Major Engine Problem

[Treachery]

What the hell happened?

A few days after properly disposing a Lexus G37 (nice car!), my '93 Mustang GT (mods in my signature - 120,000+ miles) started to have troubles. It started to leak oil kinda all over and "miss"; you can hear the engine miss a little during idle and it would sputter or "pop" when shifting. White smoke is also blowing through the tailpipe. It does not smell like burning oil, at least to me but i would assume that it is because oil levels drop after a short while.

While changing spark plugs, much to my dismay, I discovered that the #5 cylinder spark plug is oiled up pretty good. Also the header pipe that attaches to the #5 cylinder exhaust port is discolored brown. I went ahead and finished changing spark plugs,changed the O2 sensors and turned on the engine for long while reving it every now and then and i also drove it around. You can hear it engine miss and pop and sputter. The engine's timing is OK, TPS sensor is OK and all plumbing appears to be tight and secured. When reving the engine, the same white smoke blows through the tail pipe and it would still pop and sputter when shifting gears.

I am no professional mechanic but I am very tempted work on this, myself. I would definitely learn a thing or two. I've studied this car in and out since the beginning & i believe i have the necessary resources - like StangNet - in case i run into problems.

Questions:
Does this sound like a blown headgasket or #5 cylinder piston ring problem? Both?

Can the piston rings be changed without tearing deep into the engine?

What tools other than the usual garage tools would i need?

Thanks for reading.

 

[jrichker]

Cylinder balance test:
Warm the car's engine up to normal operating temperature. Use a
jumper wire or paper clip to put the computer into test mode. Start
the engine and let it go through the normal diagnostic tests, then
quickly press the throttle to the floor. The engine RPM should exceed
2500 RPM's for a brief second. The engine RPM's will increase to about
1450-1600 RPM and hold steady. The engine will shut off power to each
injector, one at a time. When it has sequenced through all 8 injectors,
it will flash 9 for everything OK, or the number of the failing cylinder
such as 2 for cylinder #2. Quickly pressing the throttle again up to
2500 RPM’s will cause the test to re-run with smaller qualifying figures.
Do it a third time, and if the same cylinder shows up, the cylinder is
weak and isn’t putting out power like it should. See the Chilton’s Shop
manual for the complete test procedure

Here's the link to dump the computer codes with only a jumper wire
or paper clip and the check engine light, or test light or voltmeter.
I’ve used it for years, and it works great.

See Troublcodes.net Trouble Codes OBD & OBD2 Trouble Codes and Technical info & Tool Store. By BAT Auto Technical

[

If your car is an 86-88 stang, you'll have to use the test lamp or voltmeter method. There is no functional check engine light on the 86-88's except possibly the Cali Mass Air cars.

89 through 95 cars have a working Check Engine light. Watch it instead of using a test lamp.

Do a compression test on all the cylinders.
Take special note of any cylinder that shows up as weak in the cylinder
balance test. Low compression on one of these cylinders rules out the
injectors as being the most likely cause of the problem. Look at cylinders
that fail the cylinder balance test but have good compression. These
cylinders either have a bad injector, bad spark plug or spark plug wire.
Move the wire and then the spark plug to another cylinder and run the
cylinder balance test again. If it follows the moved wire or spark plug,
you have found the problem. If the same cylinder fails the test again,
the injector is bad. If different cylinders fail the cylinder balance test,
you have ignition problems or wiring problems in the 10 pin black &
white electrical connectors located by the EGR.

How to do a compression test:
Only use a compression tester with a screw in adapter for the spark
plug hole. The other type leaks too much to get an accurate reading.
Your local auto parts store may have a compression tester to rent.
If you do mechanic work on your own car on a regular basis, it would
be a good tool to add to your collection.

With the engine warmed up, remove all spark plugs and prop the
throttle wide open, crank the engine until it the gage reading stops
increasing. On a cold engine, it will be hard to tell what's good &
what's not. Some of the recent posts have numbers ranging from
140-170 psi. If the compression is low, squirt some oil in the cylinder
and do it again – if it comes up, the rings are worn. There should be
no more than 10% difference between cylinders. Use a blow down
leak test (puts compressed air inside cylinders) on cylinders that
have more than 10% difference.

See the link to my site for details on how to build your own blow
down type compression tester.