BigBang

Hey guys, I have an 01' with 143k. All the internals are completely original. No CEL.
I have an header, test pipe, and exhaust, but I'm starting to realize that I have an internal problem.
I use 10-30 Royal Purple and burn ~1qt every 1k miles.
At WOT I blow white-ish smoke. Its not just a puff of smoke, its a constant flow of smoke until I shift/release the gas.
Also, I have noticed at idle, sometimes I see a puff of white smoke behind me, when i'm idling at a stop light.
My car runs great, it pulls good, no loss of power. I do not hit vtec daily (don't bash me), because of this smoking problem.

At a light, car smells like a old car. But I figure that is because I have a test pipe.

I have yet to get a compression test, but do you think my seals or a gasket can be bad?
I'm looking for peoples opinion so I can narrow down this cause of smoke.

Thanks

Soviet

FWIW one of my AP1 s2ks with 111k eats oil in VTEC, smells strongly, and leaves smoke in my rear view during VTEC. I recently did a compression test and it was around 205 across the board. Low, but consistent.

In for some answers.

BigBang

Bump

shind3

Are you losing coolant?

Chuck S

My AP2 car is far different. Less than 50K miles and burns less than a quart of Royal Purple Synthetic 10W-30 in 5000 miles.

What was your compression across all 4 cylinders again? We can't even guess without knowing that information. Lots of visible smoke has been valve seats on my cars -- no this one -- followed by worn rings.

-- Chuck

shind3

Hence my question earlier about coolant.

White is coolant
Blue is oil
Black is fuel

Dman8

yours sounds almost identical to mine.

I have an 02 w/ 156k miles. burns oil like a mother. sometimes 1 qt for 500 miles, but usually closer to 1000 miles. I use Valvoline max life full synthetic. At WOT I have been told by a friend that there is a white-ish smoke as well. I havent seen it myself but I can kinda smell something going on afterwards. I hardly hit VTEC as well (maybe once a week). The good thing is that my car runs perfect. It idles perfect, and never has any issue at all turning over or staying on.

I have a few things planned in the future to hopefully minimize this issue: valve adjustment, ap2 cover, oil catch can. Hopefully it works, if not, I dont know what else other than a rebuild or just living with it.

s2000Junky

With excessive oil burning on high mileage F20 its usually both Piston rings and valve guides/seals. Sometimes you can have decent good compression and the car will generally run well, but the oil control rings are shot, coupled with oil weeping past the valve seals, and usage and smoke and smell is what you get. F22 made some parts and manufacturing updates the F20's didn't have and thats reflected in the general longevity and oil usage differences.

I started out with an 01 s2k, and first F20 that came with the car lasted approx 45k miles before Honda replaced it under warranty due to what appeared to be manufacturing defects in the cylinder walls aka cracks, along with some usage from the guides. The engine always seems to go through some oil but it became more apparent to me that it was getting excessive. Honda deems a ridiculous 1Q per 1000 miles max within ok tolerance, so it had to be consuming more then that before they would authorize a problem and tear down. Well I was going through 1Q in 800 miles so they tore it down and I ultimately ended up with an entirely brand new Honda factory bottom end mated to my original head that was reconditioned with new seals/guides, compliments of Honda Care warranty thank god! That engine lasted me roughly 80k miles, and I think I ran that motor a bit too lean for too long with a Supercharger speeding up the inevitable so I take part blame there. After that I switched to F22 and will never see another F20 in my car.

iamxpl

this X2

zeroptzero

1 quart every 1,000 miles is still in the acceptable range, as long as it isn't higher than 1.5 quarts or more.

When running a test pipe you are not burning off hydrocarbons so you will have more smoke out the exhaust. This can even happen with some aftermarket HFC's. With the oem cat in place it will convert hydrocarbons and you don't typically see the smoke. My car doesn't emit any smoke with the oem cat, but when I was running a HFC in the spring I was getting somewhat similar results as you. The HFC I was running was not a three-way catalyst so smoke was being emitted out the tails.