Anyone ever just drop an oil pan to clean out piston drain holes?

[OldPitPony]

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[EricTheCarGuy]

Now that I understand your question I don’t think that would work for a number of reasons not the least of which I don’t think you’ll even be able to get close to those drain holes as the crank and it’s retainers will be in the way. Also if the oil control rings are the problem the only way to get them ‘unstuck’ is to remove the pistons and clean the ring lands but in your case it might be beyond that because if you are burning a significant amount of oil it’s likely the cylinder walls are worn also which would require machining to repair, at that point you might as well replace the engine.

Good luck, lets see what suggestions the forum has as there are a lot of intelligent people that hang out here and they may have a better suggestion.

[OldPitPony]

Interesting though isn’t it !

The car *seems* to consume oil only if you are running about 3000 rpm or more which makes me think some of the drain back holes are a little filmed over, if you only putter around slow it seems the oil does not go down … then again you don’t go so far either!

It was actually your video where you opened up the 98 civic motor bottom end which gave me this idea, it looked like there was a clean shot from underneath at the bottom end of the piston. The engine I am talking about is a 1.7 from a 2005 Civic, pretty close.

My thought processes on this stuff might be a little warped as I used to do motor work on our dirt and street bikes, everything was so simple and easy with them, not like you can pull the motor, pick it up, and bring it down to the basement with these cars though! lol

Thanks Again!

p.s. You and your videos truly rock!!!

[college man]

I’ve never heard of the procedure you want to do. The only thing I know of is a motor flush. which I don’t recommend.C8-)

[OldPitPony]

I have already done a few motor flushes and oil changes now, I expect there is no sludge material to worry about.

So what I have is basically this:

• The car has (200,000 kms) about 130,000 miles on it and burns about a third of a liter (quart) every 75 miles or so.
• The motor is not leaking any oil.
• The compression holding at like 190 across all four cylinders – that seems to rule out the two top compression rings and even cylinder issues.
• Since the compression rings are not seeming worn out, I expect the oil control rings aren’t either.
• There is no real smoke at startup time like bad valve seals would show.
• The PCV system is clear and seems to be fine.
• As fast as I change the oil, it is black with just a couple of hours use on it with, blowby contamination.

Sounds to me like the oil control rings are likely stuck and so I wonder if the drain back holes in the piston are plugged up as well. am I thinking about this right?

Thanks

[dreamer2355]

I would also recommend doing a cylinder leakage test.

You may also have an issue with the valve guide seals.

How many miles are on the vehicle?

[OldPitPony]

I would also recommend doing a cylinder leakage test.

Ok, I can do that easy enough, I don’t have the fancy leakage guage setup but I can put a hose on at TDC and apply some air.
My guess is I would be hearing leakage at oil filler cap but since my compression tester shows 190 lbs of compression in each
cylinder I still can’t blame the compression rings then, or can I?

You may also have an issue with the valve guide seals.
That much oil loss I would expect a blue puff certainly in the morning if not at every startup[i].

How many miles are on the vehicle?[/i]
The car has (200,000 kms) about 130,000 miles

I even had my son drive in front of me and do a hard acceleration and then gearing down deceleration and all we saw was a puff of
black smoke, and that is from the bad pre-cat o2 sensor causing the car to run too rich though I figure, another problem.

Speaking of that though, when I check the tailpipe, it is dry black soot there, from running too rich, not at all gummy like I would expect
from consuming so much oil … another puzzler to me.

Thanks for the replies!

Thanks

[Jhowe93]

have you tried seafoam? i know its not generally used for this type of problem, but its non-corrosive and it is designed to break up engine gunk. also Zmax will actually help lubricate the engine so that it does not need as much oil. just dont use both of these at the same time.

[OldPitPony]

Yup, big fan of SeaFoam …. in the gas, brake booster hose, in the crankcase and for piston soaks. It is seems not as powerful as Mopar Combustion Chamber for the piston soaks but is great for so many things.

Seafoam is even safe for soaking iridium plugs to clean them up a bit or Oxygen Sensor tips to get the last bit of life out of them, a half hour soak does wonders for getting the crap off them.

zMax looks interesting, the MSDS says it is 99% mineral oils, does it actually work well?

[EricTheCarGuy]

I’ve never known something ‘in a can’ to cure an oil burning issue, that usually means the internals are worn and need to be replaced. FYI when you do a leak down test the piston is at the top of it’s travel, the truth is most of the wear would be in the middle of the cylinder bore where you’re not measuring. Lastly I’ve seen hundreds of those engines start to burn oil after a while and the only cure that I know of is to replace or rebuild the engine anything else is a waste of time in my opinion, also don’t forget that you probably need to bore the cylinder walls to true them up if you decide to do a rebuild, this can get expensive which is why I recommend replacement over rebuilding.

[Author]

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