I have a 2011 Civic Si, sedan, with about 140k on it. I have been burning about 1qt per 1000 miles I drive. Seems like every time I turn around I have to add oil. This can't be the standard. I started doing some research and found that it could be the valve stem seals or the piston rings. I have a compressor tool to check the pressure (does anybody know what the psi should be???) and will check it when it comes in. Can anybody provide more knowledge on this issue?? I have yet to do a valve adjustment, and figured if it needs new seals I can do it all at once.

 

Whoever owner the car when it was new definetely needed to be quite abusive in order to cause such a significant level of consumption. Piston rings and valve stem seals are a good bet. What sort of oil are you currently using? If you switch to a racing oil such as motul and go really thick, like 10w40 or 10w50 it will help a great deal with consumption but that's not going to fix the root cause of the issue.

do the compression test and report back your findings. Generally speaking you want to see at least 100psi per cylinder. 90psi or less is very bad, 135 or higher Is very good. Ideally compression for each cylinder should be the same or very similar.

 

It hasn't always done it while I've owned the car. I bought it at 83k and now has about 140k. I do drive more spirited and can be a little rough sometimes, but the engine SHOULD handle it, no problem. I'm running Royal Purple 5W-30, and have been since I bought the car. Compression test kit should be arriving today, if I have time this evening I'll post my findings. I saw somewhere that you should put a cap full of oil in the spark plug cylinder and test compression. Any advice there?

 

Doesnt matter If it's the best engine ever made with perfect quality internals, if the original owner abused the engine during the break In period (roughly 3000 miles) its gonna burn oil period. I'd suggest you check your PCV valve. Open the oil cap while the engine is running. If you feel suction, the valve is good. If theres no suction when you lift the cap, replace the valve. You can put a plastic bag over the oil filler neck to make sure.

Royal Purple is fine, but you're gonna need to switch to a thicker weight . Try 5w50.

 

So just check the PCV valve. Opened the oil cap when the engine was running and there was no suction but it actually pushed the plastic bag. Kinda like exhaust pressure at the end of the tailpipe. I’m going to check compression now. Any thoughts on what I experienced with the PCV valve?

 

Alright. So just checked compression. Dry Test: 201 200 205 204. Wet Test: 257 262 275 276. Spark plugs have white residue on the end. Valve stem seals need to be replaced. Has anybody done this?

 

I'd suggest you replace the PCV valve as soon as possible. This is why you're noticing increased oil consumption lately.

For the compression test... those are fantastic numbers.

How did you come to the conclusion that new valve stem seals are needed? Given your current oil consumption its totally plausible. These SI engines are typically run hard even when brand new which compromises the life of your seals/engine internals.

The spark plugs look pretty bad. The white residue indicates that there is too much heat in that area. It could be a problem with ignition, your cooling system, or the engine may be running too lean due to a number of potential reasons.

 

I’ll replace the PCV valve.
I read that white sandy type residue on your spark plugs indicates the valve seals have started leaking. That’s how I got to that conclusion.
Also, after first startup after putting everything back together from the compression test, I got a HUGE cloud of white smoke come from the exhaust. I figured that was another indication that the valve seals had gone bad, but the smoking went away after about a minute or 2 of the engine running.
If I don’t have to replace the valve seals, I don’t want to. It’s a lot of work to get in there. What do you think I should do after the PCV valve? Spark plugs?

 

Well, at your mileage, theres lots of maintenance you can do. Do you have a check engine light?

Are you noticing a pungent smell of gas in or outside of the car, especially during cold start?

You should definetely replace the spark plugs. Go ahead and add a strong concentration of fuel system cleaner into the tank.

The cloud of smoke you mention.. that could just be water vapour. It could also indicate a problem with your head gasket. That could be what's causing the smoke and it makes sense given the white residue on your spark plugs. Next time you start the car up from cold, stand behind the car and check for a strong smell of fuel, oil, or coolant (sweet smell.) Are you noticing any coolant consumption?

Replacing your valve stem seals will probably help, but typically I dont think its necessary unless the engine is in very sorry shape. Like if you're noticing blue smoke coming out the exhaust on deceleration for example. Otherwise, if you're going to tear apart the engine, I'd probably suggest going in from and bottom end and replacing the piston rings instead.

What was your oil consumption like before things got bad? Like when you first got the car? In the meantime, my suggestion is to replace the PCV valve, switch to 5w50 oil and monitor oil consumption from there. If you plan to keep the car and shes otherwise running smoothly then you should probably speak to a mechanic about an engine rebuild with new piston rings.

Also, take a look into Yamaha Ring free. Its some sort of fuel system cleaner which apparently helps with seals inside your engine.

 

For maintenance you can clean out your IACV and throttle body.

 

No CEL is on. No noticeable smells coming from the exhaust. I’ll check again soon.
I usually put som Royal Purple MaxClean in every 10-15k.
Also, I did a Wet Test for the compression so I poured a cap full of oil in where the spark plugs go, I was thinking that could’ve caused the white smoke.
Coolant levels are good. I never have had to add any.
Oil consumption was minor when I first got it and has gotten progressively worse.

 

Royal Purple doesn’t make a 5w-50 nor a 5w-40. Could switching to their High Mileage be a good idea? Or should I try other oil?

 

Royal purple does make oils in both weights. It would be highly unusual if a brand didn't:

https://royalpurpledirect.com/royal-...tic-motor-oil/
https://royalpurpledirect.com/xpr-5w...rmance-racing/

I have heard mixed opinions about Royal Purple. Some swear by it, others say it's crap. In my opinion its a decent oil but not worth the pricey premium in contrast to some of its competitors. Its main benefit would be a high detergent based additive package. Even after one oil interval with this stuff, it does quite a good job cleaning out deposits and sludge which may have accumulated over the years. This leads me to suggest not to regularly use this oil, especially with a high mileage engine because these detergents may wear out metals inside your engine over time. If you are looking for an oil thats good at cleaning out sludge, save your money and just go for Shell Rotella.

Some other alternatives for you to consider:

Renewable Lube BioSyn : They have quite a few options with 5w40 weight. In my opinion it is hands down the best oil because it is not only enviromentally friendly, being a fully biodegradable oil but its additives package is simply the best in the business when it comes to fighting fuel dilution. All in a very price friendly package as well.

Motul Racing Oil : This one I use myself personally. It's a little on the pricier side, but it does quite a fantastic job at lubricating your engine towards the end of the oil change interval which makes it worth the extra money.

Redline Racing Oil : also a little pricey, but another fantastic choice.

 

Every 10-15k? Miles? Even 10k KM is far too long to be driving on one oil change, even in perfect circumstances.

The more often you change your oil the better. I strongly recommend not to go past 3-4000 miles. Past 5000 is pushing things and will start to accelerate engine wear. It might sound frequent but with the amount of fuel dilution/ oil shearing going on its a really bad idea to be pushing such lengthy intervals. Try smelling the oil on your dipstick even with a few thousand miles on the interval. It will smell quite pungent like fuel which is bad, even if the oil still appears to be clean.

 

I change my oil at about 5k. But I put the engine cleaner product from RP in every 10-15k.
This week or weekend I'll swap out spark plugs, do a coolant flush and fill, clean the throttle body and IACV. If I have time, I'll probably check the clearances on the valves and replace the valve cover gasket while I'm at it.
Also, just did some research on Ring Free and could not find anyone saying they've used it on cars. Mostly boats and such. Yamaha engines. I'll probably run a heavy concentration of SeaFoam for a tank of gas then swap out the spark plugs.
Anything else you recommend cleaning or swapping out? Thanks for your help btw.

 

The engine cleaner is totally unnecessary considered the amount of cleaning detergents already found in royal purple's oil. Would be much more useful to occasionally use fuel system cleaner. To be honest the amount of detergents being put inside your crankcase at such a mileage is definitely concerning. You definetely want to do the valve adjustment if you can. I would strongly advise against simply draining and filling your coolant as it will potentially cause other problems. If the coolant looks clean dont worry about it. Otherwise you'll want to consider doing a proper flush. Other maintenance related items you can do would be a full brake bleed on all four corners (2 man pedal pump method) and replace your manual transmission fluid with some redline MTL:
https://www.redlineoil.com/mtl-75w80-gl-4-gear-oil

I also recommend adding in one quart of any snychromesh fluid of your choice. It will help with shifter feel/smoothness:

https://www.pennzoil.com/en_ca/produ...ion-fluid.html

 

The Yamaha Ring free is a fantastic product for any sort of internal combustion motor. Other alternatives would be Redline SL-1 or Chevron Techron. I'd suggest using a proper fuel system cleaner over seafoam.

Run your tank as close as you safely can to empty and be very generous with the amount of cleaner being used relative to how much gas you'll be adding in.

then on a fully warmed up engine bring it up to maybe 7500rpm or so (not quite redline, but close) while carefully rolling into the throttle. With the injectors being fully open the cleaner will get a chance to run through them and clean out deposits. After that I'd suggest being pretty easy on the engine in general considering your mileage is higher and you're experiencing oil consumption.

 

Thank you for all your suggestions. I cleaned the Throttle Body yesterday (oh, and the FA5 and FG2 do not have a IACV, its something else that on there, can't remember what it's called). The cleaning of the throttle body helped a lot and I can feel the difference.

 

No problem man, I'm more than happy to help. Let me know if you have any questions. To add onto whatever weve discussed so far the only other two things I can think of would be an alignment and I highly recommend you check out all the belts and pulleys inside your engine. I am not too familiar with the k20 so I suggest you look it up for more info, but make sure that none of the belts are wobbling on the pulleys, especially the belt tensioner. If its letting the belt wobble while the engine is running you need to replace it. Listen closely for the sound of failing bearings as well.

 

Let me know how your oil consumption is after replacing the PCV valve and switching to a heavier weight oil. The only other reasonable suggestion would be to just keep the RPM's low unless you absolutely have to wring her out.

Best of luck

 

Reporting back. I just replaced the PCV valve and did the oil cap removal to check for suction and still nothing. I removed the PCV valve from the engine but kept it plugged into the rubber hose and i felt suction at the end of it. I also did the same test on the original one and I felt suction on that too. I swapped to Royal Purple 5W-30 High Mileage and swapped the oil filter as well. I had already ordered the High Mileage version of the Royal Purple so i figured I can run this and see what changes, if anything, and if nothing changes I'll switch to a heavier weight next time.

 

Reviving my old thread.
So its been over a year. I'm still having oil consumption problems. I have switched to Pennzoil Ultra Platinum Full Synthetic. Basically, I've had to do an oil change and keep another 5 quarts laying around to top it off until I get to 5000 miles to do another change. I'll go through about 2, 5 qt containers of oil in 5k miles. So it's still burning about 1 qt every 1k miles. I'm wondering if this could be do to an oil leak? I don't see any oil puddles under my car when it sits. Could it be the oil pan gasket? I know these cars don't have a "gasket" for the oil pan, I think it's just hondabond around the perimeter. Any advice?