F22A4 in a 90 accord, burned a valve. Took it apart. No hard oil varnish on pistons, they cleaned right up. So I figured the bottom end is ok. Had a valve job for $175, put it back together. Now at 3500rpm (i.e. 80mph on the interstate) it uses 1 qt in 150 miles and smokes when downshifting. Going to 15W-50 and seafoaming didn't help. I am assuming it is the rings and not a bad valve job, what do you think? I will check compression but I don't know how to check whether oil burning is from blowby or from valve guides.

Options:
1) Stay off the interstate
2) Pull the head and do rings and rods. I get NPR rings and pistons for $75 on ebay. This would be complicated by the fact that I had to helicoil one of the bolt holes in the block
3) Somehow do the rings from below? Would have to trust that the crosshatch is ok.
4) Swap in a professional rebuilt short block. ($$$)
5) Used F22A from junkyard from a wreck or with tested compression.
6) F22A JDM.
7) Used/JDM F22B/H22. Motor mounts? Tranny? Wiring? ECU?

I like the option of going with a newer higher HP motor but want to minimize the amount of adapters, rewiring, etc.

I'm fine with dumping oil in it for the short term but eventually it'll catch up with me and throw a rod, so I'm planning for a few months from now.

Help me decide...

 

Drop a H22

 

I don't see F22A->H22 swap in the FAQ, how complicated is it? The 90 accord is not OBD.

 

Well, in the end the valve re-burned yesterday. The spark plug was all coked up around the white insulator in that cylinder so the oil burning is probably what took out the valve. What I don't get is if the piston was clean when we tore it down, and there is a new valve stem seal, where did all the oil come from? Hard to believe the rings would be that bad.


Modified by runderwo at 12:45 PM 8/27/2007