Speed Kills

I'm pulling my hair out here. Little info on the car first.

'92 DX hatch
Gen I B16
ITR cams
AEBS IM
Hondata gasket
Hytech-ish tri-y


So, I've been fighting this car every step of the way now, and I've got an issue now that's way beyond my logic.

For some reason, under moderate to hard cornering, this thing blows a James Bond-esque cloud of smoke of what appears to be oil out of the exhaust. Followed by one or more cylinders missing out.

1.) MINIMAL oil leak from cam seal/VTEC solenoid area.
2.) does not do this if route taken has minimal corners.
3.) Has 170PSI of compression across the board.
4.) Does not run over normal temperature.


Anyone? I'm ready to throw this thing in a dumpster.

Former User

Is a glob of oil entering the IM from the PCV hose?

Speed Kills

Not sure on that one. I have a hard time seeing enough oil coming through the PCV to make the motor miss. Let alone only on cornering?

Former User

Well, it's pretty easy to check if the PCV valve and hose are excessively oily.

Aside from the smoke during cornering, is the engine burning a lot of oil? It might be a bad valve seal.

Speed Kills

No, it doesn't use any oil at all under any straightline acceleration, or at idle.

And if it's a bad valve seal, again, it makes no sense to be under cornering load only? I'd figure if it was THAT bad to let that much oil through, it'd be a constant.

Former User

I think if you had a crystal ball and actually knew what the answer was, you still wouldn't believe it. The answer is most likely a common cause for burning oil but, in your case, the condition is worsened when engine oil accumulates on one side of the engine or the other when you are turning. Your cylinder compression seems fine, so you should consider causes that don't affect compression. One obvious candidate is a bad valve stem seal. Perhaps on turns, oil tends to gather around the bad seal.

Speed Kills

Please excuse me for trying to use simple reasoning before I just go ripping the head off of my car to put valve seals in it. No need to be smart about it. I've made a straightforward tech post, so let's treat it with some dignity.

I've seen PCV do some crazy things as far as oil consumption is concerned. But the amount of oil required to produce the smoke I was implying entered the motor is highly unlikely under JUST the circumstances I've stated. If it was anything PCV related, the car would use an amount of oil at WOT as well.

I understand what I'm looking for is not compression related. Not that it would make sense for one or more cylinders to lose their sealing ability only on turns. Once those numbers came up solid, I ruled that out.

I'm not sitting here just shooting ideas down because "I don't think that's it" or "it's not what I want to hear," I'm using some common sense behind this. If you think your "knowledge" is wasted, then by all means, move along. I just simply stated if a valve seal was bad enough to let oil through in the quantity it does, does it not make sense for it to NOT let any oil through at either cold start, WOT, idle, etc.?

cpl rampage

does it do it under both directions, left and right turns?

Speed Kills

Did forget to add that. Yes, I have noticed it in both directions before.

TravisCadello

maybe all that leaks from the v tec solen has been building up and is dripping onto ur exhaust only when u turn.

i would go into a huge parking lot and do circles and see how long it smokes lol.

Speed Kills

It's coming OUT of the exhaust. Not off the exhaust externally.

Former User

I completely agree with your logical troubleshooting. I would do the same. What I was trying to say is that sometimes the answers to problems seem to defy logic and, even after you know what the problem is, you may not be able to explain why oil only burned in the cylinder(s) when making turns. Hence, my focus on common explanations for oil burning when compression is fine. By the way, does inspection of the spark plugs indicate that the oil burning is confined to only specific cylinders?

Speed Kills

The only time I got a plug pulled after I did it, the plugs were clean by the time I made it back to the shop (+/- 5 mile drive). So I can't comment on which cylinder it was exactly.

instructor74

sounds like it might be time to take a test run with a wrench to remove the plugs run the car into a hard turn or two shut it down right away and pull the plugs on the side of the road it might give you an idea of which cylinder it could be

B16AGUY

For the record RonJ knows his stuff...he's helped me and many others diagnose seemingly complex issues that were resolved with simple and unlikely candidates.... In my case I had an oil leak and a surging engine solved with new tube seals, pcv valve, and dizzy.

Not trying to e-hump him here, I'm just saying he knows his stuff so please don't discard his advice.

p.s. I also agree with checking your plugs on the fly. It will give a better indication of where the leak (if any) could be.

RedRevolver

Hmm, what about jacking up one side of your car and letting it run, maybe see if it burns oil then? might be able to pinpoint it a little more preciscly. also might be better for checking the plugs, instead of taking a corner, running out and pulling them

Speed Kills

This actually seems like a pretty logical solution. After being parked on an slope from driver' side up at one point, it seemed to have the same problem. I'm going to try this, along with a leakdown this weekend, and see where it goes.

And to B16AGUY, I was in no way discarding information at all, merely instating what logic I have towards the topic into the discussion. I'm not knocking anyone willing to throw up any kind of advice.

db1love

iTrader: (1)

update?