Ok, here is my long winded story.
95 Civic 1.5l
Brother-in-law owned it. Ran great.
One day it started running real bad and smoking.
He took it to the shop they said it had no compression and had a bad valve.
Him and a friend replaced the valve, put it back together and it was smoking real bad.
He pulled the head back off, took to a machine shop and they had it for 3 weeks and supposedly rebuilt the whole head.
Put it back on and it still smokes real bad, so I bought it for $400 hoping to fix it on the cheap as a beater car for myself.

When the car has been sitting and you start it, it billows smoke! smells like oil, not coolant, not losing coolant at all.
After it has been running a while the smoke dies down till you hit the gas, then it smokes again.
plugs in the middle 2 cylinders are black while outer 2 are nice tan color.
Car still runs great.
When it is idling and you pull the oil fill cap off there is alot of pressure coming out that seems like an "exhaust puttering".

Did dry compression test. 165-170 across the board.
Did wet compression test got 185 across the board.

Was thinking rings, but with the good compression tests I am kinda stumped.

Was thinking about just buying a used head and replacing it to see if that helps or see if maybe he put something on wrong, but hate to waste the money if I end up having to swap out the motor anyways.

If rings, would it be worth maybe just pulling head and dropping oil pan and just replacing rings that way with the motor in?

I do have alot of mechanical know-how and have swapped out motors before, but this is the first civic I have ever messed with.

What do you Civic Guru's think is the problem?

 

Pcv valve

 

oh yeah, there is a CAI on it, I pulled the hose off the valve cover and same thing as when you pull the oil cap, almost like an exhaust puttering coming out of that too.

 

i highly doubt its the pcv valve, mine needed replaced and all it did was sputter when i gave it gas, diddnt make it blow smoke.

 

Oil smoke that gets a lot worse when you floor it is going to be the rings. Is it really oil smoke, is the oil level going down like it would if the engine were burning oil?

 

yooo i got the same problem with my ek sir2 white smoke intermittently and bluish smoke. I rebuilt the engine myself only forgot to change the oil after break in the engine. Compression was good all 4 BUT i noticed my brake master pump leaks and changed it. It only smoke a bit and still thinking the PCV to be changed next or the oil scrapper rings worn out....

 

You might try throwing a can of this stuff called "Restore" in the crankcase with the oil. See if that stops the smoke. If so, it's your rings for sure. A can of that every oil change will keep the problem in check but eventually you'll need a rebuild.

 

With compression that high, it's not rings. It is definitely either valve seats or the PCV valve. The PCV valve alows pressure to be released from the bottom of the crankcase. The PCV allows air to escape, but not oil. If the pcv valve is stuck, not only air, but oil blows into the intake manifold where it gets into the cylinders and burns. If you can find the pcv hose, pinch it closed (while the engine is idling) with a pair of pliers. Each time you restrict the air flow, you should hear a "click". If you don't hear the "click", the valve is stuck open and allowing the intake to suck in oil along with the air. If there's any doubt, simply replace it and see if it helps. It's a very cheap part.

 

its been up and running again thanks to the PCV thats crap i almost gonna tosed my engine away. Cheap fix...

 

Glad to help. I'm sure lots of engines have been rebuilt because of a bad PCV valve. When it's bad it allows the intake manifold to suck air and oil from the crankcase into the intake and on to the cylinders. Great idea to check the compression. With compression that strong, it obviously wasn't the rings.
Great post!
Maybe others will read this and not spend a lot of money when a 3.99 part is actually the problem.