I have an 89 civic lx, 103000 miles, bought about a month ago. I quickly discovered it was leaking and burning oil. I fixed the leak with new front cam and crank seals, but it is still burning pretty heavily, about a quart ever 100 miles. It has blowby, and if you sit and watch it, you can see some smoke sneaking out the oil fill tube.

I'm thinking a new set of rings would help it out. I haven't done rings on a car before, but I can follow instructions in a manual pretty well (as I say, I successfully changed the oil seals).

1) Anyone want to recommend a good manual for this procedure? I have a Haynes, but I would think there would be something better.

2) Can the rings be changed with the engine still in the car, by maybe pulling the head off on top and the oil pan off the bottom? Or do you have to pull the engine out to do it?

Thanks for any advice.

 

Before I recommend anything, I first need know how committed you are to doing a quality job. There are a few ways to go about this depending on how much time, effort, and money you want to spend, and what type of results you are looking for.

 

Well, I'd like to do a good job. However, if I had plenty of $$ I'd let a regular mechanic do it for about $800.

To be realistic, this is a car I bought cheap, so I would like to keep the expenses down. As far as time, I have a full time job, so I can only work on it in my spare time. And it will be in my garage, no car hoists, etc., only my jack, jackstands, and ramps.

So I'm not trying to restore the engine to new-car condition, just cut down on the oil burning before my son lets it run dry and kills it for good.

 

That mechanic must be a good friend of yours...$800 is mighty cheap for the work you want done. On the same token, you are obviously implying your budget is less than $800. Personally, I don't care how little money, time, or patience one may have, I never recommend attempting a ring job with the engine in the vehicle, although it can be done. Others will certainly disagree with that, but I really don't care to go into details. With that type of a budget and experience, I would suggest finding a cheap, low mileage import motor for the car and swap the old one out. You may think '89 is too old, but I guarantee that they are available. Depending on where you look, I've seen them for as low as $350. It's much less of a hassle than trying to re-ring the original motor, and if you don't have an engine hoist, rent one.

 

Thanks for the advice, Phil. No, that puzzles me, because this is a AAA certified shop that I've never used before, and they gave me a quote over the phone. If I were to go with that, I guess I should reverify the price.

I have never considered pulling an engine, it just always seemed way beyond me, due to my lack of experience. But I now have 2 cars that need engines, the other a 95 Saturn (rod knocking), so I had better start looking at it...

Thanks very much.

 

you need to do a compression test to know if the rings are the problem or not. i just put rings in my 88, 1.5 liter. did not remove the engine. (have to take the head off).first time.
am not finished - will take a little longer. rings and pistons are in. though (had done a compression tests a few weeks ago - knew that num 2 had bad rings).

i followed Haynes. with no experience with the ring compressor tool - it was "hairy".
don't think that i camfered enough. did some more. but it was of course after i had already washed with soap and water. think i would rather work outside rather than inside.
did not wash again, but wiped the bottom parts good with a rag. wish i had put the head bolts back in before washing - got the hole filled up. spent last sat bout from 8 to midnight swabbing the bolt holes out.

your problem may be , and more than likely, is the valve guide oil seals. you will see it very evident when you look into the intake side ports of the head. very much evident of the oil crud build-up (if your seals are bad). mine were. i had decided to do it before taking the head off - knew from a mechanic friend about them. a lot written bout doing the seals in forums - guys trying it and not even wanting to take the head off (their rings are OK). lot of work taking the head off, and cost of head gasket; but it is tricky because you may lose the valve down into the cylinder. (lot of neat techniques).
if you do the seals, i can post bout my experience with that.

hope this helps

 

Another option is getting a low mileage junkyard engine. I got one with 122K for $212 on Ebay, from a wrecked car - Besides some minor problems, I'm very happy with it.

 

Thanks for all suggestions. I'll give it a compression test and see what it shows. I actually have a compression tester I've never used...

Thanks much.

 

OK, finally got the car home at a reasonable hour where I could do a compresion test (teenage son was driving it). Now keep in mind, this is the first time I have ever done one. The reading on all cylinders was about 140-150 on a dry test. When I added oil to the cylinders, reading came up to about 170. So I would assume that is an indicator of worn rings. Also noticed the car had a lot of extra power, at least until all the oil burned off.

Now here's another question. Cylinder 1 plug was floating in oil (outside the head, in the tube). I had noticed this before, and I replaced the valve cover gasket and all the spark plug seals. Found it that way again today. Anyone got any ideas why this would be happening, or where the oil is coming from? Maybe warped valve cover? It's not leaking anywhere else I can see.

Thanks.

 

may be a warped valve cover. need to test on a flat surface.
there was a post here recently about someone that replaced the spark plug seals and i guess he was saying with cheap ones and was going to buy higher quality. dont know if he said how it turned out.

also,
on the top of the head are imbedded seal at the junction of the head and rocker arm assembly. your rocker arm assembly may not be tight (unlikely) or the seals may need to be replaced.