1991 llx still burning oil after rebuild

wiz87

New Member
5+ Year Member
Hiya folks,

I bought my 1991 5spd lx sedan back in may. When i bought the car it burned oil and right after i got the car it burned through a valve on the third cylinder. I pulled the head and had it rebuilt by a guy that the local honda dealer uses. When i pulled the head i checked all the other valves to see if they had oil gunk on them but only the third cylinder valves did. I pulled the third piston while the head was being rebuilt and honed the cylinder wall and bought a new honda ring set for the third piston. I checked the gapping and the size of the new rings to the old rings to make sure that the cylinder had not been bored over stock, they were the same sizes. I put new gaskets in everywhere that i could while i was rebuilding it.

So the problem that i am having is the car is still burning about a quart of oil every tank (about 370 - 400 miles). The car still gets great mileage and doesn't puff out tons of smoke. In fact the only time i can see any smoke coming out of the tailpipe is when i look in the rearview mirror while taking off from a stop light or when i down shift to get on the highway. If I just let the car sit and idle in my driveway i can not see any smoke coming out the back. Also the part of the bumper right above the tailpipe is covered in what looks like black soot.

So i am just looking for any ideas as to what could be the problem. It doesn't feel like it is short on power so i believe that my rings have seated properly. Is there any thing i could have over looked or forgotten to do?
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry for the long post i just wanted to give as much info as possible.

wiz87
 

jmr90si

New Member
5+ Year Member
It could be one of the other set of rings:what. My a6 is goin through 3 qts a week. And thats after a head job for the same thing! Only I burnt 2 valves. Rebuilding a ZC to drop in now.Good luck let us know what it turns out 2be.
 


Morpherex

New Member
5+ Year Member
You should have replaced the other rings while you were at it. It wouldn't have taken much longer. That or the place did a bad job on the valve seals?
 

wiz87

New Member
5+ Year Member
Yeh i wanted to do them all but i ran way over budget for the rebuild and had already borrowed money to finish it. I didn't intend to do a rebuild when i bought the car. However, when i did a compression test when the car started have problems cylinders 1,2, and 4 all had a compression of 208. Going off of that i figured the rings in the other cylinders where in good enough shape to not have to replace them.

I was kind of afriad that my problem would be in the part of the engine that i had just messed with.
Thanks for the suggestions guys hopefully i can figure some way to slow the oil burning down while i save up some money for another round.
 


Morpherex

New Member
5+ Year Member
What I would do is take the car to a shop that has a leak down tester; not a compression tester. A leak down test will tell you much more about the engines health, and if it's a head gasket that's causing the problem. For all you know like I said, the seals could have been put on improperly or in a hurry.
 

jmr90si

New Member
5+ Year Member
Yeh i wanted to do them all but i ran way over budget for the rebuild and had already borrowed money to finish it. I didn't intend to do a rebuild when i bought the car. However, when i did a compression test when the car started have problems cylinders 1,2, and 4 all had a compression of 208. Going off of that i figured the rings in the other cylinders where in good enough shape to not have to replace them.

I was kind of afriad that my problem would be in the part of the engine that i had just messed with.
Thanks for the suggestions guys hopefully i can figure some way to slow the oil burning down while i save up some money for another round.
yeh your comp rings are probably in good shape. It's the oil ring. Get a leak down test.
 


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