Civic EG

Hey guys I wanted to get some opinions on what i should do.
My JDM b18c is losing some oil and I want to know what could be causing it and what I could do to fix it.
I know it could be the piston rings, but if the compression is normal rings would be ruled out right?
So I don't know how I would go about fixing it, I've been searching around and saw that it may be the valve guides/seals.
What do you guys think it could be?

Ive never had an engine consume a lot of oil, so my advice may suck or be wrong. I'll my friends experience though...

he has an all original 98 GSR w/average mileage (under 150k). He burns a lot of oil, so much so the bumper changes colors.

we did a CR test and the results were, they pointed to a healthy engine. 200 on all four. Leak down was a lil under 6% on all cylinders.

he mentioned that if he parks the car on an incline (dont remember the direction) that upon start up, it will smoke horribly. however, if he turns the car around and parks it the opposite direction it doesnt do it nearly as bad.

if he parks it the direction that it doesnt smoke on start up, then through out the day or trip (w/e) it will still burn oil.

it could still be the oil control ring... but it could also be the seals.

whats the mileage on the engine? all stock? if you're comfortable tearing the engine partially apart and have the ability, i guess you could toss some new seals on and see if it helps. I dont know of any tests that you can do to rule out a seal vs. oil control rings.

good luck.

how much oil/smoke??


if you're poppin' vtak pretty often, i guess you would lose a little oil. pretty much every DOHC Vtec car i've ever seen run puffs a little bit of smoke.

The engine has about 70k on it. That's what the Guy that I bought it from told me.
Its lost about a quart of oil and its been about 1200-1500km. I do pop Vtec kinda often, usually when I'm getting on the freeway, but sometimes I don't because I want to conserve gas. So does hitting Vtec cause it to burn oil?

id bet its the valve guides. check it for compression and leaks

bigpunn421 wrote:id bet its the valve guides. check it for compression and leaks

Thanks for the suggestion
Would changing the valve guides require taking the head off or would I be able to do it with it still on? also would it be a good idea to do the cam seal too?

bradleyg wrote:

bigpunn421 wrote:id bet its the valve guides. check it for compression and leaks

Thanks for the suggestion
Would changing the valve guides require taking the head off or would I be able to do it with it still on? also would it be a good idea to do the cam seal too?

valve guides are generally replaced by a machine shop... not something you can do at home.

valve seals however you can do with the head on the car.

im not entirely sure bad guides will show in a compression test.

bks84 wrote:

bradleyg wrote:

bigpunn421 wrote:id bet its the valve guides. check it for compression and leaks

Thanks for the suggestion
Would changing the valve guides require taking the head off or would I be able to do it with it still on? also would it be a good idea to do the cam seal too?

valve guides are generally replaced by a machine shop... not something you can do at home.

valve seals however you can do with the head on the car.

im not entirely sure bad guides will show in a compression test.

I'll try replacing the guides and see if it solves my problem. If the compression was low wouldn't the car feel kind of sluggish?

i ment the seals thanks for clearing that up. if its not the seals then do the guides

Again, seals can be done with the motor in the car, guides require the head to removed.

My d15 is burning oil bad, but I really don't wanna spend money on fixing it, so I've decided to save and buy a b18 gsr. Hopefully my plan works out!

VTEC uses oil..I probably lose 1/4 of a quart a week, nothing serious...if you are going through more than that, Its usually the rings or the valve seals/guides/etc. ..oh I have a b16a, and I pop VTEC a few times a day, other than that I drive her like my grandma would. LOL

I burn oil too in my b18....did an oil change on a monday and and when i checked the oil level the next week friday it was reading on the half mark.....it think thats too much for normal plus all the smoke out the back when hitting V Tec annoys me,
compression test was good just under normal, engine feels good with good power its just the oil burning and smoke, i can live with a little smoke but not a cloud.....gonna change the valve seals and see if that helps...will post update

Update on my smoking issue.
I started eliminating all the possibilities that could cause the excessive smoke coming out the exhaust ,
I replaced the PCV valve it was smoking still, changed out valve seals, and it was still smoking excessively
only thing left is the rings, but compression is really good on all cylinders so my mechanic told me not things wrong with the rings..... Could the rings still leak and burn oil even though there's good compression?????

Thought i should mention this as well the guy whom i bought the engine from had an oil cooler system but when i took the engine i removed it and re-installed the stock PVC chamber (Black box thingy), dont know if they messed up anything there when they installed the oil cooler??

VTEC does not burn oil. High RPMs burns oil, regardless of whether you have VTEC or not.