Best oil engine for old Honda CRX?

[06VtecV6]

Originally Posted By: owj_outdoors
What oil engine do you recommend for a Honda CRX 88 1.5 non-vtec fuel-injected starting to burn oil (1 liter per 1000 km)?
Car has almost 275,000K (170,000M) and has been well maintained since I got it (at 160,000K) before that maintenance is unknown. Now I am using Pennzoil 10W-30. I am thinking of switching to Castrol High Mileage Motor Oil 10W30 but someone told me to try Pennzoil Platinum Synthetic 10W30. Being a total ignorant about the topic I would rather ask.
Where I live temperature rarely drops below 0C (32F) but I use the car to go to the ski resort where the average winter temperature is -5 C (23 F). I understand that I can't stop mechanical wear, but I want to slow it down. Thanks in advance for anyone pointing me to the right direction.


I know a lot of folks have recommended Maxlife 5w-30 but I want to put Motorcraft 5w-30 synthetic blend into the hat. Unless you need something thicker because it is a high mileage engine or has leaks, I don't see why MC 5w-30 couldn't do the trick and more.

 

[Hokiefyd]

I don't see a single reason to use 10W-30 over 5W-30 in your application, except POSSIBLY a better NOACK volatility number.

At operating temperature, they're both essentially the same. At cold temperature, the 5W-30 will flow much better than will the 10W-30. And 5W-30 certainly isn't "too thin". Recall that oil thickens dramatically as temperatures cool. It's probably better to say that, when cold, 5W-30 is "less thick" than 10W-30....because both are dramatically thicker, even at 80-100 deg F, than they are at over 200 deg F.

So don't worry about those numbers before the "W" in the oil grade being "too low". They're not.

 

[VK56VD]

Originally Posted By: Steelhead


any blue smoke when you accel. hard or let off from high rpms?


What would some smoke during hard acceleration mean for oil consumption?

 

[jennings]

I had a Civic Si of that generation and thought I'd keep it forever. I tried Mobil 1 5w30 and fouled the plugs in a week. 10Wxx is the way to go with these. If I'm not mistaken, Honda played around with a 2 ring piston for awhile. May never have been put in production but if it was I'd bet my old Civic had 'em.

 

[Yuk]

Run to Wal-Mart NOW. If you're lucky, you'll catch the end of a Maxlife sale, which has the 4.4L jugs of semi-syn on for $9.97 and the full-syn. at $14.97. Most likely the best prices, in Canada, you'll ever find for this stuff.

 

[ThirdeYe]

To the OP: Don't worry, adjusting the valves isn't as tough as it seems. I know I was overwhelmed at first, but I learned that it's actually pretty easy. Just crank the engine to TDC for each of the 4 cylinders, put the feelers in between the valves and cam lobes and measure the clearances. If too loose, tighten until you feel a slight drag onto the feeler but the next size up won't fit. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

 

[owj_outdoors]

Today I visited another mechanic and he told me the same thing. That I will foul the spark plugs if I switch to 5W-30.

I did a compression test (as suggested by one of you) and I got the following results:

Dry Cylinder 1=180 2=175 3=185 4=195
Wet Cylinder 1=195 2=195 3=195 4=195

Spark plug for cylinder 3 was a little wet (oil). I took advantage and replaced spark plugs (last time was 50,000 km ago).

The mechanic told me a little bit of oil is going into the combustion chamber (maybe piston rings). According to him there are not valve problems because the engine was very quiet, therefore a head gasket job and valve adjustmet were discarded.

He said, "Believe it or not, this engine still has a lot of life on it. Drive for as long as you can and start saving your money for an engine swap."

Well, I am back where I started.

 

[ThirdeYe]

I don't see how or why, my plugs look fine? I've always used 5W-30 as did the previous owner. The oil into the spark plug chambers is probably due to leaky spark plug tube seals. Had that happen in my car, was a 10 minute job to replace all 4.

 

[jorton]

Originally Posted By: owj_outdoors
I know a lot of folks have recommended Maxlife 5w-30 but I want to put Motorcraft 5w-30 synthetic blend into the hat. Unless you need something thicker because it is a high mileage engine or has leaks, I don't see why MC 5w-30 couldn't do the trick and more.


Motorcraft 5w-30 is a thicker 5w-30 so you should like it.

 

[06VtecV6]

Originally Posted By: jorton
Originally Posted By: owj_outdoors
I know a lot of folks have recommended Maxlife 5w-30 but I want to put Motorcraft 5w-30 synthetic blend into the hat. Unless you need something thicker because it is a high mileage engine or has leaks, I don't see why MC 5w-30 couldn't do the trick and more.


Motorcraft 5w-30 is a thicker 5w-30 so you should like it.


Even better! Also, the price is the cheapest among all the choices given here: 12 bucks. Price+performance=Value

 

[owj_outdoors]

Well, finally I was able to find the reason of the oil consumption. It is caused by a leak and not by burning oil. I am going to wash the engine to see where exactly the leak is coming from.

Regarding my initial question about oil engine, this weekend I went out and asked several mechanics. The following is the answer of one working with Honda "10w-30 or 10w-40 is fine for your car. Most US domestic manufacturers were using 10w-40 as standard back then; the 5w oils weren't available back then. the 5w oils are thinner basestock and if you started using that it could be a contributor to the oil consumption. the 10w40 will be thicker as the engine temp increases and is used as the "high mileage" motor oil viscosity grade that many oil companys are now marketing."

Besides this, the other mechanics gave the same answer: "10w-30" One of them told me that 10w-30 protects the engine better than 5w-30 (except in very cold weather, something rarely seen in Vancouver). According to him most likely people were recommending me 5w-30 because old Japanese engines have more tolerance than American engines. But still he told me not to place 5W-30 in my car. 5w-30 was less protective and too thin for the engine. 5w-30 helps to get better mileage but he told me that some car manufactures don't want to see their vehicles last much past 100,000 miles for their own business interests.

However, as suggested by one of BITO members, I got hold of a CRX manual, the recommended oil is 5w-30. Unfortunately this car has been using for a very long time 10w-30, after weighing the pros and cons I will stay with 10w-30.

Being a total ignorant in this matter, I found everyone advice very useful and informative. Once again thanks to all of you for your valuable feedback.