Hey, this may sound like a stupid *** question to you all, but i'm sorry, I must post it.

I had a thread on here a while ago about my oil leak. Well it's been a bitch trying to find where it's coming from. I think i'm burning it, maybe the valves?

Well anyway, on to the matter at hand. I am wondering if using the wrong type of oil in my car may cause a leak or excess burning, or damage to my engine. I have read that you all use something like 5w-30, and is also recomended in the honda manual. Well I run 10w-30 (not sure, but it's what i've always used on my old cars and what I have always used on this car). Could this be a problem using a different type? What do you all use?

Thanks!

 

10W-30 is good if you're in FL. When it's really hot oil will evaporate inside the cam cover and getr sucked into the IM through the PCV.

 

Usually the only time you'll have a problem with leaking with a different kind of oil is when you switch from regular to synthetic oil on an engine with higher miles. The thin viscosity of the synthetic oil allows it to get past worn oil seals.

 

10w30 is thicker cold than 5w30, so using the 10w will cause a little bit more wear at startup. once the oil gets out of the pan and up to the head, they are pretty much the same.

I use 5w30 99% of the time, but occasionally in the summer I'll use the 10w30 if the store is out of my usual weight.

a puff of smoke on startup is your valve guides leaking. blueish smoke while running, especially at high RPMs, is your rings.

 

how expensive are valve guides? I have 254,000 miles on the original motor and every once in a long while I'll start the car and there will be a small puff of smoke, it never smokes any other time unless you really get on it and shift near redline, but that's to be expected with that many miles... I burn about a quart and a half every 3,000 miles. Also I've always used 5w-30 in the car regular oil synthetic is too expensive, plus at this point, I think I got my money out of this engine.

 

i run 10w30 in most of my machines. in my bike i switch to 20w40 because its' hot and i want a little thicker oil (wet clutch) when it's that hot but when it starts to cool down i go back to 10w30. if you are in the midwest right now you probably would want to run 5w30 becuase it's thinner when it's cold, making it easier to start you car. that shouldn't hurt the engine running that little of difference though.

 

Valve guides should be cheap, not like the labor to change them, but if you adjust your valves, i think you can do it. This might lower your oil consumption by A LOT, but you could also use an oil a lil thicker, it works too.
With your engine like yours, i would just use a thicker oil and save the money for a rebuilding or perhaps a H22A (don't know your goals).

 

valve guides are cheap, labor to install them is expensive. Oil is cheap, and easy to install

you make the choice, but on a motor with almost 250k+ i wouldn't bother with them.

quart and a half every 3000 sounds like a lot for just valve guides, your rings are also worn I'd guess. don't get me wrong, if you don't abuse it, that motor will run to 350k

 

When I had my R it too used about a quart between oil changes from the get go, and I even followed the break in procedure recomendations. My Accord only used to use about half a quart between oil changes when I got it 5 years ago with 36,000 miles on it.... I'm thinking I'm just going to drive this engine into the ground and maybe get something with a little bit more pep next time around... or who knows, I really like the new 6-speed v-6 coupe... But not having a car payment for the last 3 years has been REALLY nice. Plus there is no way I am ever paying sticker price again... and the R was lucky to get sticker most dealers were like 1 to 2 Grand OVER sticker. Thieves I tell ya.