oil on piston... game over?

if you own an r sooner or later your gonna get it, and i think its my turn today. My car has been a bit smokey on boost lately so i pulled the spark plugs and had a look. No:3 cylinder piston was soaked in oil. I have done a compression test on a warm engine with my foot on the throttle and the results are no:1 145 no:2 160 no:3 142 no:4 150.
im wondering if the large amount of oil in no:3 is masking the true compression of that cylinder? any advice on where to go next greatly appreciated.

yes its possible that the oil is giving you a false reading as will be temporarily making a seal.

it could be a ringland broken or maybe valve stem oil seal that's leaking.
if theres a lot of visible oil on top of piston then spray some carb cleaner down the plug hole so it thins the oil down then crank her over for about 30 secs with no plugs in then this should clear it and allow you to do another compression test. if the compression then drops significantly then its almost definitely a cracked ringland............if not then you may have a dodgy valve stem seal

yes that sound good, cheers for that bob

i put some carb cleaner down no:3 (a good dose) then cleared it and tested again. Came out at 133psi. Is this enough to be a ringland failure? A 9psi drop

When you compair it to no2 at 160 big differences across the 4 i would say yes but bob will tell you better

im sure it will be bad news as loads of oil sitting on a piston cant be good.The weird thing is the spark plug was in good nick ( light brown deposits and no oil). Never mind i definitely wont be getting rid of it,as i cant think of a better car for buzzin around the country roads on.... Rebuild time ;-)

I thought no more than 10 across the range was ok ?? Not saying you dont have a problem because obviously there is somewhere ...

its a low reading for sure but may possibly not be the problem.

if I were you I would pull the manifold off and check the port on the head to see if it is wet with oil or dry and sooty
you may possibly be thinking its oil but may be fuel sitting on top as it will be dark coloured and does look like oil.

the smoking issue may be just a dodgy turbo but all will be revealed by removing the ex manifold