Hi everyone, I'm new to the Honda community as of March since I got my si for 3800 dollars. I thought it was a nice price only to find out I'm exponentially burning oil. I took it to a local honda specialized garage and he said I have bad piston rings that will cost 3000 to take care of. I know I'm paying for labor but, the engine is a b20 block with a b16 head. I'm not sure how to check specifically so, if you know how let me know. I could tell though when I bought it, the car had been modified but I could not tell of the impending doom that awaited for me after I drove it for a month. Only to figure out I'm constantly burning oil, although not bad it still occurs, and I have had to replace my sparkplugs three different times and my oil on multiple occasions so far. And everytime I take the spark plugs out, half of the well in each sparkplug valve contains oil. I will start with a valve cover because I am under the impression the one I have is a fake mugen valve cover. At this point I want to know what I can do if I can take care of the issue or if I should just sell it. Other than that thank you for reading and I appreciate any and all of your experiences, criticisms, and especially advice you can share with me. Enjoy your holidays!

 

Any external engine oil leaks?

Compression test the cylinders (wet versus dry). If wet versus dry numbers are not drastically different, then bad valve seals may be causing the oil burning.

 

Likely just the valve cover gasket. That's an easy $20 fix.
A leak down test should help with testing ring quality.
You have lots of options that should cost less than $3k. You can pick up a used LS or B20 block for $400-$800 and just swap that over.
I don't believe any kind of repair on these cars for a daily driver should cost more than maybe $1k-$1.5k. Working on these cars is very easy.

 

Interpretation of leak down results^ may difficult without first performing wet versus dry compression tests.

 

Agreed. Both are easy tests and should be done.

 

X2! The B20 engine are a dime a dozen and super cheap! i believe HMO sells them for around $500 to $700 for a high compression B20 engine. They are low miles and compression tested! if I were you id buy a used B20 and just have your B16 cylinder head swapped with a new OEM head gasket using ARP head studs if they are not yet installed. You will still have plenty of $ to rebuild the head fresh! dont waist your $ rebuilding the B20 you have! with $3k you can find a B16B CTR swap!

B-Series – HMotorsOnline