JPRhome

Just ordered a new transmission for my 94 Civic and plan to put it in this coming September.

During the time of the transmission replacement I plan to fix the oil burning issue my D15B7 has and its oil leaking issue.

I am sure that the rear main seal needs to be replaced as it drips oil from the area daily. I've done a compression test and got results between 185-190 on all 4 cylinders.

Spark plugs after 6 months have some ash deposit and black around the top end of the threads more so on the 3rd and 4th cylinder.

Driving situation: When I give the car a little extra to get up a hill or get into traffic when its busy I usually leave a medium amount of blue smoke behind.

I can't tell what the RPM's are exactly because no RPM gauge but I'm sure its around 4k-6k, if I have my foot in it I can smell the exhaust pretty good and it leaves blue smoke behind that I can clearly see in my rear view.

I've searched and have found questionable answers that have no backup behind them just guessing.

I'm just trying to find a dollar amount that would be needed to fix this issue before tearing it down and finding out I need more funds.

my guess is it could be some of the valve stem Seals going bad.

JPRhome

Just some more insight on the amount of oil I'm losing, I check the oil every 3-6 days and usually by the end of the week I'm running below the 2nd dot on the dip stick.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Do another compression test, followed by a wet test. A wet test is the same as a normal test - just put a half teaspoon of oil in the cylinder before testing it. Post those dry and wet numbers.

timetosleep

Definitely sounds like you have leaking valve seals, oil leaks down into the combustion chamber, the blue smoke is most likely from the oil which is also why it's collecting on the spark plugs, if you get a peek at the intake ports on the head you might also see signs of execs oil build up, a compression test won't really do much since the valves would still be sealing at the valve seat, however oil from inside the valve cover leaks down into the intake port than it gets sucked into the combustion chamber, this is why you see bursts of blue oil under load it's the oil getting sucked in and burning, a complete valve job at a good machine shop should fix the problem by replacing oil valve seals, not a bad time for new valves or other upgrades, a regular valve job at a machine shop should be a couple hundred bucks, but we'll worth it, after all power is mostly built in the head of the motor, I hope that helps.

TomCat39

Hi oil consumption is usually related to valve seals. You compression numbers are good so some consumption and oil burning could be control ring related but what you described about giving her some (probably about 3/4 throttle) and it smokes is another good indication of valve seals.

Another trick to show it's valve seals is when you are going down that steep hill you climb, throw it into 3rd (assuming manual) and engine brake for part of the hill then give her 3/4 - 7/8 gas and see if it suddenly plumes lots of blue smoke.

It's the same job I'm about to do to mine. I just am ordering the valve seals and now am looking to see if Canadian Tire has valve seal pliers on the tool loan program, if not I'm going to be looking at bearing pullers to see if I can make my own. After that I'm busy for a weekend to stop the smoking and oil consumption in my old D15B7.

Once you do your valve seals and the smoke is next to non existent you may want to pull your catalytic converter off and give it a citric acid bath over night, let it dry a day or two then put it back on to revitalize the honeycomb from the excess oil burning for so long.

JPRhome

Thank you for the reply's much appreciated!.

I had a pretty good feeling that was the issue.

After my brother told me that I might need a valve job done after all the other options he presented to me I told him more then likely it will be the more expensive situation with a slight chuckle with the thought of ahhh F$#% of course inside my head.

Now that were all sure that is the case I was just going to go to Rock auto for valves, seals and guides, I Was looking at DNJ valves and guides with Beck/Arnley seals comes to around $170 with shipping, any suggestions or advice if this is the right way to go?

JPRhome

Also about the CAT.

I been smelling sulfur/rotten egg smell every now and again from the exhaust.

I was told that this is do to the car running lean and allowing fuel to get past the chamber and leak down into the CAT which will damage the CAT.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

First off, test to confirm before you go ripping into your motor.

Second off, you probably don't need to replace the guides, just the valve stem seals.

TomCat39

If you are doing the work yourself I would follow NotARacist's suggestion of just doing the seals. It's cheap and not as labor intensive and doesn't require pulling the head to do to see if it fixes the problem. If the problem returns in a couple of months, your not out an arm an a leg to do the full meal deal to the head.

If you are going to do the guides that means a head pull and you do every seal in the head, valves, guides and head gasket. Much more labor intensive and quite a prettier gold coin.

Rotten egg is typically considered a bad catalytic converter, however an overnight soak in citric acid can sometimes bring back borderline cats and get you more life out of them.

It's quite possible the O2 sensor is clogged up too if your cat is borderline. If your fuel economy isn't up to par that can be a solid indication of a dirty upstream O2 sensor.

JPRhome

That's what I originally planned on doing until I got the "If you're in there why not just do the whole thing" talk, its hard to not agree on that suggestion.

My words were "if it's not broken why replace it".

Well I received the transmission yesterday afternoon, coming this September its on!.
I'll try my first guess and your suggestion of replacing the seals first just in-case anything else comes up I won't be dead in the water.

Thanks again for the reply's and the suggestion and knowledge on the CAT.

I'll keep you guys posted.