how long do i have?

[its tahitian green]

my hatch has an oil fouled plug. it blows black soot out the tailpipe.
i top off a half court each tank. it still gets 30+mpg. how long do you think itll go for like it is? thanks in advance.

[Hybrid1990crx]

that really all depends on what is causing your motor to burn oil. a compression and leakdown test would really help your question.

[amy@af]

only time will tell. i've seen strange stuff over the years

cz-r once drove from ND to OR to CA and back to ND on 3 cylinders...i think he's still driving on the same engine. i told him well over a year ago he's needs to pull the trooper out and put it on display

[johnb16a2]

Sounds like you may have two problems. Oil loss and running rich.

Running a rich mixture is generally to only way to make the black soot you mentioned. (Burning oil will generally make blue smoke.)

You mentioned you have a fouled plugs. Are the plugs black and wet or black and dry?

Black and wet generally means Lots of oil burning while black and dry genreally indicate a rich mixture.

[its tahitian green]

a shop compression tested the cylinder in question. said it was at 50 psi. when i removed the plug for the first time in awhile it was carboned up bad. i chipped off the buildup and wire brushed it. didnt help much if any.

would this cause the rich mixture? i suppose that cylinder isnt burning much fuel now. is it just passing through? thanks for the replies.

[CivicSpoon]

Your rings are bad in that cylinder. This is causing your plug to be fouled. This causes it to go rich, because there's no spark to ignite the fuel and just spits it out the valve (and onto your plug). Sorry I can't type right tonight.

[FrodoGT]

Yeah either your rings are shot, or you have a valve issue..and since its only in that cylinder (assuming you tested them all) then it would be very strage for one piston's rings to go bad all by themselves.. Id check for a cracked or chipped valve as well.

[CRXperiment]

If i were you i wouldnt really worry. Just drive the mofo till it blows up. Keep on adding the cheapest 20w50 oil and when it dies, get a replacement. Some chick here was selling an 89 Y-49 rex with the same problems yours has. When i checked the plugs they were worse than yours and when i pulled out the dipstick there was absolutley NO oil on it, i had never seen a blank dipstick, the sucker was empty. Point of story: The motor was the original D16A6 and the car had over 370K! These Honda engines dont die.

[its tahitian green]

thats what ive been using is 20w50. just filled it up and it got 34 mpg last tank. fuck it, at least its not blowing smoke. i hope it goes for a good while, its got around 230k on it now.