Blown pistons or rings? or both?

Question

when my car is running, the exhaust smells like its burning rich, the car doesnt take off fast enough, and oil smells like gas. symptoms of bad piston, rings or both? thanks.

and, if i buy a compression tester thing, what compression is average?

Answer 1

Exhaust smell and low power. It's quite a leap to get to rings/pistons. You probably need an entire engine rebuild. It's more important the pressure from cylinder to cylinder be close. If all the pressures are low, well, then that's that. If you're going to go to  the trouble to learn to be a mechanic, you should at least get a shop manual for the car, or even a generic car repair book. They're interesting whether you check out the car yourself or not.  

Answer 2

Need more info...what kind of car??...is it fuel injection or carb??

Answer 3

Oil smells like gas, running too rich. Bad piston or rings usually spits oil out of crankcase into air filter or engine seals.

Gasoline in oil is a sign of running too rich

Answer 4

May be rings the compression not knowing the eng or car 125P,S,I around there all holes with in 10% of each other. Not knowing the car it may have jump timing belt and chain that would give you low comp on all the holes or if it is fuel injection it may be a bad injector. good luck.