my rant.

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swanny

swanny

Senior Member
I bought a 95 gsr about 2 months ago now from an older man. the car was driven by his wife who died a year ago and the guy also works at and had all the service done at the dealership i work at. he told me his wife drove it nicely and had all the scheduled maintenance up to 117k, i thought that the car would be fine for another 50 to 75k no problem.
i bought it for 6500, put on a header, apex world sport exhaust etc. at 120k now im noticing clouds behind me when i get on it a little. i haven’t beaten on it excessively and im pissed. i would think a honda engine that hasent been beaten on and regularly maintained rings' would hold up a little longer than 120k. i don’t feel like pulling the goddamn motor and putting new rings in cause its not worth the money and im not confident enough to do it myself, nor do i have the time. just wondering:
a) what mileage you think this thing should start to smoke?
b ) do you think i got shafted?
c) sell it or fix it?
im done crying now. just thought id vent cause none of my friends around here know anything bout cars.
 
man. sorry to hear that. should have done a compression and leakdown test on the engine before buying i guess...although no one ever does. try using some oil additives that are supposed to stop smoke. hate to tell u this but i have over 400k on my engine and im not putting out any smoke. barely burning any oil. about 1 quart per 1,000mi.

good luck man!


one more thing...is it white smoke or black? if its white smoke...it might just be the headgasket...though that is still expensive. butnot as much as new rings and pistons.
 
yeah im going to do a oil change on it tomorrow if i get time. any suggestions on what weight i should use? its starting to get cold here in wisconsin so i probably shouldnt use anything too thick.
 
id use whatever honda recommends for that car. dont know what that is. BTW, i added another line to my first post.
 
Make this post over in this board:

http://www.gs-r.com/phpBB2/

It's a small board, really nice people too. I'm checking out a high mileage gsr tomorrow. A 94 sedan with 195K miles on it. Clean body. Asking $2500. My Si has 75K more miles on it. This should be interesting comparing the two cars. The seller mentions that there is some oil loss to watch out for. And these cars burn a little bit of oil going into vtec mode apparently. Well good luck and see you over on the other board!
 
nah its oil for sure. i was just thinking running a more viscous oil would possibly eliminate some of the burning, but wtf do i know.
 
Originally posted by rixXxceboy@Nov 13 2003, 07:47 PM
try using some oil additives that are supposed to stop smoke. hate to tell u this but i have over 400k on my engine and im not putting out any smoke. barely burning any oil. about 1 quart per 1,000mi.
Click to expand...

Wow. How'd you get so many miles on your gsr engine? What year is it? I think my SOHC engine has the potential for many more miles on her.
 
its an 89 crx actually. just drive alot. i commute almost 80 miles a day.

oh and as far as oil additives..try established brands like STP, GUNK, etc... and DO NOT GET Z-MAX! zmax is under investigation cause it was found to be colored mineral oil.
 
Originally posted by 94RedSiGal@Nov 13 2003, 08:52 PM
Make this post over in this board:

http://www.gs-r.com/phpBB2/

It's a small board, really nice people too. I'm checking out a high mileage gsr tomorrow. A 94 sedan with 195K miles on it. Clean body. Asking $2500. My Si has 75K more miles on it. This should be interesting comparing the two cars. The seller mentions that there is some oil loss to watch out for. And these cars burn a little bit of oil going into vtec mode apparently. Well good luck and see you over on the other board!
Click to expand...

thanks, and yeah it does seem to only burn oil when im in vtec. im going to take a closer look and make sure its not a combo of both burning\leaking cause i doubt the pan gasket has been replaced.
 
Actually it's possible that the car was driven nicely all of it's life, but not broken in properly. If the car wasn't broken in the right way back when it was new, you adding performance mods and no doubt driving it a bit harder could just exaggerate a problem that already exists
 
Honda rings are funny....

my case:

87 CRX..Si..219,000 miles...

I did the head gasket, waterpump...blahh balahhh... at about 189,000...car ran good, and I then started to upgrade the engine...blahh blahh...around 195,000 miles..smoke started to appear, oil consumption increased..and it was a fight battle with synthetic oilsm no-smoke additive, HP restorers...and I just couldn't see an end to the smoke.

Well around 215,000 miles...I started autocrossing, and going to car meets out of state...still a crap load of smoke, and about a qt of oil a gastank....the rings were shot. After I did a drag race, and with all of my mods, I could only pull a 17.1...I then went out and got a compression tester....and more oil.

One day I decided to drive to Canada, from CT.....and I was doing OK, I was keeping up with everyone else that convoyed up there for the big CRX meet.....a nice long, hard steady MPH/RPM drive.........it was a 16 hour round trip.

When I got back home, the car pulled stronger, and didn't burn as much oil as before...the compression check proved it. The rings sealed themselves up....It just needed a long steady trip, good gas, and watch the engine temps....since most hondas don't have a oil press gauge.

Now...I put a turbo on the same engine around 218,000 miles, and have been at 9 PSI...and the car still amazes me, very little oil loss, lower smoke, and more power.....I keep telling everyone that I am trying to blow the engine, so I have an excuse to rebuild, but...it just wont die.

So just go on a road trip...do a comp test before, and after....allow the engine to be fully cold for the first part of the test, then get it to normal operating temp for the second part of the test. get a base line...and also add a few drops of oil in the cylinder to see if that will significantly raise the comps...if it does, then you diffenately know that it's the rings.....then do a week-end drive, keeping the speed, RPM, oil levels, grade of gas, etc....as close as possible. Then do the same test again....and see if there is any change.

hope this helps.
 
It takes heat to seal rings. There are articles about how cars SHOULDN'T be broken in "easily" as most people think is logical. They should actually be cycled up to higher rpms, and heated, to generate the heat and malleability the rings need to "seat" on the cylinder wall.
 
Good point. One of the meets, someone mentioned that another member bought an '00 Si. Unfortunately, it had to come from another dealership a few hundred miles away. It was driven over and the engine break-in protocol wasn't observed. The rings were ruined and the car was never "right", all because of that first long drive.
 
the break in could easily be the problem. they bought it used off a trade in when the car was at something like 30k he said and anyone who is wanting a gsr is most likely going to test its limits.
 
When I rebuild an aircraft engine, the break in process is as follows...

(new pistons, new rings, new cylinder jugg's...etc..)

we let the engine start, and idle for about 10 minutes, the turbo still has not goten warm enough, and then we would slowly raise RPM's.....Idle is about 500, rising it to 700, for 5 mins,then slowly bring it back down to idle. Idle again for 10 mins, then go up to 700 for 10 mins, then back to idle, for another 10 mins.......same process, while increasing the RPMs untill its about 1500, then the time goes shorter, and the RPMs increas...by about 2000 rpms, the turbo is nice and hot, and the fuel is setting perfect, then we slam it to full throttle, 2800-3200 rps for 20 mins, and then after that go back and forth slowing the rpms back to idel at 5 mins intervals.

and we do this while also monitoring for leaks, fuel pressures, turbo conditions, sometimes a new turbo, and outside air temps......then we run the aircraft with the engine cowl covers of, and do a few high speed taxies down the runway, the get the extra airflow to shock the cylinders.....then we button everything back to gether, and do the test flight...and yes....I am in the plane when it leaves the ground...thats how much trust you have to have in something you build.

The best feeling is haveing to rebuild the same engine 3000 flight hours down the road...and noticing that everything ran well and performed to spec.
 
Oh BTW...we use mineral oil for the first 50 hours of engine operation, then we switch to normal Aircraft quality oil after that....basically 10-30 sae...

and we have done this break-in style to every aircraft we had, from the huge 28 cylinder R2800 to the smaller cessna 150's O320's...and heres an artical that would be some good reading...if your interest...a little different from what we do, but almost the same process..

another veiwpoint
 
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