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Oil Consumption


kdozier

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Hey guys. I'm a newbie here on the forum but I had a question about my '94 Del Sol. It's a 1.5 L. I'm noticing excess exhaust in this cold weather even after the car warms up. I did an oil change about 1000 miles ago. It needs a quart now. Only two things come to mind: valve stem seals or oil getting past the piston rings.... Does the 1.5 L have a problem with oil getting past the rings?

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when i got my sol in 03 it had a d15b7 in it (same motor as you) and it was running on 3 cylinders because #4 didn't have any compression... now its VERY rare to see it leaking from the valves but to get 0 on compression test you basicly have to either have fully open valves or damaged valve AND bad rings... i poured some oil in and then i got a little compression, i didn't even look into the motor and sold it and got a b16 (id get an LS or z6 knowing what i know now... but anyways) nothing is really "common problem" with those motors other then they are low on power... but id guess your rings are bad maybe in all cylinders or just 1. do a compression test to see where what is...

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I haven't heard of that being a common problem.

 

Have you looked around the engine bay to see if there is oil anywhere?

 

Or also underneath?

 

 

No the engine bay is clean as a whistle. I just got the car 2 weeks ago. No oil dripping from underneath either.

 

I thought I'd do a compression test when I got the money to buy a gauge. Seems to run fine though...

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do you have any experiance with hondas? mine seemed "fine" but had no guts... which i originally thought was just the motor being the baby one... it was junk.

 

Thank you for the reply! I have no real experience with Honda engines. Had a '91 Prelude I did an intake manifold gasket on. Had an '88 Accord 2.0 carbureted that I did some valve cover stuff with. This is my first Del Sol. It seems wimpy but I'm not looking for muscle out of this car. It's literally getting 36 city and 46 highway and that's what I intend on keeping it at. I have another car to put some muscle in.

 

I noticed when I did the oil change a few weeks ago that the oil was very black... like someone hadn't changed it in a very long time. After having done this oil change I'm looking on the dipstick and it's still very dark for 1000 mile oil. I'm hoping it's just some residue from inside the dipstick tube. I rubbed some of the oil on my fingers and smelled it today. Smelled like used oil but nothing more. No fuel smell in the oil or milkiness like a head gasket problem.

 

Any help or hypotheses are very much appreciated!!

 

Oh yes. One more thing. I acquired this car about 2 weeks ago. It has about 156000 on the clock and the previous owner was a mid-late 40's female. So I think some maintenance might have been overlooked but I doubt this car's been driven hard...

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Alright guys!!! I did the compression check on 3 cylinders and ran into a problem. The #4 spark plug will not come out!! Somebody evidently rounded it out and it no socket will fit over it. I wouldn't doubt if that was the original spark plug either. What's the best way to get it out? I know the Advance Auto Parts sells a tool just for my problem... but I'm wondering if I need to take the valve cover off and break the ceramic shank off the spark plug before I get it on there. Or is there another easier and better way to do this?

 

Second: As stated above I did the compression test on the other 3 cylinders. Results are: #1- 130 PSI; #2- 140 PSI; #3-140 PSI (exact numbers too!). All of the spark plugs indicated no abnormal wear. No oil residue. No wet plugs from excess fuel. But I changed out the 3 plugs while they were out.

 

What should I do with the #4 cylinder?

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See if you can find a deep extractor... pulling the vc off wont get you any closer. You may be able to warm up the car and get a 12pt socket on it... then it will pull out.

 

Hmmmm... a 12 pt deep socket... I think I may have one that size. I'll try anything right about now!! as long as the ceramic doesn't break I'll be fine! I'll keep you guys posted. Does anything seem odd about the other 3 compression numbers?

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140 is great, alil low isnt bad... get the car warmed up so that the spark plug has alil gap (aluminum expands more then steel) and a 12pt deep well socket should get you in there... might wanna try a standard (3/4" or something) that is a size smaller (i think, might have to play around with it alil bit) and then you can also hit it with a hammer slightly and get it on there... if its truely stripped. find something that barely to tight and wack it down, heating up the socket will also help it expand then let it cool down alil bit...

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Update!! I got the spark plug out! Compression here is the compression for all cylinders: #1- 130 PSI; #2- 140 PSI; #3- 140 PSI; #4- 130 PSI

 

Now that I know the engine is in good shape I'm wondering where I'm losing the oil at... I can only guess that it's from valve stem seals now. Does anybody have any other predictions on this oil loss since the bottom of the engine/ oil pan is clean as a whistle??

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Update!! I got the spark plug out! Compression here is the compression for all cylinders: #1- 130 PSI; #2- 140 PSI; #3- 140 PSI; #4- 130 PSI

 

Now that I know the engine is in good shape I'm wondering where I'm losing the oil at... I can only guess that it's from valve stem seals now. Does anybody have any other predictions on this oil loss since the bottom of the engine/ oil pan is clean as a whistle??

 

Congrats on the plug removal. Those can be a bear at times. Is your exhaust pipe particularly sooty after normal driving? Any oil in the coolant tank or radiator flow? You said no apparent leaks around motor, right? Should be able to narrow your oil loss down to burned, leaked, mixed with coolant, etc... What is fuel economy like?

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Congrats on the plug removal. Those can be a bear at times. Is your exhaust pipe particularly sooty after normal driving? Any oil in the coolant tank or radiator flow? You said no apparent leaks around motor, right? Should be able to narrow your oil loss down to burned, leaked, mixed with coolant, etc... What is fuel economy like?

 

I do not see any oil in the coolant. I added to the overflow bottle. I ran the engine for 20 minutes with the radiator cap off trying to get the fans to turn on and the coolant to cycle through the radiator but it wouldn't do it.

 

When I got the car the oil was extremely low and extremely black. Like it hadn't been changed in 10000 miles. I changed the oil and still after 100 miles of fresh clean oil... the dipstick was showing it to be very very dark. After checking it today it looks to be a "normal" used oil color. I chalk it up to the dirty oil being in the dipstick tube that was coming off on the stick. I added another quart while I was at it because it's at the mark.

 

I checked the exhaust pipe. It is indeed sooty. Almost dripping with black soot. What would cause that?

 

Gas mileage I'm getting is 36 city and 46 highway. Excellent gas mileage.

 

I know oil is being burned. I can give it full throttle in any gear and see visible exhaust. But it's not constant blue smoke as I'm driving. If I were burning that much oil and having to add a quart roughly every thousand miles then I'd suspect constant blue smoke. Will PCV problems contribute to my oil loss condition?

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ok, the places i can quickly suggest from burnt sooty exhaust is rings or your intake is sucking it from the valve cover. if its sucking it through the valve cover that means your pressure is alil on the high side (common on turbod cars) and that would be caused by the pvc not doing its job.

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