Burning oil
 

Hi people

My dad told me he could smell burning oil when I v-tec'd past him the other night, the smell wasn't there a week ago.
I've done a compression test dry, and test with oil on the tester's washer (wet)

dry: 191, 202, 178, 200

wet: 220, 205, 190, 200

I've searched about, and am assuming these numbers are good, and the differences are ok. The engine has 127k miles on it, (only the last 3k are mine though).

What's likely to be my problem?

Dad reckons valve stem seals, which I suppose is quite likely at this mileage with this many revs on tap.

I found the thread of how to change the seals, but the pictures are gone, is there an updated version anywhere I can look at?

Cheers
Dan.

RE: Burning oil
 

Changing the seals are pretty easy. Just pull the old ones off by gently grasping them with pliers (or even your fingers would work). You press the new ones on by hand until you feel them snap into place. I'm guessing that you're doing this with the head on the block, inside the engine bay?

RE: Burning oil
 

Someone suggested that one or more of the oil control rings may be seized to the pistons, it doesn't burn oil at idle or when warmed up, just occasionally at high rpm. I checked my oil level and it hadn't moved. So I'll simply check the oil level every few days to ensure I'm not burning a lot. The engine's getting rebulit (or a rebuilt donor is going in) in a few thousand miles, so I'm not too worried about it now.