Scirocco Register

Makes sense. Thanks dude; I'll let you know how it all goes..

Well finally everything is in and running but we have a severe smoke problem! The spark plug in cylinder 3 is oiling up. I'm the middle man between the guy I bought the bottom end from who suggests a faulty head gasket or a dodgy valve guide (they were fine before but the valves have since been cleaned and re-seated; could something have been dislodged?). The guy at the garage thinks it's a piston ring problem. I know both guys pretty well and trust them both but would value any ideas from you guys on here as to what may be the most likely cause. The smoke is blueish and full-on at anything over 1500 revs, and the fumes inside the car are unbearable! As you may have realised, I'm not a mechanic and don't have the gear to attempt diagnosing anything myself so this is all a bit frustrating. On the plus side the KR head/9a combo has plenty of poke and will be great, once I can drive it without having to issue gas masks to everyone I'm likely to encounter on my travels!

ABF/KR is also an option - it just depends on what exhaust manifold you have.

Blue smoke from the exhaust is oil getting past something and into the exhaust manifold, the only way to find the fault is take the head off again and check the head/valves as that's easier then the engine block/piston rings as that's more work involved.

Thanks Mark. Have sprayed some WD40 into the offending cylinder in the hope of freeing up the clearance ring, if that's the prob, and will leave it a couple of days, suck up the excess and see if it's had an effect. Then it'll most probably be back in to have the head off to investigate!