Raf99 : 1993 Accord EX

[Raf99]

And went for another drive and Sally works great now. She feels sooo small in a parking lot haha. Like all modern cars are huge now. She's still a little loud for my liking but there's already two resonators. Only in 5th gear is it quiet enough. I think it does throw up some oil in the catch can, but only if you're in high boost and kind of expected as you wear out parts by cranking on it like a race car. Will ask the tuner's opinion on this this Thurs.

The small things to fix are...
- Drivers side mirror wiggles in the wind. ... (something loose inside..?)
- Not enough traction. lol . Need better tires. (won't happen this summer)
- Passenger side hi-beam doesn't work. I'm still a bit stumped on this....

..... may buy her a turbo blanket. *shrugs*. .... I'm still in disbelief that I can just lay rubber all day and she's totally fine with it.

Oooohh... Weird thing is that the glove box has been vibrating more lately... just over in that corner..... and I can't help but wonder if it's the mounts. Hot summer days + engine temp + age = failing maybe..... Grumpy may have a point. Will check tomorrow. I hope not... I don't have other mounts.

[CyborgGT]

Are you still using injectors that need the resistor box? For your anti-theft issue, here's a measure I've taken so far. Since I'm now on RDX injectors that don't need the resistors, and you're supposed to solder all those wires together for the RDXs to work properly, I cut the wires on the resistor box side of the connector and turned it into a little plug I can take with me when I'm away from the car. Kills power to the injectors, so in theory it should mean that any thief would have to tow the car to steal it, since they aren't likely to find what's causing the no-start. I'm planning to make some spares soon, to keep at home and hide in the car in case I lose the first one. I'm also thinking of extending this into the cabin at some point, so I don't have to unlock the hood latches and lift the hood every time I want to pull the plug (although, the latches do add to this particular security device). This plug, teamed with an eventual quick-release steering wheel and regular alarm system without a push-button start, should cost a thief enough time to either give up or get caught in the act.

[daovangphotos]

^^ That is dope!

I wouldn't be able to do this though because my setup is still running the resistor box, darn lol.

[CyborgGT]

You could always splice in some sort of break in the circuit, to make something that would more or less be like pulling the fuel pump relay, but smaller. It would be cool if I could figure out a plug like mine that would clip easily onto a keyring.

[daovangphotos]

You could always splice in some sort of break in the circuit, to make something that would more or less be like pulling the fuel pump relay, but smaller. It would be cool if I could figure out a plug like mine that would clip easily onto a keyring.

I could look into the diagram and do a break. Hmmm...

As old as our cars are, I personally have thought of many ways to break circuits:

Example: Custom USB keychain with looped wiring internal to complete a circuit (cannot be used to any actual USB slots)

One example for sure I did integrate, aux audio plug.
I used it to complete a ground circuit for a relay to give ground to the ECU.

[Raf99]

Ya... could easily splice into the clutch circuit for example. No high amps and simple to run to any button / switch / etc. Even have a switch that you remove and take with you, Like a USB slot near the ignition. and the USB key is on the key ring too, so you plug it in, then turn the key.


But time for the sad news I guess. But expected. After what..... 8 years of having the car turbo she's done. All the signs are there for last summer and this summer.... and I think I'd be stupid to keep driving it.

- Catch can filling with oil
- Spark plugs covered in oil
- Oil on the valve cover
- Even had valve cover bolts coming loose

We are at the obvious point of rings or pistons failing and allowing so much blow-by past that it's trying to push the valve cover off. Blowing oil everywhere it can escape from. I even see it under the catch can vents, like the catch can is not full but oil is dripping from the vents on top of it. Pressure is too much up top. I want to keep driving it as it runs fine...... but each time I get back the car stinks of burning oil. You see little bits here and there all the time.

I took it to the tuner a few days ago and he had little to say except it's not normal & rings were the next step. On the drive home (20km) I got 1/4 cup of oil in the catch can. So....... something is up.

But not bad news really. 8 years! Of ripping on it every summer. I doubt it's anything else and I've been reading a lot online. I think this guy sums it up from a corvette forum:

"here are some factory engines with these external re-direction 'can-like' devices as I have mentioned. It is extremely rare, and somewhat lazy to utilize a device which can only collect the oil. But sometimes you just want to run the engine hard and don't really care about designing something to take care of the problem... so the catch can may be a suitable band-aid device which helps you avoid designing and modifying and testing a proper solution. Or it can be used to run an engine with broken piston rings or engine damage... for example if the engine breaks a ring-land, but it still runs, just lots of blow-by. In this case, a catch can may be used (Non healthy engine) just so you can drive the car somewhere without spilling oil all over the place, until you can actually fix the real problem inside the engine."






15-20min drive. oil from catch can...

[Grumpys93]

8 Years is a great run! and Just replacing rings, wont break the bank. The block is sleeved, so you don't have to use a special stone to re-hone it

[Raf99]

Yaaa.... not sure what to do at this point to be honest. I visited the tuner and he wasn't much help and agreed it was probably the rings or valve stem seals. So a few days later I emailed him asking for a quote and if he just needs the bottom of the block (we both agreed to send it to a machine shop) and he suggested I remove the exhaust / intake manifolds and check the valve stem seals and valves for oil on them

Sooo..... I need to find or buy a boroscope. That is the next step.

But....... we also got hit with a $6200 surprise septic repair sooooo......... I'm in no rush to spend a ton of cash atm.. .

[CyborgGT]

Hmm, lots of thoughts. Tried to skim back several pages to see if any of these points were covered...

1) You don't necessarily need the boroscope; the valve stems are very visible with the manifolds off. If you can't get your head down there to look, use your phone to get some photo/video to look at. Wouldn't the stems look wet if the seals were in bad shape?

2) Your oily spark plugs are already telling you that oil is getting into the cylinder, so I don't know what additional value a scope would be looking in there, aside from seeing if the cylinder walls are scored - that said, how old are your spark plug tube seals?

3) You mentioning the valve cover bolts coming loose and there's oil in that spark plug valley makes me wonder about the condition of the grommets holding the valve cover down as well.

4) Are your catch can bungs on the valve cover baffled? No baffling would cause a lot of unnecessary oil to escape just from the valve train throwing it around.

5) And in these trips to the tuner, have you had a leak-down test done? Air hissing at the dipstick tube would tell you the piston rings are bad.

[Raf99]

Hmm, lots of thoughts. Tried to skim back several pages to see if any of these points were covered...

1) You don't necessarily need the boroscope; the valve stems are very visible with the manifolds off. If you can't get your head down there to look, use your phone to get some photo/video to look at. Wouldn't the stems look wet if the seals were in bad shape?

2) Your oily spark plugs are already telling you that oil is getting into the cylinder, so I don't know what additional value a scope would be looking in there, aside from seeing if the cylinder walls are scored - that said, how old are your spark plug tube seals?

3) You mentioning the valve cover bolts coming loose and there's oil in that spark plug valley makes me wonder about the condition of the grommets holding the valve cover down as well.

4) Are your catch can bungs on the valve cover baffled? No baffling would cause a lot of unnecessary oil to escape just from the valve train throwing it around.

5) And in these trips to the tuner, have you had a leak-down test done? Air hissing at the dipstick tube would tell you the piston rings are bad.

All good, looking for ideas / help!

1 - 5 years with turbo setup = no issues - all good! Last summer had this issue after doing a burnout I'm pretty sure. Thought it was the valve stem seals, so replaced the OEM ones with better ones. (OEM ones look fine). This summer = same issue.
2 - All seals are new. + the 5 years no issues I had no oil in the catch can ever.
3 - Oil in valve cover valley before and after tightening valve cover bolts.
4 - Using the baffled side of the VC.
5 - Last summer leak down test & compression test = all good. (Compression = 160 / 170 / 160 / 165 ; Leak down = 0% / 5% / 2% / 5%)

----------------------

For me it's the combination of the oil (on every trip now) in the catch can, plugs, and valley that worry me. Like it's about to split at the seam from the pressure's in the head / top end. Even if I make the VC not leak I still have a catch can filling up. And also reducing the oil level too. That's never happened prior. So... thinking I'll see a cracked piston or something inside. I even noticed it sputtering when it was warming up ..... which i think of oil on the plugs.

The only other test here is to re-do the compression / leak down.... i guess. & don't think I have the air power for that @ home.
What do you think?

[Grumpys93]

I don't think the leakdown requires a lot of air pressure, If I recall correctly its 100 psi, but Ill have to find my leakdown tester to confirm that.

I feel your pain on house upkeep. Our roof mounted a/c unit went out on us in 111* heat last month and I had to drop over 20k for a new unit and duct work. That hurt a lot, pretty much a brand new car on my roof. But I guess that's what savings are for.

[Raf99]

Yep. So plan is...

- Wrote tuner and asked what he needs and how much. (if we go down that road)
- Scope the pistons and see what i see
- Run a leak down test... I have the part, but could only do 90-100PSI, and that's not enough to simulate turbo pressure etc.

[Raf99]

Well.... I ordered the valve cover gasket and spark plug tube seals from Honda today. This oil on plugs and VC could simply be gaskets. I know I've never changed them haha. And this specific issue started after having it all apart, using the same gaskets.

As for the excessive blow by.....
Was thinking of keep driving her and see just how much oil i go through when not in boost. I'm thinking the answer is none or very little. I spoke to the tuner again and he just told me to call the machine shop for a quote. He's super busy these days.

Got some scope videos coming soon...but can't really see anything. Always thought #1 piston was darker / oil.

[Raf99]

Well Honda ordered the wrong stuff, sooo next week. The other thing too is sally may not be as bad as I thought. While there is oil going into the catch can it's still a little amount I guess. If I can fix the top end leaks (assuming it's bad gaskets) then I'd be ok with the oil blow-by I have now. Acceptable after 9 years of having a turbo.

[Raf99]

OK. $136 later and we got what we need. And wow... this gasket fits like a glove! So nice vs. after-market ones. We'll take it for a drive tomorrow and check the results.





Definitely saturated with oil. On the top and the bottom (under it).



Interesting the ... washers are different. Meh.