Ok, I have a 95 hb civic si with about 133,000 miles on it. I race it a lil but don't beat on it that much, I usually drive it nice. I always change the oil 2,000-3,000 miles and use premium gas. I take real good care of it and it pulls nice, has no leaks i know of. I'm using this High-RPM 10w-30 oil right now. Whenever My V-TEC engages I can smell oil burning bad, and you can see it come out of my exhaust. I've driven my car for about a month and probably lost about a quart or so. Any one know what I can do to fix this? Any suggestions? The only thing I can think of is maybe blown piston rings? Maybe scratched cylinder wall? WHAT OIL SHOULD I BE USING?

 

using super is pointless.......use regular or mid grade......the engine is made to work off of that. THe super unleaded isnt goin to do anything that midgrade wont to.

 

dont remember what weight that year called for, but i think its 5w-30 in the owners manual

 

You need to do a leakdown test.
IIRC the vtec uses oil pressure to engage the vtec pin and you may lose a minumal
amount of oil but what your experienceing sounds in my opinion like high RPM seal leaks.
As far a 5w 30 or 10w 30, that should play little part in this equation. I would check rings,
rods, and the likes first. But definitely do a leakdown test asayhac... Good Luck!

 

If you see bluish/white or light grey/white smoke coming out of the exhaust it is most likely a piston ring. It should be more apparent when you step on it. You could do a compression test and a leak down test to isolate it and be sure it is. If you find out it is a piston ring, I would try this before you go rebuilding the engine:

http://www.howtoadvice.com/StopBurningOil

I haven't tried it myself, but if I ever have a bad ring I will sure try it first. It will just cost a few bucks so why not. If that doesn't work and you want to get the most out of your car without tearing it appart for a rebuild I would try this:

http://members.aol.com/FHSoil/SmokeLess.html

It will not stop the burning, but it will be better for the environment and you will not get the people driving behind you all upset.

All in all the only thing that will fix it is a rebuild,... that is if it turns out to be a piston ring.

Also, your car was designed to run on regular gas. Unless you have increased the compression somehow, I would stick with regular unleaded. The only increase in power you will gain from going super unleaded is due to the lighter weight of the car because your wallet will be lighter.

 

Brief description of leakdown and compression tests:

A compression test measures the max pressure a cylinder will produce. A well sealed cylinder produces better compression than one that isn't. It's quick and easy but it doesn't tell you as much. A leakdown will check not only how well the cylinder is sealed, but you have the ability to check the seal as the piston moves up/down the cylinder. It also reports the % of leakage. To understand the test you have to understand the tester. You have two gauges, a pressure regulator, a way of connecting the tester to a compressed air source and a fitting to connect to the spark plug ports. The first gauge measures how much air the regulator is passing downstream to the cylinder. The second gauge measures how much pressure the downstream side is holding. In short you position the piston such that both valves are closed, supply a source of compressed air to the tester and adjust the regulator so that it is passing X amount of air downstream. X is up to you, but for the sake of making the math easy most people set it to 100 lbs. Next read the second gauge (lets call this Y) and do the math. Y / X = the percentage that the cylinder is holding. If X = 100 and Y = 80, then that cylinder is retaining 80% of the pressure supplied to it with the piston in that particular position. Or it's leaking 20% if you want to look at it that way. Now slowly rotate the crank by hand and watch the second gauge. If it remains at that same value then the cylinder walls are not the culprit. That leaves heads, head gaskets and rings. Any drops in pressure during the piston travel indicates an imperfection in the cylinder wall. Turn the pressure down to zero with the regulator and remove from the spark plug hole, squirt a shot of oil into the spark plug hole and reconnect the tester. Turn the pressure back up to what you had it set to before and read the second gauge. The oil will help seal the rings so you can assume the remaining leakage is head/head gasket related. In the example above, if the new reading is 85 then you can assume that the rings are leaking 5% and that the rest is due to heads or head gaskets.