Oil consumption diagnostics..

[Jon Pike <jhpike@domain.elided>]

I had some questions,  in regards to my self-screwed position..

So, the car is drinking a quart every 100 miles,  and makes most of it's 
visible smoke when you deaccelerate with the throttles closed,  then 
open them..

I have the idea this is leaky valve guides...  (correct me if I'm wrong)

What can one do,  to judge how good or bad the rings/pistons are?  I 
have a pretty good compression test,  but how sure can one be?   Can one 
gather any useful info with a borescope thru the spark plug holes? 
Leakdown tests?  It's going to a mechanic tomorrow for an evaluation.. 
though this is a guy saying "Alfa's are the highest maintentence sports 
cars,  they need a major rebuild every 70-80K miles".  I'm taking it 
there, after hearing from another "it couldn't be the valve guides with 
that much consumption,  it's gotta be the bottom end".

One of my probems is a tendency to ask a lot of people their opinion.. 
and unfortuantely I therby end up with a lot of opinions..  and a lot 
of times,  all different.  ;-)

I'm trying to figure out what I want to do,  after I give the car back 
to the PO's..  is it worth it for some lesser money, or not?  The car 
might be worth a major head rework without other surprises.. but if it 
needs more, I don't think so..  It might have to come off the road for a 
while,  since it's a Gross Polluter as it sits.

Thanks..

Jon

BTW,  a general thanks for nobody yelling WE TOLD YOU SO...  after all 
the info I got on buying a car.
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided