I'm a little irritated. I just bought this car and now it would apear to be using oil. I just did an oil change about a thousand miles ago and today I checked it and it was about a half quart low.
So I did a search and found a lot of threads with people saying that H22's just burn oil. I don't believe that though, no piston engine "just burns oil". There has to be a reason be it rings, HG or valve seals etc.
I'm kinda leaning toward leaky valve seals since the damn engine runs so strong, but I'll do a compression test this weekend and see what I get.

FYI it's a "new" JDM engine with a few thousand USA miles on it, so around 40-50k I suppose.

 

sounds like you have a leak somewhere. Yes, you are right, not all h22s lose oil.

 

Yeah, is there anyway to check the valve seals/guides?
The only time the car smokes is when I start it and it idles high. I figured it was due to running rich until it warms up or am I mistaken?

 

Yea, check your valve seats. I had a h22 that would smoke when you start it, and when i took it down to rebuild it the seats wherent all that great. I would say that is your probelum. But if you beat on um they will use a little oil wether or not they have a leak.

 

1 to 2 qts every 3000 miles is somewhat typical.

I can tell you that it means you have ring issues or valve seal issues... but most likely ring issues.

If you are burning 1 qt every 1000 miles... or more... then you have an actually serious problem. Otherwise, 2 qts in 3000 miles isn't unheard of...

The way to determine the issue is to perfrom a compression test.

If the compression test is fine (225+ on each cylinder and no more than 10% difference between any 2 cylinders), then you need to perform a leak down test.

Leakage can be heard in the head or the block and that will determine were you're getting the oil into your engine for it to be combusted.

If you are leaking oil, check the cam seal near the left rear of the valve cover and the main seal.


Modified by gerhard at 7:09 PM 4/4/2005

 

true it depends on how good of condition the engine was when it the left the car they took it out of... My jdm h22a doesn't use any oil at 3-4 thousand miles it did at first like a half a quart but once I ran a couple of tanks of gas through it -- it quit... but it could be the piston rings they are not the strongest part of our engines...

 

My JDM H22A that I swapped in place of the h22a4 doesn't burn a drop.

 

my new a4 burns oil. my sh block didnt burn a drop. EVER. that engine was so damn strong.

 

Well, I'll do a comp test and see what turns up. I have been having fun with the car, getting into vtec with it but not beating on it. I don't take it past 7000 most of the time, sometimes 7500. Usually just merging from an on ramp and stuff like that. Can valve seals be replaced with the head still on?
Are H22 piston rings really weak?

 

Sun was out today so I got a good look at the engine. At first it looked clean but then I saw a film on top of the transmission. I traced it up and it looks like it is coming from the intake cam seal. Would a cam seal leak a 1/2 quart in two weeks?
Are the aftermarket cam seals better than OEM, like the Golden Eagle, STR and Passwords?

 

I about fell out of my chair laughing when I read the title..

 

I don't use oil in daily commute. I lose some oil on the track and lots of hard driving.

 

Just to add my experience... I drive my car pretty hard and it never seems to use even a drop of oil. Maybe I'm lucky because I have heard about H22's consuming oil...

 

My problem seems to be a leak in the oil seal on the passenger side of the intake cam. I think the reason most H22's leak oil(if that is even true) is because they are beat on more than any other engine. I mean come on, it's a 200 HP motor, so you know the people driving em around are hammering on em and getting into VTEC a lot. And I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, I drive my car fairly hard, that's why we buy these motors but that tends to wear things out. Ya know?

 

Dude... I bought my 98 'lude new... and it always burned oil.

It alway had a blue puff of smoke on cold days when I first started it.

...and that was not the valve seals causing it...

 

no. mine doesnt lose a drop either

 

I burn oil if i want too If i stay outta vtec it doesnt burn anything.

 

My old JDM H22 motor burned oil. Maybe every 3k miles it would burn like a quart. When I turbo'd it, it burned even faster...

 

I thought the sleeves ovalised...

My H22 (I drive pretty hard) burns about 1 liter every 400kms. It's bad, but I'd say about 100 of the kms are in vtec...but I'm getting better at not driving so hard and I'm topping up less. But I've been told alot of smoke comes out on highway pulls. I have a drag video of the smoke...

http://www.vitalmotion.net/videos/MOV07088.MPG
http://www.vitalmotion.net/videos/MOV07096.MPG

It's pretty bad. But after 15 runs, only lost 0.2L...

EDIT:

This one you can see of the first gear only burning oil when it hits VTEC.
http://www.vitalmotion.net/videos/MOV07122.MPG

And I ran a 15.0 that day. Not bad for a first timer.


Modified by ludesrv at 10:13 PM 4/17/2005

 

my JDM H22a burns some oil. Most DOHC VTEC engines I have seen do burn -some- oil between changes, even though the engine is mechanically perfect. This almost always occurs when the engine is in VTEC mode at high RPMs.
....this is what leads to "vtec soot", the infamous black soot on the back of a vtec car if you don't wash it too often.

brad

 

This is three days worth of not washing the car. The soot is there, and ready to rock.

 

all engines use oil, the piston rings must stay lubricated in order to make a good seal this oil & prevent egnine failure, the cylinder walls must have that thin film of oil and some of that is burned in the combustion chamber. you know what happens when you got to parts rubbing against each other wheter is plastic or metal you will have friction which creates heat apply oil or some other form of cooling liquid such as the CNC machines have that continous liquid nozzle on the cutting bit.


so for you guys that say my engine does not burn oil, well what can I say.


Modified by Qfactor at 10:50 PM 4/17/2005

 

hmm...well after 3,000 miles i burned about 1 1/2 quarts...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by girLuder &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">hmm...well after 3,000 miles i burned about 1 1/2 quarts... </TD></TR></TABLE>

You got problems.

 

is it better to run 5W-30 or 10W-30 in the summer time?