Thread: White smoke from breather and oil drops formed

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Heres another idea. I looked into what causes pistons to crack and one of the reasons was pre ignition. Everytime i set timing, i could never get my balancer and light to line up. It would die if i got too close to tdc. So it was running best about idk.... 20-25 degrees before tdc. I know for a FACT i lined the cam and crank correctly. Zero advance or retard.

Originally Posted by Jakemstar

Heres another idea. I looked into what causes pistons to crack and one of the reasons was pre ignition. Everytime i set timing, i could never get my balancer and light to line up. It would die if i got too close to tdc. So it was running best about idk.... 20-25 degrees before tdc. I know for a FACT i lined the cam and crank correctly. Zero advance or retard.

Pre-ignition has a very noticeable and distinct rattle like sound that gets worse under load(acceleration). Usually if severe enough to break pistons there is other noticeable damage that goes along with it, such as melting, pitting and metal spots fused to the plugs and similar damage to the piston tops. And while it is possible to break pistons due to this, it is highly unlikely it would be just on one bank.
Depending on the cam and other specs of the motor, 20degrees initial timing may be ok. However your total timing should not exceed 40 degrees (36 - 38 is usual under most circumstances). And, initial and total timing is checked without vacuum advance hooked up.

No guarantees, if the bore has problems it will probably happen again. Honing can't fix everything, beg or borrow a micrometer and check the bores. You can get a pretty good idea where the bore is using a compression ring, pushing it into the bore using your piston flipped over to guide the ring square in the bore, check with feeler gauges at the ring gap in numerous places up and down the bore (they should read the same).
And, as Jerry said, this could have been caused by the piston install. If the rings weren't compressed correctly or the compression tool was not lined up, or the bore top is tapered (too aggressive with a ridge reamer), it can allow the rings to escape jamming the piston. Also not oiling the piston and rigs before installing the ring compressor can cause binding and failures. And tap, not hammer the pistons in. Hammering the pistons in under any circumstances will damage the pistons. Using the wooden handle of a rubber mallet will work well for this, with just a few brisk taps from the palm of your hand the piston should go into the bore. If you need more force, something is wrong.
Again I'm not trying to be mean, just you need to slow down and learn a little more, thus the reason I suggested some books for you to study. It's better to be prepared with knowledge than to guess and suffer the consequences.
Once you have a better understanding of how it all works together you'll have a lot less trouble and you'll understand any guidance when you have difficulties (before there is problem like the pistons).

Again everyone thank you so much for your advice and patience. I used exactly that, a wooden handle on my rubber mallet. All went in quite easily. And no, if those are the symptoms of pre ignition then i had none of these symptoms

Curious, were the piston new?