More information. The car is a manual (the only way to drive). Clutch has not been replaced. New front brakes, tires replaced in Jan 2010 at 57k miles (now at 90k miles). The interior is clean, no tears in the fabric. Body has only 1 small rust spot, no dents.
Blackbird: Really? Kerosene? What are the possible bad effects?
Finally, a contrary view is to do the engine replacement which make the car a $13k (10 + 3) investment but it would have new motor. Is is reasonable to expect the car to last another 7 - 10 yrs at 15k miles/yr?
Blackbird: Really? Kerosene? What are the possible bad effects?
Look at the ingredients of any Motor Flush…it’s just kerosene.
Although I wouldn’t leave the kerosene in there too long. Just 5-10 minutes or so…then drain and change oil.
Here’s a radical idea:
Remove the plugs, disconnect the primary connection to the coil(s).
Pour some kerosene into the plug holes.
Crank the engine for a few seconds. Let sit for a few minutes.
The kerosene will soak the rings and ring lands and do its concentrated cleaning magic.
Squirt some oil in there and crank again to re-oil the rings and cylinder walls.
Put the plugs and coils back together, start her up.
There will be smoke as the oil and kerosene in the cylinders is burned away.
Change the oil and filter.
Next question, what is a fair trade-in value (to a dealer not private sale)?
Go to www.Autotrader.com
There you’ll get a Guaranteed quote from a list of dealers in their network.
Using an additive to free up stuck piston rings is worth a shot but I wouldn’t hold my breath while awaiting positive results. Much depends on why there is a piston ring problem and it only takes one faulty ring on one piston to cause an engine to become a massive oil consumer. Some reasons are:
Ring(s) stuck due to short term oil sludging. (An additive may help in this scenario.)
Rings stuck due to oil coking (meaning burnt oil due to the long term). Additives won’t likely cure this.
Rings seized in the ring lands due to a prior overheating episode. (No cure)
Rings have lost their temper (springiness) due to overheating. (No cure)
Scored or galded cylinder walls due to overheating. (No cure)
No cure is defined as not a cheap fix. It’s major.
This car is a prime example of why those extended oil change intervals are utter bunk and it’s also the reason for oil sludging complaints on other makes of vehicles in spite of the owners protests that it’s a design flaw.
Blaming someone else for their lax maintenance habits is a common trait.
Thanks ok4450.
Kerosene...Yup surely... Kerosene.... OR a product called RISLONE....or Motor Flush. There is nothing to worry about, no bad effects with the Kero in there....as you could gently drive round the block OR BETTER YET, just idle the engine while in the driveway. If they were stuck due to Oil Sludging then it could be just what the doctor ordered......You would add the Kero and idle in the driveway for say 20-30 min, no longer than an hour...just at idle.
In fact I'd add about 1.5 qts to the engine.... Its safer to drop about .5 to 1 quart of oil out first and then add 1.5 qts of Kero. That way, in the end, you are only .5-1qt of oil OVERFULL, which is fine for what we are trying to accomplish here.
HOWEVER.... Like OK4450 said I wouldn't hold my breath. For this vehicle to be having this issue so early in its life is indicative of abuse, methinks....Hopefully not oil ring material loss. I mean Hondas aren't known for ANY piston ring issues.....at the same token neither are many/most other modern cars.....That sort of stuff went the way of the Dodo....quite some time ago. I'm actually hoping that you DO have Oil sludge...as the Kero stands a fair shot at helping in this instance.
OK4450 points out pretty much all the relevant Oil ring sticking scenarios quite well. Not much else to add to his comments there... The Kero would help on possibly the first 2 of his scenarios. I would HATE to think that someone left their engine oil in the engine so long as to have caused this.....a good clue would be to remove your valve cover and take a Peek at the Valve Springs/Cam....the entire Valve train. This is where you would have evidence/clues of the previous owners engine oil maintenance program. We can use this to determine if they changed the oil regularly, OR AT ALL !!!
You can take the oil filler cap off the valve cover as though you were about to add engine oil and look at the underside of the cap and peek inside the hole. What do you see? If the underside of the oil filler cap and inside the filler hole looks like Coffee Grounds that have been soaked wet with Hersheys Chocolate Syrup.....then we know that some TOTAL MORON left the original engine oil in this engine from 2006 !! AN exaggeration...but we can tell if the oil was changed on a regular basis or NOT. It will tell us quite a bit actually. Let us know....
Blackbird
Honda’s reputation of being a fine, low-maintenance, long life automobile is not supported by the facts…
If it was just a ring problem, then you could just replace the rings…But no…The dealer wants to replace the BLOCK because HE KNOWS what the real problem is…
Whats the matter Caddyman…you dont like the way Honda bores and utilizes the Aluminum block? I hear you on that, I’m not a big fan either. However Honda doesn’t use that technique (Boring out and then coating the Aluminum bore) on all of their engines… In fact I think they went back to using steel sleeves… No?
They probably have…They learned their lesson…Too many cars like the OP’s…Back in the day, I failed a lot of Honda’s for “visible smoke”…a death sentence…
You would have thought that someone in Honda engineering and management would have heard of the Chevrolet Vega thing and nixed the idea of using a non-iron sleeved engine block instead of foisting it off on a new generation of guinea pigs.
That’s as bad as the old Subarus with the wet sleeve engines. The cylinder liner height was adjusted with copper crush gaskets of varying thicknesses. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that with the every 15k miles recommended cylinder head bolt retorques that the soft copper will crush down, the liner height will near 0, and away the head gasket goes; only to repeat the process after repair.
And the automotive engineers, allegedly the all knowing as to what will work, make the big bucks for designing this carp. (sic)
Possibly running some Seafoam in the oil would help too?
I’ve seen Hondas with over 300K on the odometer with no engine problems, and ones go to an early grave too. A friend just had the camshaft fail in his meticulously maintained VW at 60K miles. I personally have over 260K on my old Chrysler with barely noticeable oil consumption, and I’ve never babied it, except to not drive it hard when it’s cold. Part of the equation is good design, maintenance, and not being subjected to abuse, but part is just plain luck. It could’ve been a bad day at the plant when your engine was built, one of the rings might not have been heat treated properly, who knows really?
The engine could have been abused, or it could just be bad luck. If you’re going to trade/sell it, I wouldn’t bother with trying any additives, I’d just get rid of it. If you’re considering replacing the engine, I guess you have nothing to lose. I’d consider putting some kerosene in the cylinders as someone suggested, letting it soak, then oiling the cylinders and starting the engine. Then I’d immediately take it on a short trip of a couple of miles where I gave it some fairly hard acceleration, decelerate by downshifting, and repeat a few times. Then change the oil. Hopefully this will free up any stuck rings.
I think BMW was the first to do the alumasil thing.
My Honda dirtbikes in the 80’s use a Nikasil cylinder coating/lining process…always messed with us in those early years of riding/racing…no one knew what to do with them come time to bore it and install a new piston and such. I think they did away with that also.
Anywho…I hope the OP tell us that she sees the sludge/crud under the filler cap and inside the hole in the valve cover…Maybe then we can hope for sludged up and stuck oil rings… IN that event we have some hope for the Kero to do its job. Not much to loose in this case methinks?
SO…Tell us what you saw under the filler cap and in the valve cover hole? Hope it wasn’t spotless… 
If as Honda Blackbird suspects, that this engine has seen little to no PM, the problem might not be with the oil control rings but rather with the oil drain back holes. That makes it a simple fix, remove the valve cover, clean out the holes, replace the valve cover (new gasket kit) and do an oil change.
Yes, there will still be a lot of sludge in there, but as long as the oil flows freely through the engine and back to the pan, that would solve the oil burning problem. Regular oil changes after that will slowly remove most of the sludge. Slowly is the key here, you don’t want it to all suddenly come free and clog up the passages again.
Why Keith, do you think its keeping the oil up in the valve train and burning it via the valves seals rather than the pistons? I suppose that is possible, but shouldn’t be likely on an engine/valve seals this young…No?
Don’t quote me on this but I THINK that oil burning via valve stem seals comes out rather Grey, whereas oil burning via Oil rings/pistons comes out Blue. Have you guys noticed this?
Is there any credibility to this or am I nutz?
I dont think the OP even mentioned Blue smoke, which is crazy because of the rate of oil consumption/loss that we are discussing here. Could it be that shes leaking it while in motion only? There HAS to be telltale signs of this somewhere…Somebody just has to look methinks.
A Chink In The Asian Car Myth ?
You can’t go wrong with a Honda or Toyota. They’re bulletproof, right ? Please say it’s right, right ?
Joking aside, I wonder if when the change intervals went from 3,000 to 7,000 miles when rechecked if that’s “kind of” an average or guesstimate and I also wonder if the oil was checked frequently in between and topped off as necessary.
I run 5 cars on the road at a time and if somebody asks how often the oil is changed and checked, I don’t have to look anything up to answer. 5,000 mile Mobil-1 EP changes and weekly checks are religion at my house, even for new cars.
CSA