94CivicSi

iTrader: (1)

If you've seen my previous thread for this car throwing code 76, you know it's been surprise after surprise with this car.

Car is 2000 Civic EX w/ 69,900 miles.

History: Code 76 does not appear as a proper code for an EJ8. Autozone pulled a P0420, essentially a bad catalytic converter. I replaced the cat, CEL came back in within 250 miles or so. Seems like the amount of combusted oil in the exhaust is for too much for the cat to burn off.

Anyway, onto the oil consumption.

- Looks to be about a 1 quart every 250 miles or so.
- car is not visibly smoking from the exhaust.
- trunk is beginning to get "sooty" from unburned carbon desposits
- oil gets very dirty VERY quickly.
- plugs appear normal at the electrode and on the porcelin, but there is a good amount of carbon on the bottom of the threads.
- I checked compression before I bought the car and got 190-195 across all 4

On one hand, it seems like it's using too much oil to be the valve seals. On the other, if the rings were bad enough to let a quart of oil get past them every 250 miles, wouldn't that show up in the compression numbers?

I'm currently looking to borrow a leakdown tester locally so I can get to the bottom of the problem. Until then, any thoughts or ideas are welcome.

sql_civic

iTrader: (3)

Oil rings and compression rings are 2 different things. Your oil rings sound shot.

94CivicSi

iTrader: (1)

What would cause an oil ring to fail while leaving the piston rings intact? If it was friction, wouldn't the piston rings also be shot?

D16SohcVtec

I had the same problem with my 2000 Civic EX. When I first bought it, it had 95k. The first thing I did after the 3000 miles on the oil change that was in there from the dealership. I switched to synthetic, and right after I did that. It would burn oil like crazy. Going through quarts of oil every 500 miles it gets pretty expensive once you burn through a lot of synthetic oil.

I immediately switched to synthetic blend for one interval and then went back to conventional oil. It still burned oil like crazy, but after time and using the conventional oil. My car started to burn less oil during the city drives. I use to not be able to get to 1000 miles in the city without adding a quart or two. But on the highway was the totally different story, I would drive a 250 mile trip and be toped out. And once I go on that trip I would let me car sit over night and check my oil. It would be just under the last dot on the dip stick. It kepted doing that for a while.

But now I can go 3000 miles and burn maybe half a quart or less. And my highway oil consumption seems to be getting lower too. I can make the 250 mile trip and when I check my oil it would be just barely below the 2nd dot on the dip stick.

You didn't see any visual burning of oil and it didn't leave any deposits on my bumper either. And the motor doesn't leak oil or anything. My spark plugs were clean also. With very minimal carbon on the thread.

My problem was the car must of used conventional oil all it's life and when I use synthetic it must've cleaned everything out and that's probably what started the leak. I baby my car, I don't run it hard and I probably only take it into vtec like 5 times a year. Anyway, going back to conventional oil stopped my burning. Good luck figuring out your oil consumption.

94CivicSi

iTrader: (1)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sql_civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Your oil rings sound shot.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I had my Dad run down to the machine shop that's building a motor for his '32 Ford roadster. The shop said the same about the oil rings. Apparently, it's common in Honda and Nissan motors for the oil ring to collapse if the engine is severely overheated. Good call sql. Thank you.

mechanix619

How are you driving the car? If you are hitting high RPM's in every gear then yeah, you are going to suck oil. Are you leaking or burning oil? Most car problems are easy fixes so start with the easiest, PCV valve, and work your way up to the hardest, valve or pistons, until the problem is found.

94CivicSi

iTrader: (1)

Mostly highway driving. 3200 RPM's on cruise control.

It's definitely burning the oil, not leaking it.

I've already changed the PCV and all ignition components, reset the mechanical timing, adjusted the ignition timing and done a compression test.

I feelm pretty certain now that it's the oil ring. Unfortunately, I can't tear the engine apart until I get another one to put in it's place. I will update the thread when I get that far.