upabove8

Hi everyone, I recently got my 96 H22 built with pistons, cams, rods, and bolt ons.. etc. I have no leaks but when i check the dip stick, its eating up alot of oil. On the dip stick, it was full. (upper hole on dip stick) After driving all day of about 150 miles, it was in between the first and second line. (between the bottom and top hole on dip stick) Any input would be helpful.

Thank You

H2BOOST

bad valve seals? guides? ****ed up valve?

upabove8

sorry if im asking noob questions...
BTW i recently got my motor built so please keep that in mind..

Recently my timing belt auto tensioner gave out, so i swapped to manual tensioner. (no hydraulics) The mechanic said i almost blew my motor. Do you think during this process it could have damaged the valves, seals, or guides? If so, would i hear or feel anything?? So far from driving around i cant seem to notice any major difference. O it has problem starting up sometimes. It would wind up but not start and second try will start up definitely.

this is very frustrating...

thanx

carnot

Has the motor been burning oil like this since the rebuild or did it just start recently, seemingly out of the blue? If it has been doing it since the motor was rebuilt, the rings could have not seated properly. How did you drive the car for the first 50 miles after the rebuild? I don't know if 1qt/300 miles can come about from valve seals or worn guides....I had a similar consumption rate before my rebuild and it was a bottom end problem.

upabove8

after the rebuild i had couple issues. But for 15000 miles i drove VERY safely. NOt taking it above 4K rpm. It didnt eat up this much oil at first month. Starting from second month or so it started getting worse. Also i noticed it started having problem starting up. It would wind up and it will usually take 2 trys to get the car started.

carnot

So you are saying that you have put 15,000 miles on the engine and it has been burning this much oil since the second month of operation, ie ~1,000 miles after startup? I subscribe to the school of thought that you should subject the motor to significant load after initial startup to insure the rings seat. Cranking problems could be related to oil burning....fouled plugs.

upabove8

opps i meant 1,500 miles... not 15,000 miles.. sorry about that

rodhay

Poor starting from that long ago could have meant your cambelt was so loose it was slapping around and putting the valves out of timing on startup. If it's still the same after having the cambelt tightened it could mean a valve got bent. Pull the plugs and check for fouling, then stick a compression tester down there to see if the loose cambelt has done some damage.

Have a look down the intake pipe just before it meets the TB. If you have a lot of oil in there coming from the pipe that connects to your PCV valve on the rocker cover - that can indicate too much blow by down the side of the pistons which means your rings are bad.

I hate to state the obvious but I guess you've checked to see if it's leaking from anywhere? Bad cam end plug? Rocker cover gasket? Also check to see if your coolant has a whiteish foam on the top.

carnot

a leak down test is a good place to start if you think you may have a bent valve. This will also give you information about the top compression ring. Unfortunately it will not give you much insight as to the condition of the oil ring. Before I rebuilt my bottom end I had decent leak down numbers but it turned out to be a ring problem....deglazed the cylinder walls and new rings solved the oil burning problem plus putting the engine under significant load during break in..

secretAman

You're fuel injectors may be faulty. If they are, it's possible that, when you turn the car off they're allowing fuel to drip into the cylinders, ending up in the crankcase oil, changing the oils viscuous properties. Rebuilt engines don't usually replace the fuel injectors. Hope this helps you 'upabout8'

timoram

Sounds to me like a lot of guessing at problems here.

Take the motor back to the guy who built it. There is something wrong with the build.

A freshly built H22 will burn SOME oil.....1/4 of a liter between changes, maybe a bit more if turbo but you obviously have some issues with whatever was done in there. My GUESS is that there is an issue in the head (bad valve stem seals, bad valve guides) causing you to burn a lot of oil.

As for the cranking issue.....don't even worry about that. Take it to the shop and have it looked at. Running a poorly running car is a bad idea.