4?

Pics of plugs?

 

Leak down test will reveal if it’s coolant. I believe you said it smokes right away...a leak down test will push air into your coolant and the level will rise or bubbles will form. Make sure your rad cap is off, or a coolant pressure tester is on it so you can keep an eye on it.

More like your sixth sense knew your Evo was about to have problems, so you instinctively acquired another vehicle!

 

compression and leakdown test.

 

Firstly thank you the valuable feedback.

I did not think about the coolant system and watching out for bubbles is a brilliant pointer. Thanks drive955i.

Pics of plugs were not spectacular - I had swapped out the problem cylinder with a new one when troubleshooting - 1 is wet and 2 is a bit sooty and mildly wet.
update 2:

Started with a compression test today and I pulled out all 4 plugs.
performing it cold- I would not hit the thresholds for compression pressure, but I was hoping the delta between cylinders should help gauge the issue.

Started with Cylinder 4 - which meant Cyl 1 was open to atmosphere. Started cranking for 5 seconds and noticed spurts of fluid shooting out of Cyl1 ..

Repeated it again in case it was some remnants - but the second time - it was shooting out like a sputtery hose.. its FUEL !!!!

Injector plugs were disconnected and therefore not firing and it still was hosing the cylinder down.

Got 60 lbh mototrons with ~100K miles on it !!! Guess its time for a new set.

 

That’s great (kind of)!
At least it’s not head gasket/warped deck issues, like Ford’s got going on with the Focus RS. See, your car’s a decade and a half older, but STILL more reliable! It’s our modifications that’s unreliable.

 

Off topic but the RS head gasket issue was because they installed the wrong one from the factory. Ford is replacing all of the head gaskets at no charge. Besides that the car is very reliable.

 

So long as you count going into 2wd randomly a reliable state.

 

Lol, don't think it's random but ok

It is definitely not a mechanical driven awd.