Need a second opinion. I have a 93 Civic with a D15B7. Around 140k on motor. Replaced a blown head gasket about 500 mi. ago. Checked head for warpage and cracks and appeared to be fine. The car runs great, plenty of power but is going through oil like crazy. 5 qts., in two weeks. No external leaks, NO SMOKE but exhuast pipe is carbon black not wet. Oil pressure is really good, compression test shows 180 plus on all cylinders. When I pulled the plugs I noticed oil on threads of the plugs but none on the posts or insulator. I also noticed dry and carbon look on 1&4 pistion but top of 2&3 are wet with oil and no carbon deposits. Am I correct to assume that the valve seals and or guides are shot or could this be something else?

 

what does your coolant look like? what does your oil look like?

 

no cream in the oil or oil in the coolant.

 

is there any smoke at start up or during a hard acceleration

 

Nothing more than regular exhaust, No blue or gray smoke.

 

When burning that much oil, you would almost certainly see clouds of smoke behind the car in the rear view but you could have someone follow you in another car to be sure it's not smoking. There is no such thing as "normal" smoke from the exhaust other than the white condensation effect in cold weather. Oil smoke that gets worse when you floor it is from the rings, don't waste your time and money on valve seals.

If it's not burning it must be leaking out. In addition to the crank seals, oil can leak to the outside on the back of the engine from the oil filter, the oil pressure switch, or the head gasket. Those places would only leak while the engine is running.

 

thanks for the reply. Only seeing cold weather type exhuast. No sign of smoke when following vehicle or at start up however seems to never stop steam type smoke even after warmed up. Also seems to spit little black specks when cardboard placed by tail pipe. Entire engine and transmission has ben cleaned and there is no sign of leaks anywhere. If it were bad rings wouldn't it affect my compression? currently 185 + on all cylinders. Re-checked yesterday. I did however notice a small amount of oil in spark plug tubes 2&3 and fresh oil on top of pistons 2&3. Could a combination of bad tube seals both upper and lower and valve seals be the culprit?

 

but the oil is still going some where,either burning or dripping

 

Yes 20 Smoke we have established that. And I am pretty sure it is burning it. I am just trying to describe all the symptoms and what I am seeing to try and get the best diagnosis. Don't want to tear the motor apart just to find out I have a bad PCV valve. Know what I mean.

 

I just had this exact same thing happen to me. I re-did the head gasket and the car started up and passed inspection. 300 miles later it is blowing a big cloud of white spoke if you get over 3000rpm's.

My '95 Honda Civic EX has 130K miles on it--it spent 2 years in the garage while I got around to replacing the head gasket. After doing a bunch of research and adding some Sea Foam to the oil and looking up how much a rebuilt engine would cost, I went back out the the car to check the PVC valve. Then I noticed that I had not reconnected the hose from under the PVC valve back to the crank case after I had reinstalled the cylinder head/intake manifold. It is a little bitch under there--I had to jack the car back up and find the nipple that takes the hose next to the oil filter. Once I did, the car had MUCH less smoke (bit still some at 4000 PRM). I am going to take some quarts of oil and go out for an hour test drive on the highway tomorrow to see if it is old oil that needs to burn out or if the car still has a problem (rings). PS after hooking the hose back up, I did discover that the PVC valve is shot, too. I need a new one of those.