Ok, i just re-built my motor, for the second time. well, first i re-built it and all, new bearings, everything. i put it in the car and it burned a HELL of a lot of oil!! like i could go 15 miles and then have to put 1.5 quarts in it, and sometims go 15 miles and it wouldn't use any at all. the same 15 miles, the same driving style, easy. then i think it's either the valve guides or the cylinder walls (they had scarring). since i just had a valve job done on the head (the guys were supposed to have nurled the guides and done a 3 angle valve job) i figured it couldn't be the guides. so i took the motor apart again, and got it bored, new pistons and rings. i put it all back together and it currently has about 430 miles on it, i checked the oil and it has used about 2 quarts already, but not until i had gone 200 miles. i kept checking things, so that i knew if it was using oil or not, it didn't use any oil until i went over 200 miles. What's up with this, is this probably the valve guides?? or do CRX Si motors that have just been completely re-built generally use about 2 quarts in 300 miles??


motor with blown head gasket: $200
motor re-build: $1300
motor re-build: $500
motor STILL using un-Godly amounts of oil: Priceless

 

You're going to burn oil until your rings seat. Hopefully you weren't a ***** with seating them.

 

it only take 15 min. to seat rings. max 1 day. theres no way he will be burning oil for 430 miles. who is the machine shop that rebuilt it for you? or did u just send out for the work. how would the engine burn oil? either wrong valve guide clearence or rings right. youve got to notive if it smokes on decel or accel. accel indicates rings and decel indicates valve guide. do that first. then you can do a leakdown test and see how much leakage you have in the bottom end or top end.

you know theres like 3 threads about d16s not running. this makes me kinda nervous as i have my own rebuilt engine waiting to be fired up

 

Poorly seated rings will still burn oil after 430 miles and that's still not the end of the break-in process. There's also ring gap placement, if you don't stagger the gaps correctly you're not going to get a proper seal. If you baby the motor in its first 20 minutes you'll never get a good ring seal. There's so much more to breaking in a motor than turning the key and stepping on the long skinny pedal for 15-20 minutes. It is not uncommon to burn a quart or two of oil in the first 500 miles of a babied motor. These are the same motors that always burn a little bit of oil. Don't take my word for it though, feel free to do your own research. You'll find a crap load of people with brand new cars that burn excessive amounts of oil and you'll also find that they babied their car for the first 500-2000 miles.

Again, this is why I do my own work. About the only thing I didn't do on my build was the machine work.

 

Agree with above. A majority of the break in process takes place in the first 20 or so miles. The rest spans over up to 1500 miles.
When you crank a fresh motor you let it warm up COMPLETELY, rad fans come on at least twice. Then you hit it with high load, not necessarily high rpm but a few spurts are recommended. Keep it in 3rd/4th and WOT...use engine braking and back to WOT, keep repeating with a few spurts in the higher rpms for the first 20 miles. Change oil and filter, and a further step is drop the pan and clean it as well.

This will get you off to the best start you can give your motor.

 

what if the oil scraper ring is intstalled upside down. i understand a little oil is normal. and i agree with most of your break in procedure. but 2 quarts in 300 miles is a little too much isnt it? assuming he was driving the car on the freeway at all and cycling the rpm.

hmm actually maybe hes jumping to conclusions. did you just check the oil level for the first time? do an oil change and go for another tank before you start tearing it apart. 2 quarts is a lot though