[r1ckyg89]

i wrote a post a few weeks ago about my 216 cab burning oil, had a great reply for a cheap good value repair that ill be having done however money is tight so im having to get the money together bit by bit. At the moment im properly curious to see weather anyone else has had this problem? Given the reputation of the engine (which it really is a fantasticlly entertaining performer) ive had 3 rovers with the engine (1 twin cam) 1 head gasket faliure and 2 burning oil. i change my oil every 3,000 miles and service every 10,000, i use valvoline semi synthetic 10w 40 oil which i beleive to be the best, has anybody else had ther Honda units burn oil? if so what on earth is it? this post is out of pure curiosity as i cant stop wondering. sods law ive had 7 rovers powered by k-series and only 1 head gasket faliure apart from that totally trouble free, 2 very different engines and i love them both and can never decide which i prefer. would love to hear back on this 1 guys its taking over my thoughts haha.
cheers

[threelitre]

Similar here... We've had (still have) 2 K-series - both fine.

1 DOHC Honda engined Cabriolet: Just perfect.

1 SOHC Honda engined 216GSi: Used a little oil from the start (bought with 90k kms), went up to about 1l per tank on faster journeys. Regularly serviced with good quality semi-synthetic oil. =>
Changed this engine to a 2nd hand unit: Disaster - it used 1l of oil for about 60 miles on the 1st journey. Changing to fully synthetic oil and having an engine flush later it came down to about 1l per 200miles... We got about 15k miles out of it, without getting better or worse.

1 more DOHC Cabriolet: Bought to strip it and place the engine into a Honda CRX. The Honda died with no oil in it about 200 miles after a service! The engine from the cabby used about 1 1/2 l of oil for the transfer to Munich (450 miles) :( It runs extremely sweet though.

I have the impression as if the design of the piston rings on these is not really good. Leading to accumulation of coal from burned oil if the engine is used 'gently' or in town most of the time. If you look into Honda forums you'll find that it is not so rare.

So out of 5 Honda D16 engines between my brother and me, 1 is good...

Regards,

Alexander

[Sir Henry]

Since all my current cars have relatively high mileages - around the 100K mark or more - I always use a more viscous oil in them. I get mine from B&Q. It's a 15W40 oil and is recommended for 'high mileage' cars. At £10 for 5 litres it's more than cheap enough to be replaced at 3K miles or 6 months whichever comes sooner along with a fresh filter, although you could leave that for alternate changes reasonable safely if you want to.

[threelitre]

Well, cheap oils are cheap for a reason... And it seems very wasteful to me to change it that often, if a better oil can do three times the mileage.

Anyway: When at working temperatur the 15W-40 mineral oil will be just as thin as a fully synthetic 0W-40. If the engine gets a little hotter than normal the 15W-40 will most likely be thinner than the better quality oil. Unless it has an ACEA A3/B3 grade it will also degrade relatively quickly, so that when 5000 miles are reached it will be thinner than a high quality oil even after 15k miles. But worst - if the piston rings don't seal perfectly anymore, such mineral oils will leave very strong deposits from burning, whereas better oils will leave hardly any or even no deposits. The reason why cars needed to have the cylinder head and pistons decoked at regular intervals in the times before piston rings AND oil quality improved in the 70s. I am pretty sure that the use of cheap oil and short journeys killed the Honda engines in my cases.

Each to their own, but I only use high quality oils - even in my classics - at the recommended change intervals (or even longer than that in case of the classic cars).

Regards,

Alexander

[gbs100]

Well our 416 gti dohc has now done 105000 miles, 4000 miles since its last oil+filter change i check the oil +water levels approx every 2 weeks and up until now it has never used any oil or water .
also my wifes 416 auto tourer has not used any oil or water since i gave it a full service when we first got it.

[T1M]

Rover initially specified 6,000 miles oil changes for D series engined cars. I can't imagine many people adheared to this, I think the recommendation was extended to 12,000 miles eventually anyway?

My experience of these engines is mixed. Parent's had a '91 416 GSi auto. In 200,000 miles it never needed topping up between changes. The car had a full (Rover main dealer) history until about 170k, then regular oil changes after. The oil was always clean on the dipstick too. The car was heavily used from day one and never "pootled" about in.

I had a 216 GTi (SOHC) which when the previous owner aquired it would use about a litre of oil in 500 miles. This had only done about 75,000 miles, but over 16 years, suggesting it'd had done mostly short journies.
The engine was flushed and the oil changed several times in quick succession, each time the old oil came out blacker than even a DERV owner would expect. The oil consumption levelled off, it only used about a litre every 6000 miles with a Forte aditive in it. Even then, it still seemed to pollute the oil alarmingly fast.

The final car was a 216SLi that was actually running a GTi DOHC engine (belongs to Rover-Man on here). Bought for a banger rally In 5,000 miles of relentless thrashing to Romania and back it used not a drop of oil.

I've also heard that these engines were a bit hit and miss from new mind, you either got a really good one which never gave any grief, or a terrible one which burnt oil from new.

[gbs100]

I've also heard that these engines were a bit hit and miss from new mind, you either got a really good one which never gave any grief, or a terrible one which burnt oil from new.

In that case then ive been very lucky

[r1ckyg89]

think iv put mine down to the rigs, left the car with craig at dinner time today to start a re-build and a few othor jobs, eeek i last cheked my oil by the time i arrived at the workshop it had used all of it!!!!!! caught it just in time! ther was also a leak fingers crossed!

[RoverRevival]

at leased there is less to leak on my floor



1st time i'll be able to drain oil into a polystyrene cup

[r1ckyg89]

i think maybe a poly cup would be abit x-sesiv, i was thinkin maybe the lid from a coke bottle should comfortably handle the sheer amount of waste oil! Its a good space uv got ther craig, impressive, do u rent it? i think my car may become a fimiliar face