Newb here... I tried to read all the stickys, hope i'm posting in the right spot.

I purchased a 92 accord with ~250k miles for $300. Cylinder 4 had a burned exhaust valve. I had already replaced a head on my 91 accord so i figured I'd just do it again to this car.

After replacing the head I have been checking the oil level frequently, and it appears to have lost a quart after only 100 miles. I checked the oil both times on level ground.

I bought a resurfaced head from a reputable junk yard and rebuilt it myself. Used valve grinding compound to clean up the pitting on the seats and valves. I replaced the valve stem seals... but I might have screwed this up a little. I had to chisel off the old seals (because I hadn't yet heard about using a torch) so the valves guides are nicked a little bit (on the outside only), but it seems like the rubber seals would fill in those gaps. (?) I pushed the new seals on with a 10mm socket, as recommended by a few good resources. Any possibility I screwed this up so bad that i'm losing oil through there? I'm just trying to narrow it down at this point. I also adjusted the valve clearances.

I was able to see that the compression rings are fully expanded... a feeler gauge would not slide down past the rings. I also tried pouring Sea Foam (petroleum ?) into the cylinders... enough to cover the whole piston. As best as I could tell virtually none of the sea foam leaked down past the rings... so I assumed I wouldn't get excessive oil burning after reassembly.

I'm going to try plugging the PCV hole and the other hoses leading from the valve cover to see if that's contributing, but I'm kind of at a loss.

It smokes a lot when I start it cold, or when I really punch it in 2nd gear. The engine seems to run great... sounds good... but the sudden drop in oil level is pretty alarming, considering that there's no drips on the ground or oil in the coolant. Tranny and clutch feel great too.

Is it possible to remove the pistons from under the car to service the rings? After replacing the Head I really don't want to tear the engine apart again. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated... or if you need more info please post.

Oh... I also added about 6 ounces of sea foam to the oil... hoping to free up those rings. I'm willing to try anything at this point.

 

Valve stem seals leak and cause smoke after a prolonged idle and acceleration or on restart after stopping for a while. If you get small puff/puff/puff of smoke after a prolonged idle, but no smoke under moderate acceleration from steady speed the stem seals are likely. If you scratched the valve stems, then leaking would be likely. Also slightly bent valve stems might cause stem seal leaks.

good luck

 

I just did a compression test and all cylinders get up to 180 psi with just a few cranks.

However... I noticed that the plug from cylinder 4 (the same cylinder that had a burned exhaust valve) is completely black. The other plugs look pretty much like new. I now suspect a broken or stuck oil ring in cylinder 4 as both the cause of the original valve failure and my excessive oil burning.

Any thoughts?

-Erik

 

You might try a good soaking of that cylinder w/ Marvel Mystery Oil. The forum Bobistheoilguy.com has procedures using products touted by that site to free stuck piston rings. These procedures may be worth a try before tearing engine down to repair.

It is possible to pull only the #4 piston by dropping the oil pan, releasing the connecting rod cap and pulling the piston out the top (after removing cylinder head of course!). You will need a ring compressor to reinstall the piston w/ new rings, and there could be a ridge at top of cylinder that will need to be smoothed. This would certainly be easier than pulling engine, assuming the remaining cylinders are OK.

good luck

 

Hmmm... Marvel Mystery Oil sounds interesting. Thanks for the tip.

Last night I poured in some more Sea Foam and cranked the piston up and down a couple inches to hopefully work it past the compression ring. It's been soaking overnight so I'll try firing it up after work today. Keeping my fingers crossed until then...