Mobil1 0w30 AFE | 3,900 miles | 94 Acura Integra GSR

[PatrickGSR94]

Looks like another stellar report on my 94 Integra GSR that I've owned since 2001. 381,000+ miles on the original drivetrain, never rebuilt, and this was sampled just after a 1,000 mile road trip to Tail of the Dragon with plenty of 2nd and 3rd gear VTEC runs on the mountain roads.

A little backstory: I purchased the car in 2001 from a neighbor, the original owner, with about 88k miles on the car. Drove it all through my last 3 years of college, and my 20's and 30's, when it was my only car. I put huge amounts of miles on the car back then. At one point I was driving 3,000 miles a month for about 18 months or so before moving closer to work. In 2019 I bought a Miata and planned to sell this car, but couldn't bring myself to part with it. So now most of my driving and commuting are split among this car, the Miata, my wife's car, and my bicycles that I ride to work on some days. Now I only drive the car about 3K miles a year, except this year going to the Dragon. This was the first road trip the car has been on in over a decade, and it performed flawlessly. Even got 35+ MPG on the way home.

The car did blow its head gasket in 2013 at 330,000 miles. I pulled the head off, stripped it and took it to a machine shop, where the machinist showed me a couple of tiny nicks in the head mating surface. He resurfaced the head, cleaned it up, put in new valve seals, and ground the valve seats just a touch. That was over 50K miles and almost 10 years ago now. The engine does have a couple of oil leaks that I'll be addressing in the future. I don't have any recent compression or leakdown numbers, but I don't doubt that they would be just fine.

Early on, I ran Castrol GTX 5w30 and later Mobil1 5w30. About 15 years ago, I read some of the Dr. Haas articles on here and Ferrari Chat about engine oil viscosity during hot and cold start conditions and how that relates to engine wear. I switched to Mobil1 0w30 back then, and haven't looked back. I only started getting UOA's done a few years ago, but it's very comforting to see oil reports come back with zero water, oil or fuel detected.

Oh and yes, I drive the car hard quite often. I only drive it to work a couple times a week, but I always be sure to crack VTEC on highway on-ramps at least a couple times a day on the days that I do drive it.

Old pic from when it still looked nice:

 

[carviewsonic]

Thanks for posting. I use M1 0W30 AFE in my '07 Accord, so it's nice to see good results like this.

 

[addyguy]

For 4K miles on a broken in engine those aren’t very good results IMO. Al wear especially should be much lower.

 

[PatrickGSR94]

the 5 ppm you mean? Looks like it's been running fairly close to the 4ppm universal average number. I assume that means average of other cars with this engine.

 

[KS-Ryan]

Your car looks amazing for being that old and have almost 400k miles. I always wanted a GSR when I was younger. Good on you for keeping it up all these years.

 

[joekingcorvette]

That is quite a history. I had my Corvette on the tail of the dragon once. Keep racking up those miles and thanks for sharing your story.

 

[Blinker]

Your car looks amazing for being that old and have almost 400k miles. I always wanted a GSR when I was younger. Good on you for keeping it up all these years.

Reread his post where he said the photo is an old pic of when the car still looked nice.

 

[Blinker]

She’s showing signs of aging just from looking at that report. Which is to be expected with that kind of mileage. Congrats on getting to that milestone!! Not many achieve that many miles. Thanks for sharing your ownership story with us!

 

[ScottyB]

iron's getting up there a little bit, but for an engine that old that sees that much high-RPM use, i'd be pleased with these numbers and just keep winding it out for the joy of it. i'd be tempted to try a 5W-40 for kicks but if it made it this far on 30 weights, that might be me overthinking it.

glad to see an old GS-R still on the road and being properly enjoyed...as a honda driver/fan I see far less of them now than I even did 5 years ago.

 

[OVERKILL]

Given the usage profile, the report looks just fine. I was a bit shocked by the 1.8 quarts of make-up oil, but then saw you mention that it has numerous leaks.

 

[KEVINK0000]

I really, really want to say something encouraging, but in my opinion that's a lot of metal for that engine. If you want to keep that car, you might start thinking about getting a decent bottom end from a yard and rebuilding it to put your newer head on. Looks like trouble has already arrived.

 

[Artem]

I really, really want to say something encouraging, but in my opinion that's a lot of metal for that engine. If you want to keep that car, you might start thinking about getting a decent bottom end from a yard and rebuilding it to put your newer head on. Looks like trouble has already arrived.

Really? It’s a 28 year old engine that spins to 8,000rpm on a regular basis… I think it looks GREAT and will continue to bounce off the rev limiter for many years to come. Yes it’s getting tired at this point but I would say that’s to be expected from what is basically a RACE ENGINE for the street.

 

[KEVINK0000]

Really? It’s a 28 year old engine that spins to 8,000rpm on a regular basis… I think it looks GREAT and will continue to bounce off the rev limiter for many years to come. Yes it’s getting tired at this point but I would say that’s to be expected from what is basically a RACE ENGINE for the street.

I very much hope to be wrong in this case, believe me. But, bike engines with factory 16k redlines don't shed any bearing metal, and that's when they are new and tight. Honda's own auto engines with higher redlines and higher power densities and piston speeds do not shed metal either. This engine should be very very loose and show less metal, not more. Also, in my opinion, if all the UOA over the car's history looked like the series posted, it would never have gotten to this high mileage.

To the OP: I thought more about this, and if this were mine, I would drop the pan and take a look at a couple of the rod bearings. I think you will find some bad news. You might see enough to make a good decision just in the bottom of the pan. But, its also good news that you would prevent any damage to the new head from catastrophic failure of the bottom end.

 

[Revving2Redline]

Looks like another stellar report on my 94 Integra GSR that I've owned since 2001. 381,000+ miles on the original drivetrain, never rebuilt, and this was sampled just after a 1,000 mile road trip to Tail of the Dragon with plenty of 2nd and 3rd gear VTEC runs on the mountain roads.

A little backstory: I purchased the car in 2001 from a neighbor, the original owner, with about 88k miles on the car. Drove it all through my last 3 years of college, and my 20's and 30's, when it was my only car. I put huge amounts of miles on the car back then. At one point I was driving 3,000 miles a month for about 18 months or so before moving closer to work. In 2019 I bought a Miata and planned to sell this car, but couldn't bring myself to part with it. So now most of my driving and commuting are split among this car, the Miata, my wife's car, and my bicycles that I ride to work on some days. Now I only drive the car about 3K miles a year, except this year going to the Dragon. This was the first road trip the car has been on in over a decade, and it performed flawlessly. Even got 35+ MPG on the way home.

The car did blow its head gasket in 2013 at 330,000 miles. I pulled the head off, stripped it and took it to a machine shop, where the machinist showed me a couple of tiny nicks in the head mating surface. He resurfaced the head, cleaned it up, put in new valve seals, and ground the valve seats just a touch. That was over 50K miles and almost 10 years ago now. The engine does have a couple of oil leaks that I'll be addressing in the future. I don't have any recent compression or leakdown numbers, but I don't doubt that they would be just fine.

Early on, I ran Castrol GTX 5w30 and later Mobil1 5w30. About 15 years ago, I read some of the Dr. Haas articles on here and Ferrari Chat about engine oil viscosity during hot and cold start conditions and how that relates to engine wear. I switched to Mobil1 0w30 back then, and haven't looked back. I only started getting UOA's done a few years ago, but it's very comforting to see oil reports come back with zero water, oil or fuel detected.

Oh and yes, I drive the car hard quite often. I only drive it to work a couple times a week, but I always be sure to crack VTEC on highway on-ramps at least a couple times a day on the days that I do drive it.

Old pic from when it still looked nice:

As a Honda nut I'm really loving this car and your passion to still enjoy and maintain it.

 

[himemsys]

Are you topping off with a different oil? This UOA does not look like AFE 0W30. Calcium, Boron and Zinc are way too high and TBN is way too low for 3900 miles.

 

[FZ1]

Nice ride; Nice report. Just keep it topped up and don't lug it.

 

[Gasbuggy]

Treat her to a repaint

 

[Artem]

I very much hope to be wrong in this case, believe me. But, bike engines with factory 16k redlines don't shed any bearing metal, and that's when they are new and tight. Honda's own auto engines with higher redlines and higher power densities and piston speeds do not shed metal either. This engine should be very very loose and show less metal, not more. Also, in my opinion, if all the UOA over the car's history looked like the series posted, it would never have gotten to this high mileage.

To the OP: I thought more about this, and if this were mine, I would drop the pan and take a look at a couple of the rod bearings. I think you will find some bad news. You might see enough to make a good decision just in the bottom of the pan. But, its also good news that you would prevent any damage to the new head from catastrophic failure of the bottom end.

Although I agree with you, a loose (old) engine will produce more metal vs when everything was tight and new because the parts now have some play in them and this aids in wear as things vibrate.

Also, the OP stated this is the original drivetrain at 381k miles (never rebuilt) at the top of his post but then proceeds to tell us a story about how he rebuilt the head at 330k when the head gasket blew.

Ummm… that’s not how it works.

 

[KEVINK0000]

Although I agree with you, a loose (old) engine will produce more metal vs when everything was tight and new because the parts now have some play in them and this aids in wear as things vibrate.

Also, the OP stated this is the original drivetrain at 381k miles (never rebuilt) at the top of his post but then proceeds to tell us a story about how he rebuilt the head at 330k when the head gasket blew.

Ummm… that’s not how it works.

I disagree, but to each his own. Also, I see this is a timing belt engine, with an Al block. The iron is high in my opinion as well.

 

[OVERKILL]

Although I agree with you, a loose (old) engine will produce more metal vs when everything was tight and new because the parts now have some play in them and this aids in wear as things vibrate.

Also, the OP stated this is the original drivetrain at 381k miles (never rebuilt) at the top of his post but then proceeds to tell us a story about how he rebuilt the head at 330k when the head gasket blew.

Ummm… that’s not how it works.

I'd call that "stock bottom end".

You should have seen the UOA from my Town Car after I did heads/cam/intake on it, people would be like "it blew up!". Had ~200,000 miles on it at the time, the UOA was UGLY. But, the engine went for another 5 years or so, made a couple trips down east and back I think (definitely made at least one), and never had any issues. Guy I gifted the car to eventually sold it to a guy who was going to "restore" it. Have no idea what happened to the car after that.