Background: my nephew was visiting with his 2008 Accord (160,000 miles), and the first time I heard it start up it had the very obvious VTC rattle. So I discussed it with him, seems it's been going on for a few months at least... And we decided to fix it. Ordered parts and dug in. Along the way found the tensioner had failed as well, and chain appeared stretched, so we set up for a complete timing job.

Aside... when I pulled the cover off to get to the cam, I was astonished by how varnished the internals were. Clearly the car had been neglected before my nephew bought it (he's only had it for about 10,000m or so).
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Replaced the following:
VTC sprocket
Timing chain
Tensioner
All guides
Gasket set
Crank seal

It all went back together nicely and properly timed.
Fresh oil and filter, started it up and a quick drive around the block, no apparent leaks or issues, purred like a kitten.

He then drove it about 75 miles, during which the engine light came on. No code reader where he was so they brought it to a shop where they discovered it to be very low on oil (about 2qts remaining), and I had forgotten to plug in the VTC solenoid - which is why the light came on. Oops.

Shop states oil was leaking from the oil filter gasket. Wasn't loose, but gasket was ?crushed? Which is odd since I didn't even use a tool to tighten it - just by hand.

They changed the filter, new oil, and sent him on his way. He drove it again, checked the oil when he filled up with gas (don't know how far), and it was fine.

He then drove the rest of the way home, which was a full days drive. A day or two later, he says it had a small rattle. Next day it rattled even louder and getting worse. He checked the oil and found none on the stick. Says he never saw a oil light come on but I wonder if he just missed it... No obvious oil mess in or under the engine. He a

dded oil but too late - now it sounds like a box of rocks going down the stairs.

Don't yet know where the oil departed the engine this time, but I'm obviously worried that something I did with the timing repair triggered this... Any ideas??? It started and ran beautifully immediately following the repair, and ran great on his drive home - till the oil ran out.

I'm not new to car repairs... And I've done this exact repair on a different model before, but now I'm second guessing everything.

 

There is a TSB for oil consumption that dealt with the piston rings. The oil is burning off not dripping out. The car does a good job of hiding the issue since it doesn't smoke.

 

​​​​ but to burn an entire fill in one day's driving? After only going through a quart or two in a normal service interval...
Previous owner was apparently using heavier oil, I put in what the Honda spec'd oil...

​​​​​​Car is at another mechanic today, should find out if and where it was leaking.

 

Are you leaving a puddle when you park overnight? Is your coolant still nice and blue (or green of you've changed it)?

 

Unfortunately the car is hundreds of miles away now. But it went from full of fresh oil to none in a days drive. Twice. First time the shop it was taken to said it was leaking at the filter... Still had 2 qts of oil in it. They replaced the filter and refilled. 2nd time it wasn't caught till it was too late, no puddles noticed on the ground, no obvious visible oil mess. I might be all over the bottom of the car, but I'm unable to inspect.

The shop it's at now just confirmed the engine is wrecked, didn't report on where the oil loss was.

My guess, the seals at the filter housing let go and it puked it all out on the highway. When I changed the oil, the filter was VERY tight, and I wonder if in removing it the torque on the housing was the final straw for seals that were already in poor shape. Just a guess....

Or maybe the rings failed and it really did burn it all.

 

When you changed the oil did you make sure that the old filter gasket came off? If the old gasket stuck to the block and you put on a new filter then you have two gaskets on top of each other and this will cause a leak.