When I purchased my 04 Civic a little over a year ago as a commuter vehicle, I was quickly disappointed within the 1st week of owning it to find that she consumed a lot of oil. The used car dealer had a mechanic on site, & the oil was clearly fresh change, whether they did or previous owner is hard to say. I didn't notice any visible smoke from the tail pipe while idle or during test drive, nor any leaks. I was focused on looking over so many components with my time, that a possible oil burner never raised any flags. It would have been nice to have a second set of eyes with me.
Long story short, I was stuck with it. Trade in value was less than half of what I paid, & didn't have any more money to put into another vehicle. The rest of the car is in fantastic condition for its age, & decided to try various methods to stop or reduce oil consumption. That's when I started lurking BITOG, & came across this DIY Dave guy on YT. He has numerous videos on different chemicals & methods used in his experience with his poor Corolla. I was in the same boat, & willing to take a chance using a lot of his & other online methods to bring down my burn rate of 1qt/200mi. Cheap engine flushes, expensive engine flushes, piston soaks, expensive BG 2 part dynamic engine restoration kit, expensive Pro Maintenance Additives FTC Decarbonizer/ Flushing Oil Concentrate, air intake hot soaks, thinner oil for short runs, you name it. The car became an experiment.
The one thing I was actually going to try as a last resort before swapping the motor was the method that one guy did on YT using a mixture of motor oil & LA's Totally Awesome as a flush followed by a few flushes with regular oil to remove the crazy emulsion created. Oh, & as he says a little bit of MMO to "polish" the internals. Ha! Basically, a last experiment I was saving for when I actually got my JDM motor prepped & ready to go, knowing that must surly kill the poor motor. If not, see how long it would go while ready to do the swap at any given point. Unfortunately, it didn't make it, & the motor blew unexpectedly before I could do that experiment. As how it usually happens I guess.
I realize the amount of money wasted in doing all this, as nothing helped at all. I could pinpoint it to cylinder head #2, as the others were very clean & dry. It was very apparent it was a badly stuck or failed piston ring, & I was willing to try all this before mechanical intervention. I believe it also highly contributed to its demise. It would probably still be running on the original motor had I just stuck to feeding it oil. Then again it was bound for failure. The oil would be gritty, & jet black after 2 days from a fresh change. The blowby was insane. Bearings eventually wore down, & crank failed. However, experimenting was adventurous, & I was preparing for its death anyway.
That time period sparked my infatuation with learning about oil, & eventually led me to creating an account here. While I'm curious as to whether DIY Dave's Corolla will ever stop burning oil without mechanical intervention, I have my doubts given what he's already done. There was an article I came across about that particular motor having design flaw for the pistons & rings used causing abnormal wear on the cylinder bores. Apparently, Toyota acknowledged this & changed the design for the next gen.
Maybe he'd be willing to try the LA's Totally Awesome experiment now that he's posted several videos & made a side hustle out of it. He's already dedicated the car to "science" no matter the outcome. I'd get a good kick seeing someone else try it. I really wish I could have. Now my car runs so reliably, it's boring. At least I'm making up for money lost in the meantime, & saving up for my 1st oci with HPL without having to worry about it burning up like he is.