95 Honda Civic 15b7. Burning oil/ white smoke

ThC23

New Member
Ok so I am lost and need help please.

A few months ago I purchased a 95 Honda civic and it had a cracked valve. So I did a head job with a friend.

Original head before swap was PM3-12
Rebuild head after swap is a PM3-8

Compression test on 3 cylinders was 150-160,except for the one with the cracked valve. That one was 0 compression at the time.

After work was done and drove for a few days noticed I had white smoke coming out the exhaust and loss of oil. Like 1 qrt every 600-800 miles.

Compression after work dropped to 120 on all cylinders.
I have signs of oil on all cylinders, some very little and 1 a bit more which I believe is causing the oil loss.

Coolant has remained the same level and NO signs of oil in the radiator or Coolant in the oil.

Thought it could possibly be my intake valve seals so I replaced them today with no luck. Didn't do the ones on the exhaust side, due to not really finding anything wrong with the intake side.

Leak down test is between 10 to 15 on all cylinders even after moving them up or down, didn't make a difference.

Although all had a very minimal air leak towards the Coolant overflow box.

I believe my head gasket is installed properly due to no signs of oil/Coolant in places it would be at if it was bad.

So here are my questions

1.- Why the compression drop after head swap?? I thought all PM3 are compatible.

2.-So what could it possibly be that is making oil leak into the cylinder?
If original compression test was good, then it couldn't possibly be the piston rings.

3.-Why white smoke if no loss of Coolant?

Car runs great, I'm getting well over 30mpg. Just burning oil which is making me fail smog.

By the way all the spark plugs have that white smoke residue on them.
I think I covered everything, let me know if I missed something that might help you help me lol.

Thanks in advance.
 

Esotericimage

Taking an H-T break
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
Hmm.. Im going to say it is the headgasket

alot of what you posted is a classic HG issue.

Theres many questions that need answering so you dont go thru the same thing with the new HG

Who torqued the head down?
What HG was used?
how was the surface of the new head? Was it checked for warpage for install..

Answer these before I go further
 


ThC23

New Member
Esotericimage said:
Hmm.. Im going to say it is the headgasket

alot of what you posted is a classic HG issue.

Theres many questions that need answering so you dont go thru the same thing with the new HG

Who torqued the head down?
What HG was used?
how was the surface of the new head? Was it checked for warpage for install..

Answer these before I go further
Click to expand...
Head was a rebuilt, torqued by my friend who is a mechanic. And since it was a rebuilt head we didn't check for warpage.
Surface was completely cleaned up and dried before new gasket was put on the head and block. Sprayed with copper
 

ThC23

New Member
What signs point to a head gasket?
Or possibly the head?
I think if I were to redo the head gasket I would ask machine shop that I got the head from to send me a warranty head just to be sure. Right?
 


Snailed

New Member
It could be headgasket but I suggest checking your plugs. If they are wet you have a bad distributor. One of my engines did a similar thing. check out my vid
 

ThC23

New Member
Snailed said:
It could be headgasket but I suggest checking your plugs. If they are wet you have a bad distributor. One of my engines did a similar thing. check out my vid
Click to expand...
Wet with excess fuel or oil? I'll check later today, but the cylinders are getting a bit of oil in them.
So your distributor was letting oil in the engine? Making it smoke?

Thanks
 

Snailed

New Member
What was happening is my distributor wasn't always firing and my rings were fried. My guess is that the excess fuel washed out the rings. If they are wet smell it and touch to find out if it is oil or fuel.
 

ThC23

New Member
Well I removed them a couple days ago and none of them were wet, they just had like a small white residue built up on them.
I'll check again today. Thanks

Would a warped head be possibly the problem?
 
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