Oil leak or burning oil?
 

2001, 5 speed, 4 cyl, 210K

I've been losing oil, last oil change was 1000 miles ago, almost out of oil when I checked it today. I had an O ring leak in the distributor that I fixed and have noticed some oil "coating" on the engine from the distributor area down to the oil pan. I haven't noticed a real "leak" (i.e. no oil spots on the driveway, absolutely nothing dripping from the car). I'm guessing it's more of a oil "seep" is the reason that I'm losing oil. The only symptoms the car has is just a little lose of power, no smoke, there is a slight oil burning smell when it's shut off, probably from the oil residue. Does this sound right?

there is some oil coating on the back of the valve cover so one would think that gasket needs replacing, I'm also guessing the head gasket would need replacing too (as far as i know it is the original) and redoing the oil pan wouldn't hurt either. Sound about right too?

Second question, I feel comfortable with the valve cover gasket but the head gasket I'm a little leary of, can a weekend car guy on the novice level, tackle that or is it best left to a pro?

I am taking my Accord in for a new timing belt/water pump, is the head gasket something they can do easily while all that is being done?

Headgasket is about like timing belt. I'd say if you don't want to replace your own timing belt, then you wouldn't want to replace your own headgasket. It makes some sense to do them together, because you have to dismantle the timing belt stuff all over again when you do the headgasket.

But then, one of the first things you do for either one of those jobs is remove the valve cover... SO you "should" get a new valvecover gasket for the price of the parts (no extra labor).

When are you taking it in for the timing belt? I'd clean it up & watch closely to figure out exactly where it's leaking. If it were my car, I'd invest in a valvecover gasket based on a suspicion, but I wouldn't do a headgasket unless I really knew it was bad.

Heck, it might even be coming from the PCV valve grommet. In that case, you'll feel really silly about doing a headgasket for no reason.

Good advice, I"m not taking it in until the end of April. The oil starts at the back of the valve cover and runs down from there to just about the oil pan, as I said it's not a leak that is dripping just a lot of oil residue and the fact that the oil level is going down quickly, so it is hard to tell which it is, the first leak (from the dist O ring) was some of it but obviously not the whole thing.

I didn't even think of the PCV valve, would that explain some of the loss of power?

I did just do a quick looksie and the PCV valve has some oil around the bottom of the grommet and inside that hole (not sure if that's the technical name).

You will not leak quarts of oil per 1000 miles without stains in the driveway, but you could burn that much easy. I would start with a new PCV and look for blow-by

If the PCV valve is plugged, then all blowby (even normal amounts) will push oily air into the intake duct. That breather line doesn't have the same baffles to prevent the air from dragging oil with it. Remove the big rubber air duct (airfilter to throttlebody) & look for oil coming through the crankcase breather tube.

A new PCV valve is pretty cheap, & it won't hurt to get a new rubber grommet in the valvecover. A bad PCV valve can result in extra air pressure inside the crankcase, which can make small oil leaks into big ones.

A new PCV valve & new valvecover gasket will stop THOSE leaks. Then you can clean it up & watch closely to see if there's any more leaking further down on the engine.

Definitely a seep from the valve cover, took it off and you could see where oil was "spraying" out the back, replaced the gasket.

PCV valve was also bad, the little thing that rattles wasn't rattling, so replaced that too. There as also some oil in the breather tube.

Have to get under the car to clean off the rest of the oil that I think might be coming from the head gasket.

Keep your fingers crossed. Oil leaking from the valve cover often runs downhill (gee...) and then gets hung up on the edge of the headgasket. Then it sometimes LOOKS LIKE it's actually coming from the headgasket.

Clean it up & keep watching.

Thats what I"m hoping for, and of course here is the good news/bad news (ever have one of THOSE days).

Putting the cover back on the middle bolt snapped off in the block, great, one of THOSE days (was also told the wife's minivan needed a new transmission after 105K miles - not a Honda).

Fortunately I won the service chick over with my charm over the phone and they're going to fit it in tomorrow (getting the timing belt done anyway).

Car sounds kind of cool with the air blowing out of the bolt hole lol

You may want to invest in a torque wrench. I am hoping your PCV turns out to be your oil loss from burning.