Nissan Repair: Occationally white smoke is emitted from engine., nissan sunny 97, compression gauge

Question
Hi,
I have Nissan Sunny 97. Ocationally there is white smoke emitted from the exhaut. The engine oil is also reducing. Is the problem with the engine or injectors or something else?.
Please advice the solution.
Thanx and Regards,
Mohammed.

Answer
Hi Mohammed. If you are not loosing coolant or overheating this seems like you may be experiencing a problem with an oil control ring in one of the cylinders pistons. First off you can "read"  the spark plugs. Remove them and keep them in order and look for any  obvious signs such as oil deposits or fouling. Then, to isolate a bad oil ring. First do a "dry" compression check. If you have a remote starter switch use it here. Or have a friend help crank engine to help along. Remove coil wire or unplug distributor to disable spark first. Then with compression gauge screwed in spark plug Hole . Hold throttle wide open crank engine 3-4 seconds and take reading for first cylinder. Write this down. Repeat for remainng cylinders. Next do a "wet" compression check. Take an oil squirt can  and squirt 2-3 squirts in cylinder 1. Take compression reading now and write it down next to first Dry reading for that cylinder. Repeat for other cylinders. Compare readings. Wet reading should not go much higher than 10% over dry reading or you have an oil ring that is not sealing. Example if dry reading is 100 P.S.I. 110 or so is ok for wet reading. 150 would be bad and that would be a suspect cylinder with a ring problem. Possibly stuck ring or broken.  After you reinstall the plugs and start the engine do not be alarmed it will smoke bad for a bit due to the oil squirts. So do this out side or open up your garage door so you do not get smoked out. Hope this may help. Heard of the Nissan Sunny but never have seen one. Best Regards Mike