2005 Civic D17A1 (non-Vtec) 340K-kms - highway car

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Thugzy

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I just bought this car lately as a secondary car and plan to use it primarily for long distance highway drives for work.
One or two stints of 5-600km round trips a week.

The car is in excellent condition overall. The only major repair i did on the car was replace the headgasket (includes resurface the head, timing belt, water pump, thermostat, rad hoses, alt/PS belts etc...)

The engine seems to be burning some amount of oil. There are absolutely no leaks.
It is very possible that oil is passing the piston rings, but there is no signs of blue exhaust smoke... The engine runs strong.

After a round trip of 500kms, i am needing to top up the oil with about 3/4 liter.

When i did the headgasket, i used Motomaster 5W30 High Mileage Semi-Synthetic and a cheap Pronto filter. Honda spec's 5W20


I would like to know your oil reccomendations for this car considering how i am using it, the high mileage and oil consumption rate.


Could a Dino higher viscosity oil remedy the consumption?

Thanks
 
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No you cant fix mechanical wear with oil. Could be getting past the valve seats... you need to check your plugs to see what is really going on inside the combustion chamber. Read the plugs and keep an eye on them.

Best advice on an oil burner that is over 10 years old with high miles? Run whatever 5w30 oil is cheap and has a starburst. Keep a few quarts in the trunk at all times and check the oil every day and keep adding til you get tired of adding or the car gets tired of being added to.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Try a 10w30.

+1 Then maybe try a 10W-40 as a last resort. Make sure it's not leaking somewhere.
 
Originally Posted By: bigt61
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Try a 10w30.

+1 Then maybe try a 10W-40 as a last resort. Make sure it's not leaking somewhere.



I am actually topping up with 10W30 QS green bottle and continuing to monitor.
 
Originally Posted By: Lolvoguy
Originally Posted By: ST2008
Have you try Restore Engine Restorer & Lubricant? It's on sale this week at CT

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/restore-engine-restorer-lubricant-0380290p.html#Reviews

I never use it, but it seems there are only positive reviews about this product. There are also few videos in youtube about the same product. It doesn't look like a snake oil.


doesn't that stuff just get stuck in the oil filter anyway?



Interestingly curious, i wouldn't mind trying it.... All the reviews i see sofar online have yielded good results....
 
Well if you're curious, you can run your own experiments with different oils.

The important part is NEVER RUN IT LOW.

I'd use cheap stuff that meets SM or SN and forget about regular oil changes, sounds like you are turning over the sump capacity every 2000 miles or so. Just swap filters every 5000 mi or so and ride on.
 
Originally Posted By: ST2008
Just curious. Have you done compression test ?


I will check and record the pressures per cylinder.

I just picked up some Restore and 10W30 Motomaster High Mileage Oil.

Ill change the oil and add the Restore and then report back the cylinder pressures after a week...

This should be interesting..
 
Originally Posted By: Thugzy
Originally Posted By: ST2008
Just curious. Have you done compression test ?


I will check and record the pressures per cylinder.

I just picked up some Restore and 10W30 Motomaster High Mileage Oil.

Ill change the oil and add the Restore and then report back the cylinder pressures after a week...

This should be interesting..


Try do both "cold" and "warm" engine compression test before and after the restore if you can.
 
Originally Posted By: Thugzy
I just bought this car lately as a secondary car and plan to use it primarily for long distance highway drives for work.
One or two stints of 5-600km round trips a week.

The car is in excellent condition overall. The only major repair i did on the car was replace the headgasket (includes resurface the head, timing belt, water pump, thermostat, rad hoses, alt/PS belts etc...)

The engine seems to be burning some amount of oil. There are absolutely no leaks.
It is very possible that oil is passing the piston rings, but there is no signs of blue exhaust smoke... The engine runs strong.

After a round trip of 500kms, i am needing to top up the oil with about 3/4 liter.

When i did the headgasket, i used Motomaster 5W30 High Mileage Semi-Synthetic and a cheap Pronto filter. Honda spec's 5W20


I would like to know your oil reccomendations for this car considering how i am using it, the high mileage and oil consumption rate.


Could a Dino higher viscosity oil remedy the consumption?

Thanks

It's the valve-stem oil seals. Using xW-40 will reduce the oil consumption by a factor of three. You should have changed them when you were replacing the head gasket.
 
I did the compression test warm and registered 185psi across the board. Plugs all looked normal. I added the Restore to th oil and will monitor.

When the head was done, I had the machine shop do a full leaktdown test on the head. All was fine, should the bad valve seals been detected that time?
 
If the rings are worn-stuck, No oil will stop the motor from burning oil. Thicker oil may reduce it a bit but that's all. Don't waste money on additives, I have a 1999 accord 230K, burning a quart/500 miles. Running HDEO 15W40 for a while now. All you can do is monitor the oil and top off as needed.
 
It's trivial to replace the valve-stem oil seals with the cylinder head removed. It's very unusual that they weren't. No, they won't be detected in a leak or compression test.
 
UPDATE.

After 3000kms of adding a can of Restore there is no change in oil consumption. Compression test also remained the same at 185 across the board. This could just mean that the bottom end of the engine was ok and there was not sufficient enough wear to make any difference...OR the Restore did not work.

So it is highly likely the valve seals leak

I am now switched over to Castrol GTX 20W50 as a top up oil.. will report back in a few weeks to let you know if that helped.
 
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