hi there,
I'm new to this forum but I 've been working on a 99 protégé 1.6 zm for my granddaughter.her mother bought it new so they've been the 1 owners.i put
a timing belt in about 65,000 ago and it has run well since.recently it started pouring oil out the front cover.it had pushed the seal out of the exhaust cam.i put both in new when I put the belt in.i searched for the cause done a compression check and found 1-160#,2-90#,3-90#,4-160#.suspecting a head gasket I pulled the head .I found a questionable leak between the two cylinders.being a mechanic for many years I done my own valve job since I had the tools.i have a small milling machine also and was going to surface the head but found it within .001 everywhere.i put it back together and it ran great but it has blowby or pressure in the crankcase.checked the compression again and since I have a leakdown guage,1-180#,7%ld;2-180#,6%ld;3-180#,4%ld and 4-180#,4%ld.these are good numbers I think for older cars but maybe not the 1.6.also the car smokes a bunch when you start it in the morning until it warms up.also it throwed p1141 code.the car has 267,000 miles on it but these are good #s and the bores looked great with no ring groove.do these oil rings fail?anybody had this problem?could i be having a cat problem?any ideas. thanks for reading,jeepster