BiG_DeE

so i have a 92 cx 5 speed about 126k miles, previous owner some punk kid, when i bought i knew it smoked, so now im wandering which it is.. rings or seals.. it smokes after about 3k rpms, i was talkin to someone today and they said that rings would smoke when you shift, and sounded like valve seals, also my spark plugs when ever i pull them have oil on the threads.... anyone have ne info?

HCivicSi23

Are you sure its burning oil? What color is the smoke, and do you have to keep adding oil? If it is...

It could be either one, however, if its smoking, I would bet it's your oil rings going bad/ are bad. Valve seals always start to go around 120k + mark, just the way it is. Fortunatly, if you want to know for sure, try a compression test in each cylinder. This will give you a good idea as to how well each cylinder performs. Usually if a cylinder is not holding the certain pressure it ought to, the rings have gone bad and the cylinder is most often warping (taking ona slight egg shape). In order to fix that however, you would either need to hone/bore the cylinders with new pistons (hone: std, bore: os) with new rings.

You can try replacing the vavle seals, which can be done by leaving the engine in tact in the car. A new valve seal set is relativly cheap, so you could try and that and see what it does for you. As far as oil on the spark plug threads, it's possible that the O ring gaskets that sit between the spark plug well and the valve cover have gone bad allowing oil to seep into the spark plug well, another thing to check.

And, if none of this suites you, get a can of restore and put it in with the oil at your next oil change... It works miracles.

JarvisW

I've heard bad things about Restore. Like its ok for a last ditch thing, but after that then you really have to rebuild.

Is that right?

HCivicSi23

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JarvisW &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've heard bad things about Restore. Like its ok for a last ditch thing, but after that then you really have to rebuild.

Is that right?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well... that can be left up to debate amongst people, its more or less subject to personal opinion. Mine however, is no. I have used restore for 10,000 miles, and begun using it with my oil changes when my motor hit 126k. It completly stopped my burning of oil, which was at about a half a quart/ 3/4 a quart every month or so.

I just sent my motor to the machiene shop a few days ago, during the tear down process however, I notcied no damage to any component what so ever because of restore. So, in my opinion, restore is a miracle temporary solution for oil burning. It's okay in my book

JarvisW

Good to know, I'm burning or loosing about a quart a week, driving adv 100 mi a day tho.

I am planning on a rebuild of the lower end, got the head done last year, but I was wondering how long it might last lol...

Talk about wild fixes... My granddad used to pour Rislone into the carb, to blow out anything! The car would run great later, but for 30mins or more, he would smog out the neighborhood!

HCivicSi23

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JarvisW &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Good to know, I'm burning or loosing about a quart a week, driving adv 100 mi a day tho.

I am planning on a rebuild of the lower end, got the head done last year, but I was wondering how long it might last lol...

Talk about wild fixes... My granddad used to pour Rislone into the carb, to blow out anything! The car would run great later, but for 30mins or more, he would smog out the neighborhood! </TD></TR></TABLE>

Haha nice. If your burning oil, eventually you will need to rebuild the motor, or swap it out. Restore, like I said, is only temporary... but as far as damge in result for using Restore, not at all.

JarvisW

Yeah, I knew its about time. I mean I only have 277k on the block!

BiG_DeE

its blue smoke, im adding oil every 3-4 days, i was gonna do a jdm d15b swap but no place to do it, and i like to do **** on my own so i cna learn, and i dopnt wanna pay someone else for the work. so i was talkin to a few people and they said it sounds like the valve seals and i relaly wanna do a mini me swap now, but if its more then the seals that would be a waste of money...

DUHC

If you're burning a lot of oil on TOP end, more than likely it's the valve stem seals. If it happens all the time, then your piston rings are shot.

JarvisW

Well, if you think its the head only, then go ahead and take it off, and take it apart. If you want a Mini Me anyway, then at least you will learn a bit about how a head works, and also see if its the sleaves.

Most likely its a bit of both, like mine. valves leaking, and Rings too.

Good luck!

Speed_1

your valve seals are shot. My buddy had the same problem when you get on it and get above like 3K RPM's it would smoke like crazy.fix your head you'll be good to go. If anything rebuilt the whole motor and you'll not have to worry about it.

Jay_Sensing

Rings tend to burn oil with RPM when there is more pressure on them breaking the seal.

Valve stem seals leak on decel in gear due to the increased vacuum the motor is pulling drawing the oil in and also on startup because of the oil seeping through over time.

There are a lot of guesses in here and "my buddies" but normally, hearsay has little to do with actual troubleshooting.

BiG_DeE

also, i think my comp in every chamber is differnt... like +/- 20 between all of them..

DUHC

Time for a new headgasket and complete rebuild. That's about a %10 compression difference between cylinders, I would only recommend %5.

Brick Top

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jay_Sensing &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Rings tend to burn oil with RPM when there is more pressure on them breaking the seal.

Valve stem seals leak on decel in gear due to the increased vacuum the motor is pulling drawing the oil in and also on startup because of the oil seeping through over time.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

BiG_DeE

ok, did comp test 170 all across the boards, i read something about putting oil in to see if changes or something, so i did and they went up to 180, heres what i read..


if compression is low in one or more cylinders, you can isolate the problem to the valves or rings by squirting a little 30 weight motor oil into the cylinder through the spark plug hole and repeating the compression test. The oil temporarily seals the rings. If the readings are higher the second time around, it means the rings and/or cylinder is worn. No change in the compression readings tells you the cylinder has a bad valve

JarvisW

Well, at least you know now.

Good luck on the rebuild, or are you going for a swap?