Burning Oil
 

Hey guys I got a question.
I have a h22a1, was burning oil, so I replaced the valve seals.
It seams to still burn oil.
Im using 10w30 oil.
If its leaking through the seals am I able to use thicker oil so that it wont burn as much?
Like maybe 10w40 or 10w50?
Will it be hard on the engine?

Re: Burning Oil
 

Mabe your valve guides are leaking. I personally would not change the oil. Did you do a leak test? It smokes on start up's or when in vtec?

Re: Burning Oil
 

lool....Just do a leak test

Re: Burning Oil
 

Also known as pudding.

Re: Burning Oil
 

You sure your rings are shot? How much oil is burning a week/ month/ oil change interval?

Re: Burning Oil
 

Yeah if your in a 95 with its original H22a1 motor then with the amount of miles you may have on it at this point you probably need new rings. The nice thing about these engines though is that if there aren't deep vertical scratches that can catch the finger nail or scratches that don't run the length of the bore then you won't have to hone. I personally wouldn't run a heavy oil in an engine like this though.

Re: Burning Oil
 

Yeah its a 1995. Has 136,000 original miles.
But the guy before me took terrible care of it the oil was flatttt blackkk.
he let it stand for almost a year.
My cylinder compression is 210psi accross the board, if that will say anything.
So you guys dont suggest using thicker oil?
And how would I do a leak test?
If I got for a 40 mile drive.( hitting vtec alot)
and my oil was at the top dot on the oil stick.
it now be about 1/5 lower.

Re: Burning Oil
 

Its up to you what oil to use, But I would not recommend any heavy oil, use 5W30 or at most 10W30 IMO. Just add oil to your motor with every time you fill up. Or rebuild your motor.


You from maple falls?

Re: Burning Oil
 

could be a gasket leak (valve cover, oil pan?) look for the dampness around the gasket areas.

Re: Burning Oil
 

Na man im in seattle.
Well oil pan gasket replaced and it doesnt leak.
Valve cover gasket is good just in the backs its a little damp. but I mean in 100 miles it cant lose like half a 1/4 court of oil.
Could it be the oil control ring (piston ring?)

Re: Burning Oil
 

possibly, i had a eg with a d15(haha) that was going through a quart every 500 miles and it was the oil control ring.

Re: Burning Oil
 

Honda Tuning had a tech article on this subject no too long ago. My 5th gen had the same issue. Well, with the smoke, yours could be something else. But, the h series blocks have FRM liners which over time allow oil to get into the combustion chambers.. Which causes a lot of smoke at times..
I'll add the link if you want to read up on it. Like I said, your problem could be something else, but mine (and quite a few others) was the FRM liner.
Hope this helps!
http://www.hondatuningmagazine.com/t...ers/index.html

Re: Burning Oil
 

I also had to add a quart of oil every other week. Another small mistake from honda, aside the auto/manual transmissions and k series timing tensioners lol

Re: Burning Oil
 

Valve Guide Seals = Blue smoke upon cold start up

Piston Rings = Accelerate or downshifts.

If you know how to read the vacuum gauge then hook one up and it'll tell you if the valve guides are bad or not.

Re: Burning Oil
 

Well when I start it up it seems fine, it spits a little wet water or oil.
But when its warmed up and I step on the gas and go to red line my friend behind me says theres alot of blue smoke

Re: Burning Oil
 

So its your piston rings prolly.

Re: Burning Oil
 

Dang.
Well I have 210psi compression isnt that good compression?
Or does the oil controll ring not affect the compression?

Re: Burning Oil
 

You can get good compression numbers and have poorly functioning oil control rings.

Re: Burning Oil
 

ok.
Well then Ill just drive it the way it is for now and just add oil.
If I get money then Ill change them, maybe get high compression pistons while im at it.
Thanks guys.

Re: Burning Oil
 

The oil light is bad, that means you don't have enough oil in your car. Running your car to the low fuel light will not effect your oil but can effect your fuel pump/fuel filter. Before you leave the place you're having you oil changes done at, check your oil level.

Re: Burning Oil
 

Yeah, thats water vapor that the cat converter separated from the HC and CO coming out from the combustion chamber.

Carnot said it. Compression test only tests Compression Rings not Oil Control Rings; keep that in mind. Compression Rings are good on your engine, and your Oil Control Rings are probably toast. The Oil Control Rings are there to scrape the oil off the cylinder walls and leaving enough to seal the piston rings and lubricate the piston skirt.

Re: Burning Oil
 

How much would it cost to get them replaced?
Or if you do it yourself would you have to have the shop balance the pistons and everything?

Re: Burning Oil
 

I would guess thousands if you were to have a shop do the work start to finish. You could save a lot of money doing some of the work yourself. You also need to find a machine shop that is willing/capable of honing the FRM sleeves; I know my local machine shop says they won't work on honda blocks with FRM sleeves.

Re: Burning Oil
 

whats FRM sleaves? and what does it mean to hone them?

Re: Burning Oil
 

You DO NOT need to hone them unless there are scratches deep enough to catch your fingernail or if there are scratches that run the entire length of the bore, only iron sleeves have to be honed every time, not FRM.

FRM is a alumina and carbon fiber metal matrix composite that is stronger, thinner and lighter than traditional iron sleeves. More info on the liners can be found here:

http://www.saffil.com/pdfs/automotive/data/mmcprop.pdf

The honing procedure is explained in the helms manual, only someone experienced in honing FRM should be trusted with doing it.