well pretty recently built LS VTEC. ITR pistons. Changed valve seals because we thought it was that. Still losing oil somewhere. No oil marks on the ground. about every 2 week oil light comes on and have to add oil.
wth? you are driving untily uo see the oil light come on before you top the oil up? jsut keep toppnig it up every few days or don’t drive it. Stop driving to the point where you see the light come on. that’s not godo for the mtoor if there isn’t enoguh oil to provide good oil pressure. Is the motor burning any oil?
Did you do a compression test? Did you do a leak-down test? Is there alot of smoke coming out of your tail pipe?
My first guess is piston ring blow-by. Perhaps the rings did not set correctly. Did you use OEM Honda rings, or something else?
Pull out your plugs are describe what they look like on each cylinder.
Also, in the meantime, pick up some Restore, and CD2 anti-oil burning additive. This increases the viscosity of the oil, to slightly reduce piston-ring-blow-by.
Also, try to avoid W.O.T., and heavy engine loading, and very high RPM’s, in the meantime, while you figure out the problem.
-Andrew
Check your coolant as well… see if it looks alright.
Thanks…my thoughts exactly…this isn’t my car but my friends DC2. yes there is exessive carbon build up on the bumper and u can see alittle puff of smoke sometimes. I was hoping it wouldn’t be the rings. I think we’re going to have to rebuild the bottom again. I told him to be careful if ur burning that much but i think he hasn’t been listening. Will the compression test be noticeable to tell by the numbers? Maybe PCV? anyways thanks again.
If you’re eating that much oil and its due to bad rings… a compression test will definitely show a drop in compression. My old engine was eatinga bout a quart every 300-500 miles, rings were washed out. When the engine was healthy it had 245psi compression, and very even. With the bad rings compression dropped down to 185-195psi. (**note, this is running a compression ratio of 11:1).
Definitely time for your friend to do a compression test or better yet a leakdown test. And as the others stated, he needs to start putting oil in more often. That oil light is called an “idiot light” for a reason.
as everyone said, do a leak down test. you will find out what your problem is right away.
agreed…we are going to do a compression test first. I’m pretty sure its the rings. sucks that this happens afer freshly building the bottom.
How was the motor broken in for ring seating?