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I recently removed my valve cover for inspection and clearance adjustment at 170k. My 2012 Civic Si Sedan has been running great and always has been.
What I found is concerning.
I believe the timing may be off by two teeth and 2 exhaust camshaft lobes are showing damage. I've used a magnetic drain plug the life and the car and always used synthetic oil and good filters. It has burned off oil since less than 50k and has gotten as much as 1 quart low from full. The oil burning has always been maybe a 1/4 - 1/2 quart per 1000 miles.
I just want to confirm that the timing is in fact off...
I plan on finding a couple used cam shafts, a new timing chain, sprockets, guides, tensioners, and replacing them all myself.
What do you all think? Should I look for any other damage or wait to look at the journals before making any decisions?
The top picture shows that you are not fully rotated to the TDC position... without a matching picture showing the crank pulley and it's relation to the TDC marks, we cannot offer a true assessment of your issue. If you believe that the engine is out of time because the gold links do not line up centered over the "Dots" on the cam gears... this is due to the fact that you may have to rotate the engine 360 degrees up to something like 72 times to get them to reach the "proper" position that you are looking for. I suggest you align the two lines in the middle of the cam gears (3 o'clock position on the exhaust and 9 o'clock position on the intake) and then look at the crank pulley to see if the white mark on the crank pulley aligns (or is really close) with the arrow shaped cast pointer on the timing chain case at about the 1:30 position. If it does... then you are good... and in mechanical time.
The wear on the exhaust cam lobes is likely from the lack of zinc in your oil. What brand are you using ?
I was going on dots not being centered on the gold links. I was thinking they would line up every rotation. I'll have to go back and look at the crank marks because I wont be cranking this by hand 72 rotations. I would have been surprised it was running so well if it was out of time.
For oil I used mobil1 for the first 100k and then amsoil for the last 70k based on a friends recommendation.
The camshaft damage looks the same as what the Elements and CR-Vs were doing at the same miles. It is a manufacturing defect and the hard layer of steel is delaminated from the core of the shaft.
I might need to go inspect my Z7 at just about 120k miles. Ugggg
I'll have to go back and look at the crank marks because I wont be cranking this by hand 72 rotations.
Weak!
If your timing was off by 2 teeth it's incredibly unlikely you wouldn't have noticed, that would have a huge impact on performance. Mobil1 is a good oil, personally I always use Amsoil Signature Series. It is worth noting though, that for whatever reason, it always seems like Mobil1 is more apt to burn in Honda engines than other oils. No idea why, but the actual lubrication and protection on the internals is good, just keep an eye on the level. These engines in general are going to burn some at high RPM no matter what you use.
If your timing was off by 2 teeth it's incredibly unlikely you wouldn't have noticed, that would have a huge impact on performance. Mobil1 is a good oil, personally I always use Amsoil Signature Series. It is worth noting though, that for whatever reason, it always seems like Mobil1 is more apt to burn in Honda engines than other oils. No idea why, but the actual lubrication and protection on the internals is good, just keep an eye on the level. These engines in general are going to burn some at high RPM no matter what you use.
I checked the timing with the crank mark and it is slightly off dues to a stretched chain. Although the sprocket marks line up perfectly when I check TDC with a welding rod sticking out of the spark plug hole indicating top of piston travel. I guess I'll pick a weekend to replace the chain and camshafts in the future. I'll probably slap the cover back on and run it as is until then. It was running fine beforehand....
I understand its difficult to replace the chain with the engine in the car... but not impossible....
Eh, just run it until you get a cam crank correlation error. Chains don't really break on these.
Are you running extended oil change intervals? It was always the Elements and CR-Vs on 7500-8000 mile intervals that had spalling on the cams and stretched chains. Just by looking at how clean the valve train is I doubt you are seeing many extended oil changes.
Problems - Valve and Timing Inspection @ 170k
