Battling the Burning oil..

Hey, I am new to the forum so go easy on me. I recently bought a 91 Civic HB to drive while I am rebuilding the motor on my 85 Civic hatchback. The 91 is a stock 2 door DX with 175K miles on it. I noticed when I bought the car that it did not have much oil in it. I refilled and found that it was two quarts low. I drove it for about 50 miles the other day and checked the oil again and there was NO OIL registering on the Dip stick. It was two quarts low again. Now, i do get a puff of smoke when accellerating, but not unless I accelerate at high RPMs. I also get a little puff when shifting into higher gears at high RPMs. I am not really sure that these little "puffs" of smoke could be causing me to lose this much oil in 50 miles. I am not sure how long it had been since the engine had been run, but it idles smooth and runs GREAT besides drinkin all of my oil. I checked for leaks under the car and have found nothing. The valve cover looks like its got a little bit of oil on top of it too.


If there are any common problems or Defects with this engine that I should know about , please let me know. I am going to do a leak down test once I can find out where to get a tester just to make sure the compression is all good. I spent the last 4 or 5 months learning everything about the Carbureted Honda EW1 motor which is what I am rebuilding. Never worked much on cars before, so switching over to this fuel injected motor is a bit new to me. Any help would be much appreciated.

thanks

DMM

Going through that much oil that quick is very odd. I don't think it's possible to burn that much oil in 50 miles and not leave a smoke cloud the whole way. My guess is that it is leaking somewhere. Common places are the main seals, oil pan. Did you happen to notice what color the smoke was. Did it have a blue tint to it or was it white? Also, did the temp gauge ever get warm?

Agreed. Main seals, valve cover gasket and distributor o-ring gasket (will leak onto tranny)...