2.3L ('02-'11) found oily piston, but not source of oil

[pjtoledo]

still in the process of swapping a 2.3 Duratec in my 2005. waiting for parts so I decided to pull the head off the tired original engine.
367,500 miles, massive oil consumption, plug #1 oil fouls, only 75 PSI of compression on #1. the other 3 are good.

sure enough, #1 is covered with oil. I expected to find something broken.

the cylinder wall is perfect, still cross hatching visible. no scrapes or gouges. not enough ridge to catch a fingernail.

I pulled the piston, no visible cracks. rings are still intact but I'm not sure how much pressure they have left.
the piston dropped by itself about 1/2" out of the block, stopped at the oil ring. I pulled it the rest of the way out without any drama.

Ran out of time tonight, I'll look at the intake runners to see where the oil starts, check the seals etc.

 

[RonD]

Back of the intake valve is where to look for oil coming in from the valve cover, valve guide seal

See if #1 valves can hold water, if not thats the compression loss, if they can then it was the rings and thats where oil was coming from as well