Im looking at purchasing a 98 Integra with 120Kmi. Checked out the car yesterday and it appeared to have very little oil in it. Sprinkles on the dipstick, wiped and nothing after that. No smoke/check engine lights/ and seemed to run perfectly fine. I was planning to order a B20 for it, BUT can I simply have the piston rings replaced and look forward to a normal 200K Honda life? I don't really expect i'll be racing this motor, the occasional throttle womp but nothing serious. Also, can I put in oversized pistons (0.25) from Honda/Acura in without taking it to a machine shop and is it even worth it.
Thanks in advance for any info

 

wow, so many things wrong here. Just because the car is low on oil doesn't mean your piston rings are shot. A clear sign of bad piston rings is blue smoke out of the exhaust while accelerating. You would have to take the block out and take it to the machine shop to have a hone/bore done to fit oversize pistons. If I were you I would do 2 things. First run a compression test. Second drive it and look for any blue smoke coming from the exhaust.

 

I didnt see any smoke, i revved the motor and from the throttle body as a peered around back and drove the car and didnt see any smoke. it seems to be pretty well taken care of i did notice the coolant wasnt green but it wasnt milky either. What other explanation could there be for there being super low on oil?

 

hey I thought blue smoke is a car running too rich and black is oil. help me if i'm wrong

btw my 95gsr and my friends 97 gsr both burnt oil in high rpm and you cant see the smoke by yourself. You can see it when you redline it and switch gears really fast and stomp the throttle again. After about a month I had to add some oil cuz i'd smash it a bit too much. Other than that if I dont hit vtec for a month, no burnt oil at all.
Do a compression test and/or a leakdown test and we'll go from there.
btw there is no point of going .25 overboard. Yes you will need to machine shop that in order to fit the pistons.If you really want to change out the rings, then find a honing tool and hone it couple time(do not go to much with the honer tool) and your good to go.

 

I wouldn't purchase it unless you're getting it for next to nothing. If it appeared to have very little oil in it, obviously the car wasn't well taken care of; also, you don't know how long the oil was low--therefore, you don't know what potential problems it has, or will have in the very near future from that alone. I'm assuming this is an Integra LS? I would suggest getting another LS, or a GSR motor for it...or, have the motor rebuilt. About the oversized pistons, the answer is fairly obvious...if they're oversized, the bore will more than likely need to be increased to fit them in correctly. Anyways, personally, I wouldn't buy the car.

 

Yeah, you just have it backwards. The way I remember it is think about modified diesel engines. When they floor it a bunch of black smoke comes out. Part of that is due to there being too much fuel that can't be burned during the compression cycle.

 

whats the price and condition? that really is what matters to determine if it's a good buy or not.

 

Super clean body GS w/ leather and sunroof of course, lightly modded for 3500; obviously id prefer to spend money on other things but i've budgeted for a replacement motor. Just trying to get a grasp on whether you guys think i can ride it out for a good while with a simple fix like rings. Im supposed to take delivery of the vehicle tomorrow.

 

bump

 

If you're really worried about the health of the engine, run a compression/leakdown test and you'll get your answers. I wouldnt get too ahead of yourself and begin tearing into something because it's a little low on oil. Also, do you really understand what you're getting yourself into? Its not like changing spark plugs to re-ring an engine...

 

Im not doing it myself, I was going to have a friend check it out and take care of it, but I wanted an idea of what I can expect before purchasing the car and if it was cost effective to go that route rather than purchase another motor.
Id have my friend check it out but he gets pretty busy (everyone loves having mechanic friends...including myself, i know)
...And I suppose im getting ahead of myself because I recently had to put a new head on my B18 because it burnt oil and the motors thermostat went bad at 150Kmiles. Just dont want to go through all that again, you know

 

No, i totally understand where you're coming from. The simplest way to prevent buying a problem car is to run the compression/leakdown test. I'm sure your mechanic friend can help you with that. The results of that test will tell you the health of the engine and be a deciding factor in your purchase...

 

Alright, I'll be sure to have that done ASAP, definitely before buying a motor, if not before buying the car.
Thanks everyone for the help