marcelosm

I wasn't doing the compression test to see if my valve seals were bad though. I was doing it to see how my piston rings were doing. It was my understanding that bad piston rings would cause a low compression test and would improve dramatically when a wet test was done. Wouldn't a good compression test and a non dramatic improvement on a wet test indicate that the oil on my spark plugs is not coming from the piston rings? That would only leave the valve seals as a possible entry point for the oil, or is that not correct? I think I read ronj@ht post somewhere that this was the case. I will try and find that quote.

marcelosm

TomCat39

Your dry compression test isn't low though, and the piston ring isn't the one responsible to get the oil off the cylinder wall. You can have bad oil rings and good piston rings, burn oil but still have good compression.

I believe his comment about valve seal and compression is on the premise that a valve seal has nothing to do with compression, so can't compromise compression.

Your compression test is decent. Number 2 and 4 or 1 and 3, which ever is the two that jumped up a lot would point at the piston rings are a little worn, but not enough to be worried about being the dry compression is decent all the way around and none of them are more than 15% of each other. I think it's 15%, I'd have to look that up again. Don't remember off hand if it's 15%, 20% or 25% variance before it's detrimental.

Anyways, they are really close to each other dry and have good PSI, that's a solid compression engine.

marcelosm

But that's exactly what I mean. Valve seals can't affect compression right? Oil is leaking from either the valve seals or piston rings. Since the piston rings seem to be fine based on the compression test, the only other place for the oil to come from is the valve seals right?

I think it is 18% but either way they are pretty good over all.

TomCat39

Not to be technical but it's not the piston rings that would be "leaking" the oil. It would be the oil control rings.

That's why I was saying you can have good compression and still burn a bunch of oil. The piston rings are good while the oil control rings (lower down the piston) are bad and the valve seals are good. You would have solid compression and still burn more oil than you should.

This guy said it well:

https://honda-tech.com/forums/showpo...7&postcount=12

You need someone to follow you on a warm day and see when it smokes. If you are getting oil on the business end of your spark plug, it should be throwing some blue tinted smoke, If it's most of the time then it's the usual oil rings. If it's typically after idling and then going, or on no throttle high rpm deceleration, then it's more likely the valve seals.

I think the only other place that puts oil into the combustion chamber is the head gasket but I thought you said that was recently replaced and you would normally notice a significant power loss if it was the head gasket.

Oh and if it only blows smoke at redline, then it's likely being sucked through the PCV system into the intake. My D15B7 does this when I treat her like a race car in 2nd gear, need to add an oil catch can after the breather and then test for smoke on a warm day.

marcelosm

Yeah that does make sense. I hadn't thought of it that way. As for the engine smoking I'll have to get someone to follow me around like you said. I honestly can't see any smoke from inside the car when I am driving around but maybe it just isn't enough to be noticeable yet.

marcelosm

Anyone else care to chime in?

marcelosm

Daily bump before work