Hey guys,

I've posted on here a couple of times about this issue now and have gotten no response from anyone. I'm going to try one more time, before I reach out to my local shop to see what they think.

I have a 1997 Integra LS that I swapped a OBD2A GSR engine into. At the time of the swap, I also upgraded the intake manifold and throttle body to a Skunk2 along with an AEM fuel rail. After the swap, I noticed the car would smoke under load, in VTEC and just after I came to a stop.

So, in doing a compression test, the two adjacent cylinders 2 and 3 had lower compression than 1 and 4. I replaced the head gasket with a Cometic, and installed ARP headstuds along with new valve seals and the o-ring on VTEC port.

It STILL smoked, and doing another compression test, I got 235-240-240-235 across the cylinders.

I thought maybe something might be up with my PCV system, so I replaced it all with a 4-port catch can system (overkill, I know. But I wanted something I could use if I ever decided to go boost, anyways).

Unfortunately, I'm still smoking. But I don't know how much oil I'm actually burning yet as today is the first day I've really driven it. I will post any updates this week, as I drive it more. But I was hoping somebody might have some insight on it. One thing to note is that I had to pin the ECU when I did the swap, due to not having the harness between the engine harness and the ECU (the one that runs through the firewall).

Any suggestions or advice is appreciated.

Thank you,

 

What color is the smoke? Black, Blue, White?

Also did you retorque your headstuds after a few heat cycles? I have read other posts where they can come loose after a couple heat cycles.

 

The smoke is white-ish grey? I've never been low on coolant but after driving the car for a few days, I'll be a little low on oil and have to add some (like half a quart, if that). The smell of the smoke is almost like a two-stroke, like an oil/gas mixture maybe?

And no, I have not retorqued the headstuds yet, I probably only had the car running twice since I installed them. But it was smoking the first time I started it after installing them. So, that's not the issue.

 

Update: I drove the car all day yesterday, still smoking but not every time I accelerate/hit VTEC. And I did not lose any oil at all. I forgot to mention that the car is in fact straight-piped.

 

Healthy Compression doesn't always directly correlate with a lack of cylinder blow by. The compression rings and oil control ring are entirely separate piston rings.
Your piston rings (oil control) may be worn, tired or losing tension. Your cylinders maybe glazed over/ polished smooth (lacking the factory cross hatch) or slightly worn/scratched/ovaled...
There could be a slight chance that there is still a small issue causing the oil burning that you are hoping for, but more than likely, you are going to need a cylinder hone and piston re-ring (aka an engine rebuild)...

 

I haven't burned any more oil since I installed the oil catch can, it still smokes some but I'm thinking it may just be burning off the old soot from before. The old factory PCV system probably wasn't working correctly. The bolt holding the black box to the block wasn't even installed so the only thing holding the thing to the block was the big o-ring. If it comes down to it, I will do a bottom end rebuild eventually. I planned on it, anyways. Just don't have the time or money as I just bought my first house.

 

Try to drain the oil, and pour a can of engine restore 4 cyl formula from autozone, trust me it works and I bet it will greatly reduce the smoking and raise the compression, trust me and try it! pour the can and use fresh oil on top. I use it on my daily EK civic every oil change and it never smokes and doesn't burn near as much oil as it did when I wasn't using it. It has 250K and runs strong as a bull! and used it on my my old GSR when it smoked it works miracles its worth a cheap shot! your prolly smoking cause your piston rings are worn and the cylinder walls are leaking blow by.

 

Yeah, I guess it's worth a shot. In driving the car for a couple of days, the oil level did go down a little bit. And when I remove the oil cap, smoke comes out of the engine. So, I'm pretty positive it is the piston rings. I'm not big on additives (other than Seafoam) but at this point, I have no other option besides rebuilding the bottom end which I mentioned before, I don't have time or money to do so right now.

 

 

worn piston rings

 

I can check, but I highly doubt it. I thought the same thing, so I installed a 4-port oil catch can to help out with any crankcase pressure and I got rid of the lines going to the intake from the valve cover and the line going from the PCV box to the intake manifold in the process. The car is naturally aspirated.


Here is my current setup. I've got two -10 AN lines coming from the valve cover and another two from the back of the block.

 

Even with compression numbers like that? My buddy who has a 570whp turbo Civic with a B18C1 said those numbers looked high to him.

 

 

I'm wondering if it may be the valve guides? That's always a possibility, too.

 

 

As far as I know, it's just stock. It didn't look like it had anything special for pistons when I took the head off recently. I bought the swap from my brother out of a GSR with 160k miles on it. I opened the throttle body completely when I was cranking the engine for the compression test and I did it at operating temperature.

 

All of my spark plugs look like this.


Except for cylinder #3