Hey everyone im new here and need some help. I have a 90 dx civic hatchback for 9 months and slowly getting it together. Ive fixed a few leaks already. (Distributor, sparkplug tube seals including internal ones, valvecover seal) everything up top looks leak free now. But im still having to add oil every other week. I have a hunch that its the oil pan since i havent done that yet. My question is HOW DO YOU KNOW!?! lol it feels a little oily and i see a few random drip spots but cant pinpoint it. Are there other main seals i dont know about? Also smell a little burnt oil after driving. Could you smell burnt oil from an oilpan leak? Thanks for reading my long post. Hondatech forums have helped me this far. Someone shoot me a few pointers please.

 

Get under the car with a flashlight and look. Oil pan, front abs rear main seals come to mind. If you still can't see anything clean the engine up really well drive a few days and spray super cheap aerosol deodorant on suspect leak areas, the white film will show every leak.

only other thing i might think is oiln rings are worn out.

 

Thanks man i appreciate the reply!

 

Good luck, it can be a pain. If you do the cheap spray deodorant trick the cleaner the engine is the better it works.

 

I have had a similar problem I would check the bolts and nuts for the oil pan and Make sure they are tight I checked mine and they started to loosen but start from the front and try to find where it starts to get oily

 

Places oil can go:
-Burned (piston/ring issues)
-Into your coolant (head/gasket problems)
-Oil pan seal
-Distributor seal
-Valve cover/spark seal
-Oil filter seal
-Oil plug
-Cam seals, vtec solenoid (engine dependant - don't know if you're stock)

If a quick visual and bolt tightness check doesn't turn up anything obvious. I usually spray down the block and head really good with brake clean. Get that thing clean and dry. especially the seams where the valve cover meets the head, the head meets the block, the oil pan meets the block, and areas under potential leaks (like the dist). Then take it for a drive. After the drive get a flashlight (oil will be shiney) and start checking. Start at the top and work your way down. Oil usually runs down to one of the seams. So if the valve cover seam is dry the leak is below that, If the head to block seam is dry the leak is below that, etc.