bsconz

1999 Civic EX 1.6L VTEC with ~150k miles

So I bought this car for $1250 because it had a bad #3 cylinder. Body and interior is in excellent shape though. Took it apart after doing some basic tests that pointed to a bad valve and it was...one of the exhaust valves had a hole in it. Also, it looked like the previous owners pretty much neglected the engine maintenance or used crappy oil, etc.

REBUILD WORK:
I rebuilt the head...new valves for that cylinder, ground the seats, new valve seals. All intake and exhaust ports pulled good vacuum (meaning the valves now properly sealed). Also, the head was perfectly straight and needed no machining. All new gaskets, new fuel injectors, new head gasket, cleaned the top of the block with scotchbrite, etc. I am positive the head gasket went on the right way as well.

PROBLEM:
Put it all back together and it fired right up but is definitely burning oil. I cleared the previous DTC's out and the CEL stayed off as it ran. Also it ran very smoothly. Ran it for about 5 minutes at idle to see if the oil smoke would clear up. Definitely stayed the same. Shut it off and pulled the plugs which were brand new before restarting it. Cylinder #3 was only plug with some darker discoloration and traces of oil.

OTHER SYMPTOMS/RELATED INFO:
Did a quick compression test which showed good compression on all cylinders (1-175, 2-165, 3-165, 4-170) but I think it doesn't necessarily mean the oil rings are good, right? Also, I think I cranked the engine over too many times for each cylinder check (5-6 when it should have been 2-3). I will do this test again the right way tomorrow. There was still cross-hatch on all 4 cylinder walls and no scoring or gouges but I did not measure the cylinder bores when the head was off.

Also noticed the with the engine running, pulsating air was coming out of the oil filler cap. PCV valve was new and working fine though (i.e. rattling around).

Thoughts?!?! Should I just pull the head again and replace the rings?

NVturbo

You redid the head but left the block untouched, correct? It's the piston rings. Why didn't you just do them while you had the motor apart?

theguy22

its hella JDM when it smokes

bsconz

@NVturbo: you're right...why didn't i just do the rings? who the hell knows. to be honest, i'm not even sure why i posted the question. i kind of figured it was the rings. i could have the head back off pretty fast so i guess i'll drive it for a while and see if it clears up. as of today it burns a little oil but only smokes bad when i accelerate hard.

sde780

You can take off the head, drop the oil pan, and pop out each piston/rod with the motor still in the car. Throw some new rings in and it should be good to go

bsconz

Thanks for all the replies!

@sde780: I figured the rings could be done that way fairly easily. I assumed I would want to hone the cylinders too, right? Might as well get the kit and do crank bearings too.

Also, the engine is pretty leaky too. There's a black cover plate where the trans and engine mate. It gets pretty oily so I am thinking the main seal is shot. It leaks near the bottom of the crankshaft timing gear cover too, so that main seal is probably shot too.

Am I better off just buying a 2nd engine and rebuilding it on a stand before swapping out? Then maybe I could sell the engine that is currently in the car?