VTEC Smell...?

[MarkRSi]

Last night I was following some ned in an Integra (DC2), and every time he/she/it VTEC'ed the thing they seemed to be this quite strong, sharp burning oil smell. There might have been smoke as well but was dark.

Just curious, are all VTEC motors like this? I never noticed it from my FN2 despite regular thrashing. Could it be cold? Or just a shagged engine?

I have to say as a petrolhead I found the smell quite nice actually

[muffinmenace]

Yeah DC2's have the older B series engine which can get smokey with age and with burn oil nicley in VTEC. Oil control rings, valve stem seals are common. I had mine with the same issue and I've had to get it rebored and honed, 3.4k later I got these back:

[woodytype S]

MarkRSi said:

Last night I was following some ned in an Integra (DC2), and every time he/she/it VTEC'ed the thing they seemed to be this quite strong, sharp burning oil smell. There might have been smoke as well but was dark.

Just curious, are all VTEC motors like this? I never noticed it from my FN2 despite regular thrashing. Could it be cold? Or just a shagged engine?

I have to say as a petrolhead I found the smell quite nice actually

You shoud already know that a VTEC engine burns oil in that mode.It over oiles to protect the cams.
Thats why you have to check the oil level often if you Vtec alot. AFAI

[MarkRSi]

woodytype S said:

You shoud already know that a VTEC engine burns oil in that mode.It over oiles to protect the cams.
Thats why you have to check the oil level often if you Vtec alot. AFAI

Is that true? Never knew that during the first year of FN2 ownership I didn't notice the oil level changing much, so didn't bother checking regularly the second year until I got an oil pressure/level low alert on the dash after taking a roundabout quickly when cold Level was just above the min mark so topped it up.

[GTRalex]

Older B series engines as said do often kick a bit of smoke out so you will smell it.

My ep3 when using vtec a lot i can get through 1L of oil in a month.

[Squating Neville]

woodytype S said:

You shoud already know that a VTEC engine burns oil in that mode.It over oiles to protect the cams.
Thats why you have to check the oil level often if you Vtec alot. AFAI

Im sure the answer is simple, How or why does it over oil to protect the cams, as the VTEC Cam lobe is always running on the Vtec Rocker arm,

[muffinmenace]

woodytype S said:

You shoud already know that a VTEC engine burns oil in that mode.It over oiles to protect the cams.
Thats why you have to check the oil level often if you Vtec alot. AFAI

mmm, no not really, oil usage isn't ideal and is 'within specification' for 1-1.5L per 1k miles for many manufacturers but a healthy B series and the newer K series will use a negligible amount between services.

[Mastodon2]

woodytype S said:

You shoud already know that a VTEC engine burns oil in that mode.It over oiles to protect the cams.
Thats why you have to check the oil level often if you Vtec alot. AFAI

Interesting, never heard that one before. I get my foot down quite a lot, and my car does not burn much oil, compared to my Cupra R which would blacken it's exhaust tip in just a few days driving after a good polish.

[Kozy]

Perfectly normal. My B16B burnt a litre in 60 miles last April. It went bang though, so I'm fairly sure that particular case would count as ''abnormal' oil consumption...

[JdmRacer]

Any good b series engine should burn a lot of oil but on the smoke my one only smokes on takeoff wit the launch control

[muffinmenace]

JdmRacer said:

Any good b series engine should burn a lot of oil but on the smoke my one only smokes on takeoff wit the launch control

wut

[JonnyVTEC]

woodytype S said:

You shoud already know that a VTEC engine burns oil in that mode.It over oiles to protect the cams.
Thats why you have to check the oil level often if you Vtec alot. AFAI

Are you suggesting they have an oil injector?!

[N88]

JdmRacer said:

Any good b series engine should burn a lot of oil but on the smoke my one only smokes on takeoff wit the launch control

Should they? Mine doesn't use any at all, maybe it needs a rebuild

[JdmRacer]

N88 said:

JdmRacer said:

Any good b series engine should burn a lot of oil but on the smoke my one only smokes on takeoff wit the launch control

Should they? Mine doesn't use any at all, maybe it needs a rebuild

They have a very bad reputation for burning oil all together I have friend who owns a SiR is well and puts oil meant for tractor in it the real thick stuff to save him money Do you use yours in vtec a lot?

[MarkRSi]

JdmRacer said:

N88 said:

JdmRacer said:

Any good b series engine should burn a lot of oil but on the smoke my one only smokes on takeoff wit the launch control

Should they? Mine doesn't use any at all, maybe it needs a rebuild

They have a very bad reputation for burning oil all together I have friend who owns a SiR is well and puts oil meant for tractor in it the real thick stuff to save him money Do you use yours in vtec a lot?

Are K-series engines similar? I used VTEC a lot when warmed up in my K20 and didn't much oil at all (see my earlier post).

Slightly OT - but as for the 'launch control' is it something a bit like this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP6fFxhOJWI&fea...

(No I never tried launching it, I'm too mechanically sympathetic )

[Mastodon2]

I use VTEC often but not all the time - to do so would imply that you are driving grossly in excess of speed limit and you simply wouldn't get very far before you got pulled or scamera'd, and the oil level in mine doesn't seem to drop at all. I just change the oil to keep it fresh, I've never needed to top it up.

Tractor oil in a Honda engine eh? Interesting.

[JdmRacer]

i dont know much about k20's sorry its mainly eg's and ek's where i live but there was a ep type r but it never seen out of a shed and was eventully part exchanged for a back wheel starlet
my friend with the tractor oil is bit off head case and just buys cars and drives them to the ground and buys something diffrent then afterwards :P

[Mr2Mike]

I service for a guy who has an EK shape Civic VTi tarmac rally car. It has 115k miles on it already and obviously spends most of it's life in VTEC, yet it uses almost no oil at all. I think we've only topped it up a couple of times this year, and even then only because it had dropped a few mm below max.

My old MB6 with similar mileage used to drink it like it was going out of fashion and my current EP3 has used maybe 0.5 litres in the last 4000 miles.

[Derek Chevalier]

woodytype S said:

MarkRSi said:

Last night I was following some ned in an Integra (DC2), and every time he/she/it VTEC'ed the thing they seemed to be this quite strong, sharp burning oil smell. There might have been smoke as well but was dark.

Just curious, are all VTEC motors like this? I never noticed it from my FN2 despite regular thrashing. Could it be cold? Or just a shagged engine?

I have to say as a petrolhead I found the smell quite nice actually

You shoud already know that a VTEC engine burns oil in that mode.It over oiles to protect the cams.
Thats why you have to check the oil level often if you Vtec alot. AFAI

I'm not sure this applies to all VTECs, certainly not NSX engines.

[JdmRacer]

Derek Chevalier said:

I'm not sure this applies to all VTECs, certainly not NSX engines.

I think he's just on about common vtec engines not a highly rare sought after supercar