is there some sort of acceptable amount of consumption for a b20vtec? this thing goes through oil very quickly...i have researched a bit and some people have said around 1 quart. issue is my oil level is always down. before my first oil change(i barely bought the car) i went about 2 weeks using it and crusing it, drove around 1k miles in those 2 weeks(didn't abuse it other than hit vtec a few times) and i checked oil and there was none on the dipstick, wiped dipstick and re-checked, repeated this about 4 times, same result, no oil. weird i know, so i poured in 2 quarts of oil and after running it the oil level on the dipstick was just on the 2nd circle(full)....so i pour in 2 quarts and all of a sudden my engine has a lot of oil? also, after pouring the oil, i immediately checked the dippstick and it had some black particles on it, only did it once since i wiped the dipstick and checked again and nothing but oil. anyways i did an oil change and poured in 4 quarts and oil level on dipstick was normal, halfway between the 2 circles. this was on sunday. today i checked oil and oil is on circle #1(low)....wtf? i have never noticed any oil on my driveway or smoke coming out of tailpipe.

 

Whats your oil pressure at? No motor should be burning oil/ leaking.

 

I think you didn't check the oil after you changed it. You're supposed to run the car for a minute, shut it off, and recheck level. Add more if necessary...

Are there lots of miles on the motor? What kind of oil was used? Did you rebuild it with the rings loose?

 

First of all, you don't seem to understand how a dipstick works. The top dot means the oil is full; you shouldn't put in another two quarts AFTER you already have it filled to that point. The bottom dot is down by one quart. You can run it at any point between the two dots, but normally when you're adding oil you want to add enough so that it's at the full dot. Then you can keep track of your miles since filling it to determine how much you're using. For example, if you drive 500 miles and it needs half a quart to reach the full ine again, you're using one quart every 1000 miles.

You should NEVER let the oil level drop below the bottom dot.

According to the instructions in the owner's manual, you're supposed to shut the car off and let it sit 5-10 minutes before checking - sort of like what Dwreck says - but in my experience you can also check the oil when the car is cold and you'll get about the same reading on the dipstick as by following the manual's procedure.

There's a difference between "normal" oil consumption and "acceptable" oil consumption. More specifically, if your car is using up to one quart every 1000 miles, that's considered normal. However, for a long time after I hit 130K miles my GS-R was using one quart every 500 miles, and I just kept adding oil. That level of consumption is not normal - I knew it meant there was a potential problem with the valve guides, rings, whatever - but it was more economical to keep adding oil than to spend $2500-4000 to rebuild the engine to fix the problem. When I hit 175K miles there was some coolant in the oil (blown head gasket) and at that point I was forced to do the rebuild. Since then (I'm at 210K) it's been using one quart every 7K miles.