My 98 Accord LX with 218 k miles, had been losing oil; however, I never saw leaks or really smelled any burning;however, I did get an occasional O2 sensor or catalytic converter error. I was adding a quart per gas tank,

Then last nite, I was driving and thought it was smoggy; however, a signal stop later I noticed it was my car smoking quite a bit. Hence, I stopped and shut off the engine to look at the engine. The passenger and front center of the engine to the radiator was covered with oil or so it seems. It was like a spray all over the place. I could not start the car after this even after adding oil.

I had the car towed home as it was late and I was only 1/4 mile from home but too weak to push it up hill and through the intersection.

When I got home, I tried to find where it was coming from; however, I was not able to do so. I added a second quart which probably slightly overfilled it and it had been cooling off for probably 45 minutes by now and it started; however, the oil was not spraying. I only had it on for a minute as I figure I will need to take it somewhere in the morning and did not want to cause more damage. There is one garage about a quarter mile from me; however, my normal mechanic is a good 5+ miles which would probably require a tow. I was hoping for some suggestions so that I am not towing it all over town as even the dealer mechanics seemed to have trouble figuring out leaks in the past, and my regular mechanic made a recent mistake also.

I have not seen a case of the oil spraying inside the engine on this site, and if there is something that I can check before going to a mechanic to be somewhat prepared that would be great. Even better if I can fix it myself.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

kinda sounds like a possible cylinder head gasket problem...
you might wanna check compression and also do a cylinder leak down test..this is also a helpful tool...
http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/p-3216-lisle-75500.aspx

 

I think it is resolved or at least I can drive it now.

After the car cooled off overnight, it did start ok; however, it quickly began to overheat, smoke, and it turned out that one of the hoses to the radiator was leaking badly. I had to add water a bunch of times to get it to the repair shop.

It turned out the distributor was leaking oil onto the hose, and the hose cracked also damaging some thermometer.

I ended up replacing all those parts. It seems to run ok, but I am waiting to see if this leak from the distributor is what accounted for the major loss of oil.