I have a 89 SI with D16a6. It smokes pretty bad and burns up oil when i drive it hard, But it still pulls strong. If its burning oil its the rings or a seal in the head isnt it and thats bad? Is it really that bad for it it still runs and pulls strong?? anyone else with the same problem? or should i just giver? Thanks

 

You prolly have either leaking valve seals or worn rings. Either one can lead to blowby ending up being mixed with the oil and causing the oil to dilute and not carry its same properties.
In lehmans terms if enough blowby gets in your oil it can thin your oil enough that it wont lubricate correctly causing problems such as rod knock as most common.

 

The compression test was good before install so then it must be the head. Right? I was thinking bout putting on a vtec head so its not so bad i guess.

 

i just went threw this on my mini me swap. my old head had leaky valves, and my block was good. so i threw on a z6 head, and with the higher compression it toasted my oil rings and smoked like a fright train, so i had to tear it down and rebuild it.

i would recomend the swap for sure but buy a new ring set and have the cylinders honed