[baritb]

One of my friends, who is a Honda mechanic, mentioned something to me and I wanted to know what people think. I've been suspicious that my engine is burning a little oil when it's in the higher RPM range...i get some smoke out of the exhaust and, although I can't really see it that well because I'm driving the car, it looks kinda blue. My friend said that sometimes the piston seals will leak or get damaged when a forced induction system is added to an engine that was designed to be naturally aspirated. I honestly can't see how positive manifold pressure would affect the pressure inside the cylinder. Anyone have any thoughts on this? And if the piston seals are leaking or damaged, how easy of a fix would it be?

p.s. i have a V6 with a PES supercharger

 

[Macabre]

Positive manifold pressure most definitely influences cylinder pressures and temperatures to a GREAT extent. That's what gives you more power! It's certainly possible that your setup has lead to damaged piston rings, and it's pretty reasonably to expect that adding ~100hp to a motor without changing the internals is going to reduce its' lifespan.

The first step is for you to have a compression test performed.

 

[baritb]

what does a compression test entail and what kind of shop would perform one? i guess i'm just wondering if this is something that might be easily fixed or if it would undoubtably require upgrading internal engine components. i know that adding a s/c will definitely reduce engine life with stock internals and i am planning on eventually doing some major drivetrain work, but if I'm already experiencing problems after a year, I might think about doing it earlier. what type of upgrading could I do to allow the engine to handle the power?

Positive manifold pressure most definitely influences cylinder pressures and temperatures to a GREAT extent. That's what gives you more power! It's certainly possible that your setup has lead to damaged piston rings, and it's pretty reasonably to expect that adding ~100hp to a motor without changing the internals is going to reduce its' lifespan.

The first step is for you to have a compression test performed.

 

[Macabre]

A compression test just means sticking a pressure gauge in each spark plug hole to see how well the cylinder is compressing air. The service manual will have the range of pressure you should see but it's probably around 180ish psi. Any mechanic should have the means to perform this test for just a standard diagnostic charge. As for what you can do to improve reliability, depends what caused the problem.

If it turns out that you have low compression on one or more cylinders you're probably looking at an engine rebuild but have the test done before worrying about it. It's a cheap way to rule out a lot of potential causes.