Adionik

I occasionally have an oil smell. New valve cover gasket so i'm not sure what's up. Before I bought the car they did an oil change with the Honda blend oil which is really shitty.

steven975

Mine is also a quart every thousand, too...give or take a little (900-1100 depending on circumstances).

That is pretty normal for an AP1 actually. I've had 3 of them over the last 7 years, and they all used that much.

I do have oil/heavy hydrocarbons on the top part of my plugs, so I will probably do the tube seals...though I'm not sure how that would really help. I will also probably get an AP2 valve cover as it has a better PCV valve design. Perhaps Krankvents if that doesn't do it.

My current AP1 is supercharged...before it was 1500/qt, now 1000/qt. My mileage is pretty good. 240+ per tank city, and 300 highway, easily. The power levels both stock and blown are higher than most, too...191HP and 306HP at 5psi...on a Mustang dyno.

steven975

Can you elaborate? I have what appears to be heavy hydrocarbons on the top part of my plugs and into the threads. My plugs are NOT black or even oily at the "firing end". I figure it's my tube seals, as I'd expect "valve cover air" to have plenty of that stuff in it. But...I never thought that could lead to oil consumption problems.

vufgew

i havent checked for the oil in the spark plugs but i will asap and also i forgot to put this in there. i use castrol edge full synthetic 10w-30. ive done a lot of research in the past about this when i first got the car and i know ap1s burn oil but i always saw a smaller amount of consumption among the other people here so i thought something worse was wrong with mine. anyways is there some things i should do as part of maintainance im reaching 95k miles and im sure the previous owner didnt really care about anything but ragging on the car. so far ive bled the rebuilt and bled the brakes and bled the clutch.and changed the engine oil tranny fluid and diff fluid.all this in the past month. another question is replacing the spark plug seals easy to do? thanks

JUSTINTHECOASTIE

Leaky spark plug tube seals will allow oil to leak in and over your spark plugs, giving the impression that your "burning" oil when really your just filling up the spark plug tube

Krazykoreankid

i notice the smell. i even have oil particulates that blow out the exhaust and stain the garage floor in a cone shaped pattern.
something seems seriously wrong, but i have no idea what.

fredsvt

My '03 varies. Back and forth to work with revs kept 7 grand or under, it'll use about a quart every 1200 miles.

If I run it to 9 grand a lot, it can use a quart every 200 miles.

No leaks.

Back and forth to work "puttering" mpg, last tank 29.5. Aggressive back and forth or fun drives, 26.9 to 28.5 is more the norm.

zeroptzero

I can drive 800 miles on the highway in one day and not burn any oil. If I start driving through some twisties and doing city driving and she will burn 1 quart every 1500 miles or so. I think most of it goes through the intake system under high vacuum conditions, steady state highway driving with lower vacuum doesn't burn any oil on my car.

windhund116

Does sound like oil passing across valve seals. Did Honda change the seal compound between early AP1 and later models (like AP2)? My 2007 doesn't use a drop bewttn changes (5,000 miles).

bgoetz

I don't think the intake system is the culprit. I have had the intake system be the culprit and I filled my catch can in one 20min track session. But normal driving or even really aggressive driving and I can kill a quart in 1k and have zero in the catch can. I do think some oils sheer or break down faster, but I think it slips past rings or valves, but is normal particularly on early AP1s. You have to think that these engines are operating at like 30% more rpms than basically any other engine of their era and they were hand built. Oil loss is on a per rpm basis so more rpms = more loss.

I am to the point with these engines that I keep it lubed regardless of what that takes, but otherwise I will run it till obvious failure. As long as I am making power and not blowing smoke I just keep adding oil.