My fiances daily driver has develeped a nasty habit if spitting oil out the exhaust. The only time it actually smoke is under full throttle, but after half an hour of driving around town you can see tiny splatters of oil all over the rear bumper.
Does this sound more like worn valve guides or maybe rings?.

It is a 93 sohc honda civic so any gaskets that need to be purchased are very pricey ($329cdn for a valve grind kit). Any help would be greatly appriciated. Neither I or my fiance have the money to completely rebuild this engine($2700cdn even if I assemble it) so Im going to patch the best I can and its going up for sale. That'll be the end of the first and last honda I'm involved with http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/mad.gif

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black 76 camaro
vortec 406sbc
12.41@108.7MPH and dropping....

you could maybe get a used engine in better condition from a junkyard. although then you would have to replace the engine which could take a longer than a weekend if you not familiar with all the stuff on the honda. how many miles are on the car.

I haven't tried looking for any used engines yet, but I would expect I could probably patch this one up for cheaper and at least I'll know I'm not going to end up with another time bomb.

I'm Sorry to have to post all my honda problems on here and not a honda board, but I actually wants opinions from people who know there stuff.
I popped the vc off and pulled an exh. spring off hopping to find rock hard valve seals, but they seemed to alright. The valve guide was a little loose (.003-.0035) is my guestimate but not too far out of spec (.002-.003). Do you guys think this is more of a ring problem or something in the valve train? The plugs are black with just a little bit of deposit but are not oily. Even if left to idle for 5-10 minutes, you can see evidence of oil being spit onto the ground (its winter here).

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black 76 camaro
vortec 406sbc
12.41@108.7MPH and dropping....

That much oil sounds like a ring problem. I've seen much looser valve guides not cause a single problem as long as the seals are good. You could have a stuck oil ring, so it may be worth your while to try Marvel Mystery Oil, or some other type of proven lube. It's cheap!!

did you say that it actually does smoke blue smoke? becasue i got to thinking that with the newer age emissions that are probablly on the honda the cars now days produce water as a by product fo the cat/s. and sometimes in cold weather especially the car can spit out water. but when it goes through all the exhasut it will turn black and look a lot like oil. i work on BMW's and Mini's evryday and even the newset BMW will spit out some black water when it's cold and has been running a little while.

what you otta do is do a compression test on all the cylinders and all of them are with-in spec or atleast all even it could just be dirty water coming out of your tail pipe

thanks guys. I already bought a bottle of $5 ring treatment but I haven't used it yet. hopefully it helps a little anong with some 20w50 I have left over from my last worn out 350.

i had a isuzu trooper that looked like it was spitting out oil but all it just water and dirt from my exhaust. could only see it when there was snow on the ground

yeah, I don't see how WOT or not would make any difference to cause the oil to come out as liquid oil, or burned. Any oil leaking from the valveguides or rings would definately be burned - no way oil will survive the combustion process unburnt.

thats what I always thought, but it has had this habit ever since she got it last summer and uses about 2 liters of oil every 3000 miles. All I know is the black substance that ends up on the ground and all over the back bumper from air turbulance is oily and the exhaust pipe is black (more so than any normal car) maybe it is dirty condensation, but I doubt it.

[This message has been edited by stangslayer (edited February 22, 2005).]

maybe it is a bit of both. although it is a little unlikely that that much oil would actually be getting that far through the engine. but even when the engine does burn oil not all of it gets out because gas is a vapor it is possible that some of it condences in the exhasut and mixes with the water and suit. becasue that oil has to be going somwhere although some engines just seem to consume oil more than others. not that they burn it all but just gets blown by.

does it use 2 liters or quarts? cuz lires is probablly more than it should but quarts might not be too far from normal on a high mileage engine that may leak and burn the oil.