[roughx021]

I recently purchased my first 04 SE-R. It's not on the road yet, but I've been cleaning it up slowly. It has 135,000 miles, CAI and Stillen muffler and stock precat. I seafoamed it, changed spark plugs, valve cover and gasket. I did a compression test and got 150 lbs for each cylinder. My issue is the smoke that is coming from exhaust. White smoke came out for days, which I assumed was from seafoam, but now I get a mix of white and black smoke. I'm hoping its not the head gasket. I don't see any sign of coolant in the oil. Does anyone have an idea of what the issue may be or what I can do to check? There is also no check engine light. Here is a quick video of the smoke:

http://s234.photobucket.com/user/roughx021/media/SentraExhaust_zps8f5fb2de.mp4.html

 

[i68k]

black smoke can be crap from the seafoam burning thru, but seeing you have a stock precat, i would almost say your rings are fried. you should be up around 175-180psi. do you notice any missing coolant or oil? are you using cheap gas? moisture also comes out as white smoke. my usual tell tale sign is, if the smoke is black now, when you change the oil to fresh clean oil, does it change the smoke from black to blueish-black?

 

[roughx021]

Ti thought stock compression was supposes to be around 144 psi? I'm not missing any coolant but oil was low. I'll do an oil change and see if the color changes. If i gut out my precat or replace with headers, will the amokibg stop, or do I have to replace engine?

 

[i68k]

if you had consistent readings on all cylinders, sometimes its the compression tool itself not calibrated correctly. if you look in the fsm, the max psi is 182, and the minimum recommended is 154psi, where there should be less than 14psi difference between cylinders.

if it was your precat that failed your repair maybe too late. it most likely already sucked in the ceramic material, which would fry your piston rings, causing excessive oil consumption. if anything with a gut or headers, you might get more smoke that will pass thru the exhaust unfiltered. sorry to say, but black smoke almost always comes from the motor. i mean, you may only need a rebuild, not necessarily replace the motor, but it is another option.

you must keep an eye on your oil, make sure you take multiple oil level readings, as the first few readings are false-positives.

 

[roughx021]

Thanx, you have been very informative.