Spyrogyra wrote:honda engines are designed to burn a bit of oil between oil changes especially when running hard
and depending on the body of oil
how come?time for a workshop?
There are a few reasons you experience consumption....One of the main reasons you have it is due to vtec. The high cam and LMA assemblies both tend to eat up oil when vtec is engaged, this is especially noticable from the high lift lobes of DOHC engines and to a MUCH lesser extent on SOHC since their 2ndary cam lobe is not very aggressive.
You will also 'lose' a tiny bit of oil to the PCV canister (black box), which is essentially a low volume baffled catch can (accumulator).... the unsettled oil vapour going to the PCV canister also need to GO somewhere... and that somewhere is the combustion chamber... as the excess crankcase vapours (formed by the oil) are consumed by the engine all the time. Over the course of a few thousand miles, that can add up to a couple shot glasses worth of oil.
The most likely culprits of missing oil is due to obvious leaks from vtec solenoid, distributor seals, rear main seals, old oil pan gasket, valve cover gasket or even plug seals.
Add up any or all of these possibilites and you get a measurable consumption of oil... even on perfectly running engines.
Burning more than 1/4 qt of oil between changes is a red flag. If you're adding a full quart between changes, you have a building problem (seals, rings or a leak).
On non vtec hondas, btw... oil consumption is minimal...
HTH.
