I have a 1995 Honda Civic CX hatch. It has a 1999 B18C1 swap in it.

It's been burning oil for some time now. Originally, I guessed that it was valve seals, so I took the head off, broke it down, had it cleaned, cleaned all of the valves, made sure no valves were bent, re-lapped the valves, replaced the valve seals, and adjusted the valves. The motor runs super smooth and doesn't have any ticking noises or anything, but it still burns oil.

I notice the blue smoke coming out of the exhaust mostly on deceleration, when I'm downshifting. I also notice it sometimes when I'm being easy on the car at very little throttle. Very rarely do I notice it when I'm hammering on it.

I did a compression test, right after driving the car, so it was at operating temperature. I had a solid 220 PSI across the board.

I also did a leak down test. Cylinder 1 was 27.5%. Cylinder 2 was 9%, which I'm not too worried about. Cylinder 3 was also 27.5%. Cylinder 4 was 5%, which I'm also not too worried about.

In cylinders 1 and 3, the air was leaking out of the throttle body, indicating that the intake valves on those cylinders are not sealing properly.

From what I was told, the B18C1 swap has almost 180k miles on it.

From what it looks like to me, signs seem to be pointing towards the valve guides. Am I making a good assumption? Any input is appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

- DJ

 

Bump! Need input!

 

Bump!

 

send the head out and get it checked. possible bent or burnt valve or you might off screwed up on the leak down test

 

The bottom end needs a refresh. High vacuum on decel will pull it right past the rings. This is extremely common on these motors after they get a few years on them. The leak down numbers don't sound right as 27% is huge. Did you have the crank at tdc for sure on each cyl?

 

Bad piston rings can do that. I say check valve seals as that is an easy fix compared installing new rings.

 

I have an extra GSR head with supposedly ~70k on it. I just replaced the seals, cleaned all of the valves and re-lapped all of the valves. I'm going to adjust the valves when I install the head. Basically, I hope my oil burning problem is coming from the head and not the block.

And how would I have screwed up on the leak down test?

Yes, I'm positive that I had each piston at TDC before I tested it. I'm just hoping that it's not the rings. The cylinder walls look great. There's no scoring marks or anything out of the ordinary. No wobble play in any of the pistons either.

Like I said above, I have the extra GSR head that I just did all of that work on, so I'm going to try that and see what happens.