I have a 1991 Honda Civic with the D15-B1 Engine (1.5L SOHC)
the car has 103K miles on it and runs good with the exception
of magical oil burning issue. It uses about 1 quart of oil for
every 200 miles of travel.

I did a compression test on the cylinders and it showed good
numbers on all cylinders -  leading me to believe that it is
not a ring problem. I have been told that it could be valve
seals going/being bad.

I dont want to spring $100 for a leak-down test since I bought
the car for less than that. Is there a way I can test the valve
seal theory without having to pop off the valve cover and lifters?

And can anyone else think of what else could be causing the
car to burn off so much oil?

Thank you ahead of time!

10 responses total.

Is it *leaking* oil?

No, the undercarriage is clean and the oil pan is not
showing any signs on leaking. The driveway is clean
after the car is there for a day or two as well.

Is the end part of the exhaust pipe oily? Or, do you trail blue smoke? These
would be signs of oil leakage into the manifolds. 

The exhaust pipe is not oily at all. The car produces white 
smoke after idling, or after you gear down and then give it gas.
This problem is not always present, only after the engine is warmed up,
sine the smoke is not blue, I checked the coolant, but its clean,
and does not disappear from the reservoir. The spark plugs do not get fouled
and show normal wear after the 6000 miles I have put on
them.

Does sound like an oil leak through the exhaust value bearings, as you
suspected. That oil is not burned so produces white smoke, after warm-up,
and of course plugs don't get fouled. I once replaced an exhaust valve
bearing......after disassembling the engine. It was good experience -
taught me to never do it again.

That does not sounds like a great deal of fun. Those kind of lessons are
better learned through somene else's expense. Oh well, I'll have to deal with
it sometime soon, Im not a big fan of dropping $60 on gas every month and $30
on oil that very same month. Thanks for the help. Do you know of any books
that could guide me through the process or is it an operation better handled
by a mechanic?

Have a look at http://www.bookchecker.com/0801983029

Thanks, will do.

I believe on Hondas you can replace the valve seals without tearing down
the engine, if you're adventurous.  The trick is to hold the valves in
place so they don't fall into the cylinder when you remove the valve
springs.

The usual method is to use a fitting that screws into the spark plug
hole and connects to an air compressor.  You set the cylinder you're
going to work on to TDC (so the valves are closed), block the engine so
it can't turn, then pressurize the cylinder.  The air pressure holds the
valves closed.

The other method is to remove the spark plug, then carefully feed rope
into the cylinder through the hole.  You then carefully turn the engine
until the piston holds the rope against the valve faces, keeping them in
place.  Generally it's recommended that you not use a synthetic rope for
this, because of concerns about what will happen to any stray fibers
when the engine is run later.  (Any stray bits of any organic kind of
rope will just harmlessly burn away.)

A good shop manual will tell you how to disassemble the valve springs
and replace the seals.  Note that this won't help you if the valve
guides are worn, because the excess play will just cause the new seals
to wear out rapidly.

I should add that this isn't the kind of thing a novice shade-tree
mechanic should attempt without help.  If you're not the type who would,
say, replace the timing belt yourself, this is going to fall well
outside your comfort zone.

Response not possible - You must register and login before posting.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss