Hi all,

I have an interesting problem. My 1986 CRX Si (EW-4) is burning oil. I know what you're all thinking: "That's not an interesting problem! Who is this newb???" Hear me out.

Rings: I rebuilt the whole engine from top to bottom. Had the cylinders bored to 0.025 over (if I remember right...it's been 2+ years). Got the RIGHT pistons and the RIGHT rings, which were gapped to spec right out of the box. My machinist step dad was on hand when we clocked and installed the rings/pistons, and it was done RIGHT. Also, compression and leakdown were perfect and consistent across all 4 cylinders, and the oil burn is also consistent across all 4 cylinders...let's just say if we screwed up any rings, it's really improbable that we screwed them all up.

Valve guides: MIGHT be the problem, since I didn't replace them (idiot). I'm having new ones put in next month to eliminate that possibility.

But I'm concerned that the valve guides also aren't the problem, and here's why. The oil is coming in through the PCV tube. I know blow-by could cause this, but again, I don't think it's happening in the cylinders, and if the timing is right (had it checked by a pro), it shouldn't be happening through the valve guides either. My final hypothesis is that the oil burn is being caused by my having replaced the rusted-out oil pan with one off an 86 CRX DX (EW-1, carbureted). The DX pan is slightly different from the Si pan in that the deepest part extends farther toward the passenger side (had to modify the exhaust to go around it). I'm wondering if this subtle difference could cause oil to be getting sloshed/sucked into the PCV, and whether replacing or modifying the pan could alleviate the issue. I haven't found any posts on this anywhere online, so y'all are my last, best hope for an answer to this.

Also, if anyone has an old 1g Si oil pan lying around, I want to buy it. Those things are really hard to find.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Check out this 87. Pretty clean and I think the engine was still intact.

https://www.picknpull.com/check-inve...EC1425HS044010

 

yes, pickandpull dot com, check your local area, or any yards... in fact most of the civics in the yard are CRX

 

Thanks for the tip. This one looks like a DX or HF (carb'd), which is not precisely what I'm looking for, since I already have that oil pan and it's the wrong one. I need the oil pan off of an Si. It's a little different. I'll check out the website though!