beef-cake

Okay so I have a motor that burns a bit of oil. You don't notice the oil burning unless i'm flooring it in the upper rpms of 1st and 2nd, but it shows most when I'm at autox and get hard off the gas in 2nd gear.

I don't think its the piston rings because those were just replaced with the rebuilt motor, but i'm thinking its the valve seals cuz when i start the car in the morning it smokes oil for like a block or something, almost as if oil was collecting in the cylinders during the night, which shoulodn't happen from the piston rings but from the valve stem seals right?

Also what leads me to think this is the problem is that the seal kit I got from partsdinosuar.com kinds sucks. The valve cover gasket as well as the spark plug hole gaskets leak and I replaced them with honda ones. So i'm thinking its probable that the valve stem seals are shitty quality as well and are leaking.

What do you guys think?

beef-cake

Also I was wondering if anybody knew how to check if its the rings and only the rings? My compression is fine at 210 on all 4 cylinders in a d16a6, but if I made sure all the valves were closed in a cylinder and did a leakdown test, that would tell me if it was the rings right?

How can you tell if its just the valve stem seals? Do you just listen for air entering the intake and the exhaust manifold when you pressurize the cylinders?
Thanks fellas.


Modified by beef-cake at 9:49 AM 9/30/2006

atg1290

Did you hone the block and also is the hg installed properly?

NJIN BUILDR

You can not determine valve seal leakage with a compression test or leak down test.The seals are isolated by the valves being closed during either test.Neither test will show you positively if its rings either.The oil control ring doesn't effect compression or leak down.Excess oil on the cylinder wall will actually improve compression and leak down results.If you pull your header you sometimes can see a distinct oil trail in the port coming from the valve stem.Not many people have had good luck with non-oem seals.I would change the seals first and see if that cures it.On Honda b engines they offer two brands of seals.Many people will swear that the more expensive seal is the only way to go.I have used both with good results.

DeadVet

I leak down test will narrow the problem down.

beef-cake

Will your gas mileage go to hell if you have leaky valve stem seals? I mean by like 10mpg? The begining of summer I was getting 40mpg, then the valve stem seals started going to **** cuz they were generic ones I installed begining of summer and now my gas mileage is at 30mpg Nothing else has changed in the car, and I even installed new injectors and seals to make sure that wasn't the case. I have a wideband and hondata s300 and that's all telling me the a/f ratio hasn't changed from beginging of summer to now.

The 30mpg thing started around begining of august, so it's not cuz the weather is getting colder.