Pulled down my '91 today to do the timing and balancer belts, valve adjustment, etc. When I pulled the dipstick I noticed it was down a little over a Qt. in 2,000 miles. I know it's a high mile motor but there are no obvious signs of blow by or leaks. I did have a leak but it was fixed and the oil topped off. The plugs were worn but otherwise showed almost text book combustion with near perfect coloring, no oil in the water or vice versa, no signs of oil burnng in the tailpipe, no blue smoke ever. No signs of oil leaking at the main seals or balancer shafts. The valve cover wasn't leaking around the outside but it has been seeping oil into the spark plug wells, but a quart ? I don't think so............... I'll be replacing the grommets when it goes back on. The lh end of the motor at the back is pretty oily but I think that is residue from my sending unit leak and there is no spotting in the driveway. Any ideas? Thanks.

Oh yeah, the last guy to have it apart didn't get the lower belt cover on right and the bottom pulley and belts have worn several holes in it. Nice guy.

 

Is it an auto?

Seen flywheel main seal leak on 5 speeds. You can usually see a drop on the tranny pumpkin. If its an auto you dont have an access plate or a place for the oil to drip down.

 

5 speed but there is no sign of oil inside the bellhousing or inspection cover and the outside just has the normal 190,000 mile grunge you'd expect on a motor that was probably never cleaned except when it drove through a water puddle. I do run it pretty hard but not as hard as I ran my 156,000 mile 4.3 S-10 and it never used a drop. Then again I don't know much of the history on this one, but there is no sludge inside the valve cover or on top of the head but it is varnished up pretty good. I'm running Castrol 10W-40 for high mileage motors, maybe I'll switch back to regular GTX, I've had it reduce oil consumption on a couple of my beaters before.

Oh yeah, the PCV wasn't plugged either. Guess I'll just have to accept the fact that I got myself an oil drinker.

Picked up another belt cover from Lunn's Service in Bettendorf, IA. Nice guy and everybody says he is the man to take a Honda to in the Quad City area. He did right by me on the cover so I figured I'd give him a plug.


[Modified by Hippie, 8:53 AM 10/11/2002]

 

are you running a crankcase breather?

 

my valve guides are SHOT on my car. (puff smoke when cold @ start) and uses about the same ... quart every 2-3k.

personally im OK with it losing oil. after like 258,000 miles i'd be scared if it didnt

 

Try the stop oil leak products.
It worked for me
It supposely expands the gaskets back to original condition.

 

No breather just the factory PCV setup. I do detect a faint oil odor though when I push it hard but like I said it's not smoking. "???????"

Like the old Chevy 396's, if they didn't smoke a little there was something wrong with 'em ! I'm not even getting a puff of blue in the morning and I can't find any leaks just some very minor seepage that doesn't amount to squat. Just have to keep an eye on it I guess.

Hey Gimpy, I get out to the JD plant at Ankeny once in awhile, if I ever have to stay a day or 2 I'll drop you a line and we'll have a , but I'm gettin' old so after one or two I switch to coffee. Can't afford a DUI .


[Modified by Hippie, 8:00 PM 10/11/2002]

 

Always check your oil with the car sitting level. And don't do hallucinigenics, they catch up with you in later years.

 

sounds good!

 

Another thing you might wanna check is the Oil pan Gasket.
My 90 Coupe was doing the same thing and of course when i looked under the car it was the oil pan gasket.

my $0.2

 

Well thanks for the input guys but the only thing wrong is my brain. The car was up on jackstands when I pulled the dipstick tube. When I got it flat and level it was only down a tiny bit. Actually quite acceptable for 191,000 miles and the way I drive. Guess I had a "senior moment".

As it turned out the timing belts weren't that old but I changed them anyway. I found lots of other stuff the last guy in there had screwed up so it was still worth the trouble. He broke one of the tabs of the lower belt cover plus didn't get seated so the bottom pulley and alt belt wore big holes in it and the belt adjuster for the alternator was just hanging there and abunch of other piddly *** stuff that would have been a problem somewhere down the road. Did a valve adjustment, plugs, wires, cap and rotor. Car runs a lot better now and I didn't think it ran that bad before.