I took the head off of my 2000 Integra last night and found a lot of carbon build up on one of the cylinder exhaust valves. Unlike the other exhaust valves that are white. What could be causing this?

 

You have oil leaking into that cylinder somewhere. Do a compression test and a leakdown test to find out where it's coming from. Parts stores normally rent the tools you'll need if you don't already own them.

 

looks like you have blow by from that piston/clyinder. Most likely broken ring lands.

 

Might just be a leaking valve stem seal or spark plug gasket?

 

The quickest way to find out is a compression test and leakdown test. That'll pinpoint the problem and he won't be throwing parts at the problem.

 

How do you suggest the OP go about performing such tests? It's kind of hard with the head already off the car...

 

It's not hard to reinstall the head with a gasket and torque to spec. And it's a lot better than just throwing parts at the head or pulling the pistons out and doing all that extra work to find out there wasn't a problem with them.

 

What I would do is change the valve stem seals while the head is off the block, because it's much easier that way. They're really cheap, even OEM, and if you're going to replace the valve stem seals i'd suggest nothing other than OEM. Compression test and leak down test will tell you if you're rings are causing the problem, but they will tell you nothing about the valve stem seals. (because the valves are closed during the test). Changing the valve stem seals isn't extremely hard if you take your time, have some patients, do some research, and try not to lose the retainers. Another benefit to doing the valve stem seals yours self is that you can take the valves out and give them a thorough cleaning and inspection. The head's already off anyways, why not? A machine shop can do all this for you as well, I don't think it would be too terribly expensive and if you're gonna have the head resurfaced it's already gonna be in their hands anyways at some point.

 

I suppose that's an option if you have all the free time in the world to do so. At this point, based on the OP lack of participation in the thread, I dont think it even matters to them.

 

My first inclination would be to replace the valve stem seals and the spark plug grommets. Those two seem to be the cause of the majority of oil burn issues. This is not likely a blow-by issue.

You've gotten some good pointers on how to pinpoint the problem - i'd go that route and report back