What are some typical signs of worn or bad piston rings?

 

smoking, loss of power.
do a compression check, and see if a cylinder is lower.


what is the problem?

 

put a little oil in the cylinder and if compression goes back up its rings

 

Thanks guys.

The car, while idling is producing what seems to be white smoke. There's no smell of coolant and there's no mixture of oil and coolant.

We compression tested the motor and it was 160 across the board.

Any ideas?

 

if it only smokes when you roll into the throttle, its likely worn valve guide seals.

 

No, it actually smokes while idling just from it sitting there.

Maybe a bad turbo seal?

 

good possibility.

 

This is what I figure....

If it's the head gasket - There has to be smell of coolant in the fumes and if there's indeed a blown hg, then there should be some mixture of fluids.

If it's the rings, there has to be a cylinder that's low on compression.

Are those pretty good assumptions?

 

well, alot of times a blown headgasket wont mix fluids.
or at least not enough to see.

rings- there should be a low cylinder.

 

Understand about the mixing of fluids on the hg. But the amount of smoking coming from the exhaust is pretty serious. Therefore, if the hg was blown, I'd think it be a serious hole.

Another observation I made was that if it's indeed the hg, then the coolant level should be low, or at least lower then what it was at. It's not, it's still topped of.