97 ls motor with approximately 195k miles. compression on 5 cranks is within 5 psi of 180 on all cyls(which is well within spec). problem is my car burns oil. in checkin for ring sealings, i added a few drops of oil to my cyls then did it again. the most i got a cyl to go up was 10psi, but i think that might just be because i added too much oil and it took up physical space in the cyl.


also, the head appears to have been hot-tanked, because internal visual inspection says it has no where near 195k. is it possible that the valve seals were never replaced, and they they are what causes my car to burn oil? it burns very randomly(sometimes ill do a couple hard runs and no burning, and other times ill burn close to 1/2 qt over like 3 or 4 races)

 

Could be valve seals... your compression is good. Try running a thick 30wt oil. Any oil on your plugs?

 

compression test is too broad of a test to pin point a problem. You need to do a leakdown test. That will pin point exactly where you are burning oil at.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sleeperciv &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">compression test is too broad of a test to pin point a problem. You need to do a leakdown test. That will pin point exactly where you are burning oil at. </TD></TR></TABLE>

yea i know. i have to get that fitting thingy so i can hook up my friends air compressor into the spark plug hole.

the whole point of me being concerned is that i am boosting this motor in about 3 weeks. if i know the valve seals are whats bad i can put one of my spare ls heads on and boost it, but if its the rings ill have to pull the whole motor out and throw my spare one in

 

If oil is leaking thru your valve stem seals, then NEITHER a compression or leakdown test will see it. Those tests check whether the valve seats themselves are leaking.

 

yea true if the cyl is at tdc and the valves are all seated properly, then no air is gonna get by to even leak out the valveseals. this sucks. i was blowin it in front of my friend last night and he gave me the re-assurance that my car spits out an evil cloud of oil

 

If it happens to be the intake valve stem seals, it sucks lots of oil when you run up to high rpm then close the throttle (engine braking). That way there's a real strong vacuum in the intake ports. I can't think of a similar situation for exhaust valve stem seals...

 

if i drive normal it does not seem to burn oil. when i downshift and floor it up to redline, it spits out a cloud. also highway driving makes the oil dissapear too a little(gsr tranny 80 mph = 4100ish rpm for a few hours straight). no matter what i do, it constantly smells like burning oil ****

 

gonna bring this back with some more info for the hell of it

when i first put the motor in(185k on it) compression was 200,200,190,190.

so then technically i lost almost 20 psi in 2 of my clys , but it has evened itself out. thats a pretty bad drop isnt it

 

don't mean to jack your thread, but there is really no point in starting another post of the same topic.
I am in the same boat as you. My compression test showed 240psi in each cylinder across the board, but it is belching some major bluish white smoke at wide open throttle.
Also when I am on the highway and cruising and then get on it in 5th or any down shift it starts to reak of burning oil. I am using 5w30 in my engine(Ls/vtec with Buddyclub III+cams) right now. I have not had the chance to do a leak down to test the rings in any other way. I was hoping that thin of oil could be a problem?
any ideas
oh yeah Vtec does not work either.
Justin

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MysteryWagon &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">don't mean to jack your thread, but there is really no point in starting another post of the same topic.
I am in the same boat as you. My compression test showed 240psi in each cylinder across the board, but it is belching some major bluish white smoke at wide open throttle.
Also when I am on the highway and cruising and then get on it in 5th or any down shift it starts to reak of burning oil. I am using 5w30 in my engine(Ls/vtec with Buddyclub III+cams) right now. I have not had the chance to do a leak down to test the rings in any other way. I was hoping that thin of oil could be a problem?
any ideas
oh yeah Vtec does not work either.
Justin </TD></TR></TABLE>


hey i dont care about the threadjack or whatever- knowledge is knowledge- lets spread some.

my friend is actually in a similar situation with a similar motor to you.
gsr block/b16 head with type r cams. static compression on his motor is 9.8:1 and compression test came back at 220 which is fine in my opinion. this is in an ef hatch. his vtec dont work either. we think his problem is a mix of bad coolant temp sensor and possible oil rings...

if i remember correctly, oil viscosity can make vtec not work. i would suggest an oil change with maybe 10w 40 to see if it helps.

my oil consumption is random. i nailed it hard today a few times and didnt burn a drop. sometimes ill go through 1/2 qt in a day. are you burning a noticeable amount on the dipstick?

im thinking about trying some of that stopleak **** or similar product. have you tried any of that crap yet?

 

I put an ITR pump in about 2weeks ago and changed my oil. drove about 250 miles without burning any oil and then I drove 100+ miles with a little more WOT pulls and burned a half quart.
I was planning on changing oil with something a little thicker and no I have not tried that stop leak. I have heard of it, but never read anything about it or it being used on honda motors.
Justin

 

matt, use lucas!! that stuff is the ****. my ls/vtec used to burn a little bit when i had it. one quart of lucas ever oil change and she burned clean from then on. worked great. come to the zone, ill sell it to ya


Brett

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by I Have an STD &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">matt, use lucas!! that stuff is the ****. my ls/vtec used to burn a little bit when i had it. one quart of lucas ever oil change and she burned clean from then on. worked great. come to the zone, ill sell it to ya


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

damn man i was in the area today too. i went to sarjos and got those o2 bung nuts

 

sweet. btw, thanks again for the use of the wide band. you dsaved me motor. now my plugs look like new after 450 miles of driving


Brett

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LSVTEC 91 Civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Could be valve seals... your compression is good. Try running a thick 30wt oil. Any oil on your plugs?</TD></TR></TABLE> what does oily plugs mean?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BLUE EH3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> what does oily plugs mean?</TD></TR></TABLE>


not totally sure, except for that there would be wet oil in my cyls. my plugs did have wet oil on them at one point, but then i put the spark plug seals on better

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by I Have an STD &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">sweet. btw, thanks again for the use of the wide band. you dsaved me motor. now my plugs look like new after 450 miles of driving


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

i sent you a pm too

 

uhhh, so i decided to do another compression check after i burned 1 qt of oil yesterday in about 70 miles of semi hard driving.

190,190,185,190. grr

is it normal for compression to fluctuate as much as mine is???? over the past few weeks its been anywhere between 200 and 180, but the varience between cylinders has never been much above 10 psi

 

Same compression gauge, I suppose? Cranking rpm while you measure it is a big difference. Depends on oil temperature, battery state-of-charge, or simply whether you removed ALL 4 plugs before measuring will make a difference. Then there's throttle position - wide open, right? Can you think of anything else that's different between the times you checked it?

I'm not sure whether that variation is actually bad. Like you said, it's been within 10 psi of each other for each time you checked it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JimBlake &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Same compression gauge, I suppose? Cranking rpm while you measure it is a big difference. Depends on oil temperature, battery state-of-charge, or simply whether you removed ALL 4 plugs before measuring will make a difference. Then there's throttle position - wide open, right? Can you think of anything else that's different between the times you checked it?

I'm not sure whether that variation is actually bad. Like you said, it's been within 10 psi of each other for each time you checked it.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

same gauge, normal operating temperature, all plugs pulled, along with the injector clips off so no fuel, wide open throttle, all accessories turned off to not draw battery current....

my plugs have carbon on the outside bottom ring, and the electrode thingy is a nice blackish tan color, which is fine

i just dont want this thing to blow like 3 days after i put the snail on, especially since i have another motor in my garage. im just paranoid about stuff