Let me paint a nice little picture for you. I dropped an F22a into my EG. The engine was bought from a junkyard with 185psi across the board except one cylinder had 180. Still serviceable. Long story short and in this order-

Ive had new valve guides installed along with valve job, valve guides head resurface

Accidentally installed head gasket upside down & started engine

Flipped head gasket and ran engine since (OEM 4 layer steel unit)

Looped PCV lines (like an idiot) and built up so much pressure I shot oil out
of the cam seal ( I feel like this stunt could of damaged the valve seals)

Have smoking issue only on decel (worse with PCV line connected)

WOT- only in first for a few thousand RPM then nothing

NOT CONSISTENT. Well, I can usually make it happen on decel so thats a lie.

With the line that comes off the side of the valve cover and goes to the intake, I just rinsed the engine off after my run and then looked in the bay when I got home to find it puked a ton more oil on the trip home.

Rings, valve seals? Hook PCV back up and buy a quality PCV instead of the cheap Autozone one? If it is one of those two, (rings or seals) how can I tell which it is?

Thanks,

Blaze

 

I seriously doubt positive or boosted crankcase pressure would have had any detrimental effect on stem seals.
Valve stem seals seal around the valve guide itself and are not in the way of pressurized air trying to evacuate the crankcase or valve cover.
It just seems unlikely the PCV/boost caused the issue.

Not to second guess but who installed the valve springs?
Are you sure there are stem seals on your guides?

To narrow it down run a compression test with, and without oil through the spark plug hole, if compression is higher with oil your rings are suspect.
If not look to the head, or possibly the head gasket.

You may also want to take a good look at your main seals, if it took out your cam seal who knows what state those may be in, Ive heard of mains blowing out under PCV boost before.

Good luck.

 

I had a local shop do the valves springs/ valve seals.

I will run a compression test this Saturday to lead me in the right direction.

I just replaced the main seal (tranny side) before I dropped the engine in... Not sure if this is the seal you are talking about?

I really appreciate your input. Thanks for the help.

Have you herd of oil rings sticking/sludge build up? The engine had sat for quite a while.... Some people have dumped marvel mystery oil in the cylinder and it seems to help when they let it sit overnight. Im wondering if this is something that I should look into....

Once again thanks for your input.

 

I have never heard of Marvel being used in that regard, that's not to say it couldn't work, just not something I'm familiar with.

Also I should correct myself, a compression test will not reveal any useful information about the condition of oil control rings, just the compression rings which are designed to contain cylinder pressure.

The way you described the smoking also does suggest vacuum induced oil burn.
It would probably be a good idea to pull the valve cover and just make sure your stem seals are there AND completely slid down on the guides, you should be able to tell by looking through the springs.

What is your pcv setup like?
Do you have a catch can installed?
Try taking a look at the official crankcase pcv thread.
https://honda-tech.com/forums/forced-induction-16/official-crankcase-evacuation-thread-turbo-hondas-pcv-catchcan-1199935/

And yes, the rear main seal was the one I was talking about.

 

Im using KMS valve springs, so it is kind of hard to see them but that is something else I will look for this Saturday when I take a crack at things. Perhaps rent a valvespring tool and take them all off and see....

As for the compression test, I didn't think that it would help me with the oil control rings but perhaps if it is the headgasket?

As for my PCV setup, I bought a cheap PCV valve and then ran the hose from the valve cover to the intake manifold just like my stock accord. The smoking annoyed me so much that I disconnected it from the intake manifold.

I also did use to have the other valve cover breather hose that goes to the intake arm hooked up as well but there was a ton of oil going through that too so I disconnected it.

And thanks for the link, I have spent some time reading through that these past few days.

 

The oil has 3 paths into the cylinder, 2 of which you have already covered.

PCV system, if you pull the hose going from pcv valve to the intake manifold you just removed that path for the oil to get in. A healthy engine should run just fine with the pcv disconnected from vacuum, it will still vent the crankcase just fine along with the other vc vent.

Valve guides/seals. You had both of these replaced when the motor was apart so technically they should be perfect. I have had situations where the machine shop has a difficult time removing the guides and put a small crack in the head. I find this highly unlikely. Also, a typical valve seal issue will be noticeable on first startup with a puff or small cloud of smoke and then clears up. This is caused by oil seeping down over time and burning upon startup. I have never seen a honda with this problem yet but I suppose there is always a first time.

Rings. This has been in my experience the most frequent cause of oil burners. This is also the last thing people want to hear in regards to the issue due to the massive amount of work required to properly replace or diagnose them. Compression and leakdown tests will tell you nothing, a lot of morons on this site will tell you otherwise.

When you are accelerating the combustion pressures will generally keep the oil away from the cylinders, but when you decelerate you are introducing high vacuum to the intake manifold path AND the cylinders. If the ring seal is inadequate it will pull the oil right up, and upon reapplying the throttle you see a cloud of smoke in your mirror. These engines are getting old, the days of picking up an older swap or junkyard motor and having it be tip top shape is getting more and more rare. You can try marvel mystery oil but I feel thats just wishing upon a star.

Just giving you some things to think about as you continue diagnosing this frustrating issue.

 

Honestly, throwing in a set of rings isn't the end of the world. A bit time consuming yes but not terribly expensive I just hate replacing things that I am not 100% sure is the problem. I getting a lot of oil out of the breather tube that goes to the intake arm. Looks like that is the route of new rings....

Thanks for your input!

Blaze