Ivan_B

If it keeps leaking - yes you are. But regardless of what it is, you are likely looking at a rather time-consuming project. I would just watch your fluid levels and keep driving it.

I most certainly did not. The piston rings were okay, despite the end-gap being out of specs. The head gasket also seems okay. The only plausible explanation, at this time, is valve stem seals. These appeared somewhat well-used. Speaking about valve stem seals - I managed to waste all 16 of them, last week. I meticulously put them on, and then realized that I forgot to install the valve spring spacer washers, which go onto the stem and do not fit over the seals. What an unintelligent thing to do... 🙄😒 I even managed to take one of them off, almost without damaging it in the process, but figured out that I do not want to take any chances with these. So I had to order another set. Hopefully my new-new stem seals will come tomorrow and I'll finally put this thing back together.

Things are moving slowly. The 2 new exhaust valves are arriving today, and it is going back together 😏

This is a regular injection. The intake ports are washed with gas, the exhaust ones had plenty of carbon which was very difficult to clean. Just discovered that #1 both exhaust valves are bent. I guess I should've checked all of them right away 😒

This is impact... I also did not find anything except the markings on the head and pistons. IT was something hard, irregularly-shaped (all marks are different) and quite large. I am thinking - maybe a plug electrode tip? 😒

Just a little update: ordered bout $400 in parts (gaskets, rings, tappets) and started putting things back together. Here is a picture of the damaged head surfaces.

Well, you can fabricate a replacement for the broken hinge part, or weld a new piece of metal to the existing hinge.

Here is what the 1940 clips look like, for reference. So I agree with the previous suggestion about potentially having something highly custom going on with your clips...

Yep, you can clearly see the broken edge 😅

True... And the walls look good... 🙄 I don't know, the back of the valves looked dry to me (images shared on the previous page). I'll replace the seals, anyway, already got the valves removed... Also, noticed first problems when cleaning the head: cylinders 1 and 2 have signs of damage from foreign items inside the chamber. No major failure but something was definitely going on in there, at some point 😑 I have yet to remove and inspect the pistons + rings.

Do you mean to put the head upside-down and pour some liquid on top of the valves? Sure, this will be part of the testing I'll do. Another part will be to fill the intake/exhaust ports with liquid and see if it leaks out through the valves The intake valves are at the bottom on my image. The intake valves are clean from the back side (washed with injected gas spray) while dirty at the front. The exhaust are cleaner at the front (due to higher working temp?) but are very dirty on the back. I'll need to clean the back of the valves and the exhaust ports, which is a lot of work I am not looking forward to 🫠 Sure, these can be lapped in the usual manner, to a certain point, until you need the new valves/seats 😅 That is true, there is a known condition where the PCV will push some oil into the intake. But my oil appears to be coming from within the combustion chamber itself, unfortunately. The intake manifold is relatively clean, and the issue mainly affects the #1 cylinder, which is literally filling with oil quite rapidly. Some of the other ones are a bit oily too, but not enough to foul the plug and generate a misfire. Yes, this is the dreaded multiair brick, which controls the variable valve timing. Mine still works alright and appears to be in good condition. It is sitting underneath the valve cover and has no direct connection to the combustion chamber. It just drives the intake valves, in the usual fashion.

Okay, my "tomorrow" might've been a bit too optimistic, since it take some time to disassemble this engine. The head is off. I did not notice any obvious issues, at this point. I'll replace the stem seals, since I am in there, but will probably be able to leave the valves as is, assuming that they are not leaking. The headgasket also looks normal. Thus far, It seems that the rings are the only thing left. It is somewhat unexpected that the problem only affects one cylinder, though 🙄

The flush did not help. The car starts-up fine, then warms up and starts to miss at idle. Upon further inspection, cylinder 1 has oil inside. I do not see any obvious points where it is dripping from, so I have a pretty strong feeling it is the rings. I believe that I've effectively (or not so much) exhausted all of the other non-invasive diagnostics. Oh well, the head is coming off tomorrow.

Los, no such thing intended... Your feedback is very valuable! And, I must point out, this is a somewhat difficult case. Otherwise I would've resolved it a long time ago. A customer service rep., here, usually knows what to do 🙃 These engines use a layered all-metal gasket. I've watched a couple of videos of these being removed, and I cannot see anything. It is not one of those cases where you actually see a missing chunk, I am afraid I did consider swapping another engine into it, the cheapest I could find was about $1k and far away. If I junk the entire car, I'll get about as much for it. And a working car is maybe worth $4-5. But I like it, and was planning to use it... Merci. J'avais également cru comprendre qu'une fuite entre les deux cylindres sur un 4 cylindres ordinaire créerait une situation de non-compression.

But wait, there is always an alternative: I can replace just the head gasket and it does not fix the issue... If I am taking the head off, I think it would be very much advisable to pull the rings as well, right? 😆 That could be the case, but I am pretty sure that 1 and 2 are at the different (opposite) strokes, so I do not believe that we have a condition where they are both closed at the same time 🙄

Okay, good point. There are oil passages between the cylinders, I am just not sure whether or not those are under pressure or not. I'll dry the cylinders, later today, and try to crank it for an extended period of time without plugs. If the oil is leaking from a blown head, I should probably see the two cylinders filling up again. It make sense for the oil to leak while the car was stationary. The problem is, it was misfiring on idle, and sometimes after driving it for a while too. So the oil that was leaking in there while the car was off must've been long gone by that time. Nevertheless, something was actively fouling that plug causing the misfire. When I did take the plug out, later on, it was visibly wet with oil. The compression was like 195, 195, 205, 205, top. That was a cold engine cranking like 6-8 times. I also checked it according to the manufacturer specs: above 100 on 3 cranks. Did not bother with all of them, but 1 and 2 were like 140-150, well above the minimum mark. Based on this info, I was really looking forward to those valve stem seals, but I did not find obvious signs of leaks

It's a bit of a conundrum, here. On one hand, I would like to fix this the proper way and also check the valves and clean the combustion chamber, while I am in there. On the other hand, I am afraid that once I take the head off I'll find more problems and things being out of specs, which I really do not want to deal with 😅 I've had this car for a couple of years, for seldom spare use. I did 2-3 oil changes on it myself... It was not maintained very well, but the insides of the engine (underneath the valve cover) appeared much better than I expected.

I've finally had a chance to do a bit more troubleshooting (because it was awfully cold in the garage, lately) 😁 Turned 1 and 4 to TDC and poured some diesel into both cylinders. After some time, I confirmed that the diesel is leaking out of 1 at a faster rate (through the rings, I assume). So, at this point, I should either get some new rings and a head gasket, or, maybe try to soak/flush the cylinders with more diesel to see if, maybe, I can clean-out a potentially stuck oil ring 😒

I've had a flight canceled, today, due to all reasonably local ports being closed (for lack of snow plows?) 😔

You Betcha... 5 feet of snow is nothing, right?😁 Down here, we've got a couple of inches, most of people probably never seen it, there are a total of 0 snow plows in the city, and many struggle to walk (let alone drive) because the pavement is clearly obstructed by alien matter. Now, those folks who came down for a vacation, from up north, are really disappointed... 🤣

North Dakota Experience... Enjoy it while you can 😂

I just made a snowman 😅

@Dave72dt the plug wells were certainly oily, when I first started troubleshooting this problem. But I did clean them out before taking the plugs out, and also cleaned the coils, etc. After some more test-driving, compression testing, etc., the wells weren't oily anymore. So this is not it, I am afraid Update: I removed the intake manifold (this was considerably more difficult than anticipated, but I did it). Also removed the exhaust. I am not seeing any obvious signs of the stem leaks. So, the puddle must be coming through the rings or the head gasket. I'll try to spin the car cold, tomorrow, to see if I can generate an active leak... Or maybe pour something into a couple of cylinders to see how fast it seeps through the rings... 🙄

This is the Chrysler 1.4 multiair, non-turbo (2012 Dart, etc.) 😁 https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DypxEkt33Ytw I am unaware about any special circumstances about it. There is an air-oil separator box, sitting on top, but that thing is supplying the crank gasses to all the cylinders, not just the first two. In addition, there should be no oil in the intake, except the crank ventilation fumes.

I did not even think about this, that way, thank you for bringing this to my attention. Indeed, there is a liquid puddle of oil in 1 & 2. I suspect that the amount that can seep through the rings would've been burned-off. While, if the rings were leaking that much it would idle like a tractor (which it does not). I'll try to take the intake manifold off, later today, to check what the intake stems look like.