Clean and/or soak piston rings. Inline honda 4cyl?

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What advice do you guys have for freeing up or cleaning piston rings? Almost 200k miles on an 2003 honda 2.4 4 cylinder. It's started burning oil recently, never noticable before. Now I need to top it off, I go through about 3/4 quart in 1k miles. Sometimes only 1/2 quart. I've been reading through here about upper engine cleaning and ring lubing. Just want to figure out the best thing to try. These motors are known to burn oil apparently. If the rings are sticking maybe I can help it out. If they are stacked wrong then I know I'm never fixing it, which I've read a tsb that the rings were installed/stacked wrong in many early 2.4s. Hoping that's not my case since the oil burn seems to have come on ony recently.

Thanks for any advice.
 
Put a full bottle of redline in the tank, pull the plugs and fill each bore with B12 and leave it for 24 hours. Change the oil&filter and perform an Italian tune up, and continue to use redline. Itll help if they're sticking but it could be down to several their issues which wont change without mechanical work.
 
Originally Posted By: t1snwrbrdr12
What advice do you guys have for freeing up or cleaning piston rings?


I've heard to put it in a lower gear (like 2nd) and run it up to redline and then let the engine braking coast the car back down. Do that a number of times in succession. The alternating loading/vacuum on the piston rings can sometimes free them up.
 
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Originally Posted By: t1snwrbrdr12
What advice do you guys have for freeing up or cleaning piston rings?


I've heard to put it in a lower gear (like 2nd) and run it up to redline and then let the engine braking coast the car back down. Do that a number of times in succession. The alternating loading/vacuum on the piston rings can sometimes free them up.


Thats an Italian tune up
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Quest
when was the last time you replace the PCV valve?

Q.

Yes as Q. mentions, first things first and the mode cause first.
Check your complete PCV system, from fresh air in to the PVC valve pill; Only use FACTORY pcv valve. Make sure you are NOT overfilling oil at all. Then look at other causes.
 
Pcv is new but it wasn't clogged when I changed it. I just replaced it in December when I did my timing chain.

Oil brand has changed. Used to get free oil at the dealer I worked at, no clue what it was but it was supposed to be the correct viscosity. Just came out of bulk pumps, believed to be shell.

It seems to burn less on next gen that I got cheap at autozone.
 
I have had great success w/cleaning clogged oil rings (clogged drain holes) with SeaFoam. B12 could work well, too I think. It's cheaper and easier to get than Kreen and I think all are going to work about equally effectively.

I use 50ml or so (maybe 1.5 to 2 ounces). Let it soak all afternoon or overnight. Blow any residual amount out via cranking before re-installing plugs (important). It will likely smoke horribly on start up so have it outside and not in your garage.

I would not fill the cylinders since you do need the additive all out before starting, and excess will end up in crank. 2 ozs/cylinder should be fine.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: t1snwrbrdr12
Pcv is new but it wasn't clogged when I changed it. I just replaced it in December when I did my timing chain.

Oil brand has changed. Used to get free oil at the dealer I worked at, no clue what it was but it was supposed to be the correct viscosity. Just came out of bulk pumps, believed to be shell.

It seems to burn less on next gen that I got cheap at autozone.



Do as others have said, an overnight soak with B12, Seafoam or a similar product is the best you can do without opening things up. These are solid engines, I have never heard or read that the early 2.4's were burners, I know some of the 8th gen Accords had some burners though. Also, out of curiosity...why was the timing chain replaced? And what type of oil did you run?
 
Chain stretched I was about 3 teeth off time. ECM kept setting a fault for this and power was a little down.

Oil was for 8 years whatever I got free out of the 5w20 bulk oil at the dealership, I think it was shell. Now it is whatever is a good deal. Mobil 5000, super tech, next gen.

I agree they are solid, I've driven it since 100k and never had a big issue. The only thing I didn't like is that it looks like someone was already in the timing cover before me, so somewhere in the first 100k someone's been in it. I know the Vtc actuators and variable cam sprocket had been known to go bad, I just would have hoped I was the first in the engine with 190k on it. Inside the valve cover wasn't too bad but you can tell someone didn't take perfect care if it before me. Since I've had it the oil has been changed anywhere from every 2k to 5k max depending on if I was working on it for any given reason and it was already up on the lift.
 
Is kreen only available through their site?

From what I understand from reading this site, Kreen is different from a top ending clean chemical like GM or seafoam.

I'd personally think a soak from the top end would work best, but should a clean from the bottom like bg109 be done as well? Instead?

Thanks for all the advice guys.
 
If BG109 is so great, Why is it so hard to find? I picked up a can off ebay and dumped it in today. I'm not good at following directions, so I drove about 20min round trip to Auto store for oil and filter. I got home and took out the drain bolt....

WOW! That black soot soaked nasty oil coming out! Will it make a difference? I don't know.

That impossible to read dipstick on my 03 maxima has been stained for years... Today it was sparkling like it was brand new! not a mark on it!
 
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