Still hacking away at it huh?

I'm rooting for you, can't wait to see some videos!

 

Thanks for the support. I'll get those videos when I can.

Unfortunately, I have been noticing some sporadic oil burning lately and did a compression test. The results of the compression test were very disappointing:

1: 180
2: 120
3: 180
4: 180

The 60 psi variance clears shows something is very wrong. I rechecked to make sure then performed a wet test...same result. The spark plugs all looked great (better than they ever did with gasoline) even cylinder 2, so I can't explain it.

I spent a couple hours this afternoon thinking things over and I decided to start tearing her down. The head came off without a hitch. The valves all look great (ironically, cylinder 2 bent a valve a while back for some unknown reason), the cylinder walls look great, and the tops of the cylinders look so much cleaner than they did last time the head was off (thanks E85), so I still have no idea why the compression is low. Tomorrow, I am going to remove the #2 piston and confirm my guess of busted ring lands. If it occurred in just one cylinder, sounds like piston failure. If every piston has its ring lands busted, the tune is the problem.

While I'm at it, I am going to be putting in an OEM oil cooler and installing some ports on the back of the block and eliminating the black box for additional PCV flow.

 

GL sir. This may have been covered before, what are you taking in school?

 

Thank you.

I'm a management major. One more year to go, hopefully.

 

damn those cylinder 2's!!!

my old cylinder two had a funky leakdown problem, but equal compression across the board. i never tore it down though.

good luck with it all man.

 

After tearing it down to the piston level, I can't find the problem. All the ring lands are perfect, the rings look great, no scratching on the cylinder walls. Basically, the engine looks flawless. I am going to hone, re-ring, replace the rod bearings, and headgasket while I am elbow deep in the motor and hope the oil burning ceases.

Also, since the head is off and I am waiting around for new rings and rod bearings, I installed an OEM oil cooler to help with oil temps at the track and removed the stock PCV box, freeze plugged the hole, and added two breather ports that will go to a second catch can.

I do have a question, though. 3 out of 4 rod bearings are green and the other is brown. Is there that much of a difference in clearances between the two that I would have to order that specific size from Honda instead of using a set of ACL bearings? I don't have an Acura dealership in town, so I don't have the option of just going down to the dealer and picking them up.

 

That's an interesting issue. I'm no motor build expert, but have you thoroughly checked the block and head surfaces for straightness, or maybe the cylinder walls to see if they are out-of-round; those details that the naked eye can't see?

Are your valve stem seals still good?

That's why I'm not doing my own block, those bearing clearences and choice of OEM or aftermarket can be tricky. Then again, if I never do it, I'll never learn. Best of luck as always.

Sometimes, the longer it takes, the better it comes out.

 

I don't have the tools for checking the bore size but the block and head were resurfaced last time the head was pulled. An out-of-round cylinder wall would definitely cause problems but I would expect it to be blowing smoke at high loads due to poor ring seal and it doesn't do that.

The valve stem seals were replaced 10,000 miles ago. I am replacing my OEM valve springs with supertech dual springs and retainers, so I'll check to make sure they are all seated correctly. If those were bad, I would assume steady smoke under vacuum but the smoke is intermittent and only happens on throttle blips.

You should do your own block. As long as you can get the proper tools and a Helms manual, it is easy enough that you shouldn't have to pay someone to do it. As long as you are using OEM parts, sizing bearings is simple. The main cap bores are stamped on the underside of the block, the crank main and rod journal sizes are on the crank itself, and the rod big end bore is stamped on the side of the rod. With those numbers, you can use the tables in the Helms to determine what color bearing you need.

I believe that the problem didn't exist in the block because the wet test didn't change. Either the headgasket was failing or a valve isn't seating correctly. I'll see when my parts come in Wednesday and I put it all back together.

 

Can you possibly upload the page(s) that shows these tables?

I want to print it out here at work cause my internet at home is down and I have my block on the engine stand now.

 

You could have just PMed me. h: