88 CRX Si "popping"

[d4h8a1]

I've an 88 CRX Si. The thing has only a few thousand miles since I put it all together. The car runs great and has a lot of power.

The problem is that it burns a good bit of oil, I smell it out the tailpipe, and it pops irregularly. The fuel delivery system is fine, the timing is fine, the plugs are fine, and there are no codes. I don't understand what's happening.

The rex does have AEM short ram intake, DCsports header, and Greddy SP2 exhaust. Everything else is stock. D16A6 is the motor, btw.

The compression test comes out more than fine, so it's not a valve problem. I haven't leaked it down yet... Any other ideas?

[Christ]

Dry compression test tells you about rings.

If you had been leaking compression, or not building it, I would tell you to put 1 tsp of oil in each cyl before doing the test.. that will tell you about valve guides/seals.

If you're burning oil excessively (more than 1/2 qt between oil changes @ 4k miles) There's a good chance you have a blown headgasket after learning that the compression test came back fine.

There are only 4 ways for oil to get into the cylinders:
1. Leaking/cracked/broken compression rings
2. Cracked head/blown head gasket
3. Leaking/damaged valve guides/seals
4. Broken/worn oil control rings. <(--- this one you can't find with a compression test.. it will leave oil on the walls on the cylinder which may slip past the upper and lower compression ring and burn in the cylinder's combustion event.

A cracked or chipped piston can do this too, but it's highly unlikely, since you say the car runs beautifully... are you sure the "oily smell" isn't just your car running rich due to an O2 sensor or Coolant Temp Sensor?

[Christ]

If the plugs are fine, there is a good chance that you're not burning oil at all.. or not burning enough to worry about it... Normally, when you're burning oil, your plugs will coke up even just slightly, and you'll have some indication.. either way, they'll be far from "fine".