my builder said there is no way the motor could have a major drop in power if the leakdown, compression and timing are right. He said if a sleeve was messed, coolant would be going and it would not hold compression properly.

 

He is wrong my man. Scored sleeve would not cause a coolant leak. Broken ring lands or broken rings do not cause coolant leaks. Loud noise until motor is warm? That is piston to sleeve most likely. The piston is loose till it get up to temp.

 

and this could be causing a ~25%+ drop in power?

 

yes there is a ticking noise until its warm, but it was only on the 4-6 side...

 

oops, the cylinders were mislabeled...4 and 5 are the problem cylinders

 

i wonder why the car is only smoking upon startup...if the pistons were messed up wouldn't it always smoke?

 

Do you see all the oil on the ports? that not just a start up smoke show.. When the initial oil that pooled in the cylinder is gone then its just what ever get by after that. I know it hurts bro but your motor needs to get torn down.

 

I just want it fixed...i guess i will go ahead and send back to my builder and work it with him. I sent him the same pics I sent you and he doesn't think anything is wrong.

 

..Agreed,,that sound right Tim..
If there was no noise,then with all that oil in the ports you might have been lucky with guides or seals..
Sorry..

 

it was the guides/seals, wouldn't that show up in the leakdown?

so if a piston ring was messed and/or sleeve is scored, wouldn't compression be off?

 

No, guides and seals wouldnt show UNLESS the guides/valve stems are SO loose to hinder the valve seal at the seats,not a common problem, especially on a new rebuild unless the head guy scews up.Which would also give another type of sound off..
Not that bad because its building pressure after all those revolutions of the motor spinning AND oil is filling those scratches to seal the cylinders..Also a cylinder that is not bored straight,has a taper,shows the same.
I sometimes have to do leak down tests with the piston in different spots to determine the cylinder condition..

 

if it was just the valve guide/seals that were leaking, that wouldn't cause my large decrease in power right? Only a internal piston problem could cause that?

The car has the 102mm mahle pistons with steel liners, so I do not see how the steel liners could get messed up so quickly.

 

my builder said that scored or broken rings would smoke all the time and not just on start up.... These also DO show in a leak down as blow by to the case, bad valves show leak down to the intake or exhaust as to which ones are bad. To loose HP the cylinders would have either be getting to much blow by to the case under pressure or even with a leak down as an NA car. The blow by would cause excessive crankcase pressure and cause oil to blow by the seals etc.

 

Ben who built the motor?
I think the motor should go back to the builder, and have him take it apart like tim said , and your builder has to make things right.

 

i do not want to mention names right now

i do plan to ship it back to builder tomorrow

as for making it right...it will be very hard to work out as my builder highly dislikes my mechanic