acura rsx type s used car lack of maintnence?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jul 20, 2013
Messages
30
Location
delaware
alright i have an 02 rsx type s(k20a2) that has almost 60K on it. i just bought it about 7K miles ago. since then ive done 5 oil changes. the day i got the car i changed the oil to m1 5w30 and a m1-110 oil filter. about 2 weeks later i pulled the stick and it was black, that surprised me. so i decided to go a bit cheaper this time, pyb 5w30, half quart of mmo and m1-110. i did that twice, ran till it was black. then a local parts store had rp 5w30 on sale, so i got 5 qt of that, same filter but no mmo this time. the last oil change i took a sample(1500 miles on the oil) and it sat in a sealed sample cup(that i borrowed
whistle.gif
from work) on my desk for a week. before i transferred it to the blackstone sample jar i turned it upside down and was shocked at all the [censored] that settled to the bottom, i shook it up till it was all mixed back in before i transferred it to the blackstone jar, im still waiting for results.

this last oil change i once again ran rp 5w30 (full price this time) but i switched to a larger filter, m1-114 i think, its the honda s2000 filter. ive looked in the oil fill cap and its not all that dirty in there. this is the first car ive had to dirty up oil this fast. now i do beat on the car, but...really?
 
hmm, well i guess i had it in my mind that it was neglected. i guess i can do a little more story telling.

when i got the car it had clean oil but some really cheap filter, so thats why i changed it that day. i also changed the trans fluid because i read about synchros going bad, so i put in the amsoil that was recomended, its funny, the trans was over filled and the fluid that was in it was the same color and smell of the amsoil i just bought. so of course putting the correct amount of fluid in the trans reveals that my 2nd gear synchro is bad. the air filter it had was by some brand i never heard of, only place i could find it was ebay, for like $7. i bought and installed an AEM short ram intake, dryflow filter and the pre filter. makes all the right vtec noises now. it was low on coolant, the powersteering fluid was black, i flushed it with honda fluid. brake fluid is next. i also put plugs in it, when i had them out i noticed carbon on the pistons so i ran a few cans of sea foam through it, not all at once tho.
 
well i bought a turbo that may or may not find its way under the hood of that car so it could get a whole lot worse. and i needed the sound system for an event at work this week, it was 98 degrees outside, the feels like temp was like 106, i had to let the car idle for 4 hours. i also like to hear that vtec cross over, so im definitely not helping the car.

so any recommendations to help me lengthen the life of the motor will be appreciated.
 
Sounds like its been Beat to [censored] and back.

Just do what all the other kids do, Keep a spare engine handy.

With what you have planned for the car, Oil aint gonna make much of a difference.......
 
Driving the RSX Type-S HARD isn't going to kill it. That K series engine was designed to spin past 8,000rpm.

I had an 07 Civic Si (with a similar engine) and ran it HARD daily + raced it at the track. The engine was flawless when I got rid of the car with 110,000 miles on it.

Now, improper oil change intervals is another thing all together.

The OP used sea foam and it could simply be cleaning up whatever build up the engine had, hence the oil is dark.

If the engine sounds fine, run fine and strong to redline without any hiccups and the back bumper isn't BLACK, the block should last a long time without any issues.

Run an oil of your choice for 3,000 miles and check the OIL LEVEL every time you fill up. This will help you determine if the engine is eating oil and at what rate. If you have to add little by little every time it gets below the FULL mark and end up adding a quart during the 3,000 mile run, the engine is perfectly fine.

If it's eating more then a quart every 3,000 miles, then your exhaust tip and back bumper should be BLACK due to the engine burning oil from fried piston rings.

Run 3,000 miles and report back.
 
60k miles are nothing to that engine. I would be very surprised if much was wrong with it at all. But anything is possible.

As suggested, some short changes are in order. Likely this will clean it up well enough to run a LONG time, or at least until you start tuning it!
 
alright so i guess ill keep doing what im doing and see if it cleans up. ive only run it about 1500 before oil change but i have noticed that it isnt using any in that time. at first i was concerned that the dirt was coming from my air filter, but then i read that aem filters are actually not that bad.

as soon as i get my uoa ill post up the silicon and insoluble numbers, or anything that stands out.

i was kinda hoping i would have it yesterday, thats why i started the thread.

good to know theres people here with k series experience
 
allright i wanna tell you all how things have been going. i got my results from blackstone, and they said NOTHING, silicon was low and insolubles was 0.1%. so you tell me, whats the black streak of death in this cup? its the cup i took my sample in. heres a vid of it...

http://youtu.be/dwtlpEkM8zk

i have some more ide like to show you.

PkAcMPu.jpg


i wiped a clean spot in the 4 oclock position. this is 2000 miles on PP 5w30 and this filter is an m1-104 i think. i took the valve cover off and i didnt get a pic sorry but it was more of this sooty stuff, so i sprayed the top end down with that seafoam spray, it washed away very easly. now its all bare metal, no varnish, nothing, looks like a brand new motor. now the odd part, the oil never really turns black, you can see it on the edge of the filter, its still brown, the black stuff never really gets suspended in it i guess. i showed the guy at the parts store, if i drive for like 2 weeks, pull the dipstick, its jet black like a diesel from top to bottem, wipe it, dip it again and theres clean oil on the tip, he has never seen this before. heres a pic of this.

SBUj07C.jpg


the black is whats on the stick and you can see the brown spots from the oil.

at this point you might be asking what the [censored] am i doing to this car. ok let me tell you. i do beat on this car, not crazy, but i do cross into vtec a few times a day. i dont really short trip the car, its always warmed up when i get to where im going. every 3 or 4 tanks of gas ill toss in a bottle of amsoil pi. every 6 months or so ill run some sort of intake cleaner through it(seafoam,amsoil powerfoam, ect) new plugs when i bought it, i keep track of fuel mileage, 20-25 around town, 30-35 on the highway. it does not use oil, if it does its not much. i was a ford technician back when i was poor, and ive never seen a gas motor do this, neither has any of my car buddies or any other professional ive talked to.

so i kinda took the next step...

q1W6GAz.jpg


i bought the amsoil single bypass setup. how long do you think it will be before i plug that filter? and what do you think about all this?

oh ya, i only ever ran royal purple, PP or PYB. and now im running amsoil SS 5w30.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: another Todd
Have you cleaned out the dipstick tube yet? The black might just be from the inside of the tube.


the dipstick goes in the valve cover and runs down the drain back to the crankcase.

Originally Posted By: accent2012
Is the engine noisy? Burn oil? Any leaks?

Can you actually post the blackstone lab results?


noise? meh, its louder then i like but its on par with a few other K motors ive listened to. burn oil? if any its less then a half a quart in 2000 miles. lab results comming up...
 
Originally Posted By: 02 acura rsx
Code:
MI on Oil 1656

MI on Unit 58433

Sample Date 07/07/13

Make Up Oil Added 0 quarts

Oil Type royal purple 5w30



Universal Avgs

ALUMINUM 2 3

CHROMIUM 0 0

IRON 5 9

COPPER 5 4

LEAD 2 3

TIN 1 1

MOLYBDENUM 25 87

NICKEL 0 0

MANGANESE 0 1

SILVER 0 0

TITANIUM 0 1

POTASSIUM 1 1

BORON 13 63

SILICON 8 10

SODIUM 290 31

CALCIUM 2127 2330

MAGNESIUM 23 178

PHOSPHORUS 716 734

ZINC 853 844

BARIUM 0 0



SUS Viscosity @ 210°F 57.4

cSt Viscosity @ 100°C 9.47

Flashpoint in °F 430

Fuel %
Antifreeze % 0.0

Water % 0.0

Insolubles 0.1

TBN 0.0
 
Interesting stuff. I've known many K series engines and haven't seen this behavior before. Unless whatever that dirt/soot is is doing any damage the overall architecture/internals of that engine are incredibly strong so keep flushing it out until its clean but don't baby it. Running up into VTEC a few times a day on a warm engine isn't really beating on it considering it was engineered for far worse than that.

BTW the OE S2000 filter is PCX-004 unless you were using a different brand? I honestly didn't realize it would fit a K engine but, in that case you should know that the OE filter designed for the S2000 is about the best you can get in terms of construction, flow, and filtration.
 
Last edited:
I think the black stuff is carbon.
You would think it would show in the test as insolubles, but maybe the lab tech at Blackstone left it in the bottom of the sample jar when he poured.

Make sure the all parts of the PCV system are clear, not just the valve.
 
I'm about to change my oil on my 87K RSX, that I've raced and driven hard. I'm doing a 7,500k interval as I've been babying it trying to break 36mpg. I'll be sending in a sample to see if I waited too long... I'll report back what I see, maybe it'll help you out.

I changed the oil at least every 5k prior to this and often times sooner then that, and had all the other fluids changed before they needed it so I don't know if it really counts....
 
allright good people im back with some follow up information.
last time i posted i had installed a remote bypass filter and used amsoil 5w30 SS. im gonna post up the results of 5355 miles with this setup.

the car did not burn any oil during this run, i added 2 quarts about 2000 miles into the run because my filter sandwich adapter blew an oring, it wasnt instaled tight enough, my fualt.

my total capacity with this setup is about 6.5 qts
 
ive looked at voas' for this oil and it seems my viscosity has come down a bit but i was wondering if that was related to the fuel.
also the fuel is from a few hours of idling the day before i took the sample, i tried to drive it before i took the sample, guess i didnt go far enough.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top