GomezWvC

So to start it off, I'm in a turbo'd 02 ap1 with 90k. I had a problem going past 7 psi because of my wastegate spring & maybe the location of my boost controller. I'm tuned by a very reputable tuner in Utah. So I felt very save with the mild tune.

About a month ago I noticed that I was burning coolant at stops, a cloud of white smoke would go past me & during acceleration. My buddy said it would leave a trail of a burnt smell behind me. So I drove it for about a week and I parked it while I was able to buy a beater to get me to work & back.

I did a compression test on the engine & the results are as follows: 1 190 2 195 3 190 4 190.
I talked and got opinions on the compression because as we all know these numbers don't really indicate a blown gasket but I proceeded to change the gasket.

Everything came off smoothly & how it should, (I do have pics but I can't post them on my I pad so I'll post them later tonight). Come to find out cylinder 3 was the culprit for the burn. I had the head milled, cleaned, valves re-seated & had new valve stem seals installed. The machine shop said it was in very good condition for it having 90k. No cracks according to them..

Had new oem gaskets, arp head studs, & followed garageninja.com install instructions to the letter. Tourqued the head studs to 95ftlbs in three steps.

Long story short we installed everything a couple days later & did a cold valve lash adjustment because the plan was to warm up the car & do it right but it still burns coolant & the new compression test results are: 1 120 2 105 3 90 4 95.

And now I'm stuck between 2 options.. 1 we completely screwed this job up & the engine is fine it just need a good head gasket job? Or 2 we still screwed the job up but the block is cracked?
Im using brad penn 20w 50 semi synthetic oil & it has a coolant green color to it so it very had for me to spot it in my oil but i can tell there is oil in the coolant.

I'm not loaded with money so I thought I would save my self 2 grand on this job but now I'm just at the point to pay it to get it done. But I don't wanna pay if infact my block is cracked & I could use this money to buy. A new engine.

A couple questions..
1 how easy or hard is it to crack these engines?

So any help, info, past experiences are very welcome.. Thanks lady's & gents.

s2klariat

I've rarely seen catastrophic engine failure such as a cracked block in the s2000 in the 4 years I've been on this forum. My guess is incorrect installation of the head gasket. When the head was off, did you inspect the cylinder walls for any irregularities? If you botched the head installation, then indeed you would be mixing coolant and oil.