Here is the deal. I have 1988 Honda Civic DX with 253,000 miles on it.
The car was running great, had a very smooth idle, but was burning some oil.
I think mostly through the valve guide seals, smoked in the morning. I guess at 250,000 rings too.

Anyway, here is my question: The car recently lost one valve (see picture).
If I get a valve job (re-manufactured head) will it suck so much oil from the rings that I would be horrified?

I mean I know this is not a good idea, but it ran great before the problem.
If I put something like the Lucas Oil Stabilizer, do you think it would be enough that it would at least run as good as before?

Compression data was about 160 in the 3 working cylinders with old head.

Any other options or ideas that don't involve a new engine?

 

at 160 psi across the board i would just fix the head...or put in a good used head.

 

Putting a remand head on will not make it burn anymore oil. The worst it will do is burn the same amount of oil.

 

why would it suck oil from the rings?

 

Comes from reading others experiences on the net. Because the valves seal so much better (like new), but the rings are old. It may suck oil on the intake stroke.

Well, I will let you guys know. It will be done in the next 10 days.

Thanks for everyones thoughts.

 

I am shocked, it worked great! Runs like new. 250,000 miles on this car and I could still see some of the original cross-hatch pattern on the cylinder walls.
I could not detect ANY ridge at the top of the cylinders with my fingers.

It is now using much less oil then it did before.

I now have 170 plus PSI in all cylinders! I don't understand, how can this be?

My Dad's 1996 Toyota Camry was shot at 175K

 

What did you do? Pictures, detials....pls and thanks

 

Because Honda
/flex

Would really have liked to see pics of all the cylinder walls before you assembled.
It's not uncommon to see cross-hatch in some places.
It is VERY common to find a patch or two that is smooth and shiny where the piston presses against the walls on the up and down stroke.
That smooth patch is the evil.

 

I tried to take pictures of it, but my camera would not show the detail. In fact, I had to get the light just right to see it with my eyes. I did have patches of the smooth and shiny.

I'm just surprised the cylinders were this tight.

I tell you it scared the crap out of me when I started it up! It smoked like crazy for what I felt like was way too long. But it went away in a few minutes. My 120 seconds of terror!

 

I need to replace my valve stem seals too... I guess this is a common issue for d15b1/b2's.

 

run the new head, like they said worst case it burns a little oil again. I would be more worried about blow-by into the oil though. check out graveyard motorsports they did my head rebuild very clean and cheap too!! they are also putting together my stage 5 d series head, thats right stage 5, sorry if that's off topic. like the sig says it's my first day

 

It's common for all cars.
200,000 miles takes it's toll on rubber seals.