I haven't done a wet test, but 100 psi of compressed air is going to blow any oil that could be sealing the rings down into the crankcase. The compression numbers I suspect are high because of oil in the combustion chamber. It is definately getting in there or the damned thing wouldn't be smoking. I think at this point I'm going to replace valve seals with viton seals instead of the OEM ones that are in there and see what happens.

the oil saturated rings providing a kick ass compression test result, no burning at idle, recent head removal, no fluid mixing (oil/coolant)... I'm telling you, this sounds exactly like when I had stretched head bolts.

Oh, new ARP head studs, so I don't think that is it.

Do you get ridiculous smoke if you rev it hard and snap the throttle shut quickly by hand at the TB?

Just to post an update on this for na6c-guy or anyone else experiencing the same problem.

I did pull the motor back out of the car and pulled the pistons to find that the oil rings had a lot of carbon built up and were stuck. I honed the block, cleaned all the piston grooves well and re-ringed it using new chrome rings and new rod bearings. Put everything back together and the oil consumption and smoke did stop. I now have almost 3K miles since doing the above with zero oil loss! The car is no stronger than before, it just doesn't smoke or burn oil. Stuck oil rings FTL.

-Nevermind-

Thanks for the update. Let me see if I clarify: you only changed the rings and the rod bearings? Sorry to say it but if I were in your shoes I would've changed the Rods to stronger rods.

Anyways, thanks for the thread. I'm facing similar issues.

Much appreciated! Did you find all 4 stuck like I did? The reason I was against the oil ring idea that the machine shops kept throwing at me was I had never heard of an oil ring causing the ammount of smoke I was seeing, along with the car stumbling under load. But then again, most people dont have all 4 stick at the same time, so it was pretty much an oil pump by that time. Thanks again, I hope this is my problem too and all will be fine once its back running.

Any way of cleaning or freeing them up without removal? I know Marvel failed. Any other suggestions of things to try before pulling everything?

All 4 were stuck. Smoke wasn't that bad, but oil consumption was a mother!

I don't know of a way of unsticking them without removal or else I would have went that route.

Rafa, I didn't upgrade rods because I don't think they are necessary at the levels I'm looking for and I'm doing this on the cheap. The stock bottom end will support 300 hp all day long. The cost of rings, bearings and a head gasket was $200 and 1.5 days of labor from me. Rods would have tripled the cost.

Got it. Would you mind sharing from where you bought the rings and bearings?

I used Federal Mogul Sealed Power chrome rings and Federal Mogul Sealed Power rod bearings from O'Reilly Auto Parts. I think it was around $100 for the rings and $35 for the bearings. That is cheaper than OEM parts with the Mazda Motorsports discount.

Many thanks man. Your thread has convinced me to follow your path. I won't rebuild my engine for now. My compression numbers are similar to yours.

I'll do what you've done. The only difference will be that I'll also include new, stronger rods.

Im sure Federal stuff is as good as any other, but for some reason Ive never liked them. Though dont they make alot of OEM stuff? I went with Mahle/Clevite. Either way, new rings and bearings hopefully means 100k+ miles of good fun.