O.K. Here's the story....we have a 93 4WD pickup with a 22RE. 260,000 miles with one rebuild on engine. Lost power suddenly about a month ago, with compression on #2 cyclinder only reading 30LBs. We had done the rebuild, but had a local YoYo mechanic check it out. His suggestion was that the lack of compression (based on the fact that the truck still ran extremely well, especially about 50-60 mph, and the fact that the engine had been recently rebuilt) was that there could be a cracked or burned valve.

We replaced the head and what a difference it made! The engine runs quieter now than when we bought it and much smoother. That was yesterday. This morning, we started the truck and immediately were engulfed in billowing white smoke, with the smell of oil. When we opened the hood, the smoke was coming, not only from the tailpipe, but from oil leaking around the #3 sparkplug.

Our first impression is a collapsed ring on #3. There is no water/oil mixture and engine purrs like a kitten! No skips, no miss, no surge...perfect....just smokes REALLY BAD!

This has been a great truck. We hate to see it dead, but we are just about at our wits end. Does anyone have any suggestions other than rebuilding this engine? And if that is the only route....anyone got any idea why it would have done this?

Thanks for any suggestions!