1980 Civic Burns Oil After Adding

Just a quick update.... I tried pulling the sparkplugs (recently replaced
with new ones) and noted that one was perfectly clean and dry, two were
black but dry, and one was black and dripping wet (with gasoline). Maybe a
combination of valve and ignition problems?

"Chris F." > wrote in message
...
> This project seemed to be nearly wrapped up, with little more than a
> paint job remaining to be done. But as I mentioned in a previous post
> regarding the carburetor, the engine had stopped running and would only
> flood when I tried to start it. I have since taken the carb all apart and
> thoroughly cleaned it, as well as checked for things like leaking
> diaphragms etc. I also changed the spark plugs and checked for other
> ignition problems. While I had the carb out, the thought occured to check
> the oil level, since I hadn't yet done so. I was shocked to find only a
> drop on the end of the dipstick - it looks like the last owner not only
> didn't change the oil, but didn't even bother to check it. So just
> temporarily, I dumped in a quart of 5W30, all I had handy, not knowing
> what type of oil was already in it. Once the carb was back on, the engine
> once again was able to start and remain running, though with some idling
> issues due to the carb being out of adjustment (another story). But this
> time, the engine was burning oil - enough to produce a visible smoke. Now
> I'm worried it may need an engine rebuild.... but oddly, it wasn't burning
> oil at all before - not even enough to produce an oily smell in the
> exhaust. So I'm wondering if it has more to do with the oil being dirty,
> or perhaps having more than one type mixed together. It reminds me of an
> old lawn mower we had when I was a kid, it used to belch clouds of smoke
> every time it was started, until someone finally changed the oil (for the
> first time in 7 or 8 years) and then it ran like new again. This car,
> however, may have been run for up to 17 years and over 90,000km without an
> oil change.... so perhaps the prognosis isn't good.
> Thanks for any advice.
>
>

=?iso-2022-jp?q?Hachiroku_=1B$B%O%A%m%=2F=1B=28B?= >
wrote in news
> On Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:31:22 +0000, Tegger wrote:
>
>> =?iso-2022-jp?q?Hachiroku_=1B$B%O%A%m%=2F=1B=28B?= >
>> wrote in news >>
>>
>>
>>> For yuou Jap car fans...
>>>
>>> http://www.japaneseclassiccarshow.com/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Inneresting. But too many of the pictures look like wide-angle
>> magazine- cover art with the owners as models, instead of just being
>> depictions of the cars themselves. And too many modified cars. I
>> prefer the history that's embodied in bone-stock.
>
> Same here, especially the TE72 Corolla that's WAY overdone.



I had two of those, an '81 and an '82. Both were Liftbacks, just one of a
staggering SIX body-styles for that generation.

I don't know quite what got into Toyota in the late '70s that they would
spend the money for six body-styles, but for me, they got the Liftback
dead-on, with:
1) frameless hardtop-style windows, adding just a soupcon of coolness;
2) two doors (a bit more coolness);
3) a rear hatch that was fairly vertical, but "not quite" vertical enough
to belong on your Dad's four-door Rambler station wagon;
4) serious practicality, with a non-intrusive rear suspension that allowed
a ton of cargo space for its size.

They reminded me a bit of a sixties 2-door Chevelle wagon. Which I one day
want to buy.



> But there are people who say, "There's no such thing as a Japanese
> Classic. To them I say...
>
> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...OTA_2000GT.jpg
>


"2000GT" was Japanese for "Ferrari".

"Fellalli"? That sounds bad...



--
Tegger

dsi1 > wrote in news:Cs44n.23930$AO4.14756
@newsfe02.iad:

> On 1/14/2010 1:04 PM, Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/(B wrote:
>
>> For yuou Jap car fans...
>>
>> http://www.japaneseclassiccarshow.com/
>>
>>
>>
>
> I'll bet you'd dig a RX-2 coupe like the one I used to have. It was a
> 2400 lb car with a smooth engine that had the power of a 6. Pretty good
> handling too and I thought it had a beautiful body - especially the rear
> end.



I had a '74 RX-4! A 2-door coupe. It was purple, a very fetchingly '70s
color indeed.

This car was the very first to have Mazda's "big" 13B rotary. And in its
day it was fairly quick (in spite of its weight). And silky smooth. And
fragile...



>
> It had two vents that blew air through the steering wheel into your face
> and a vent directly below that to cool or heat up your genitals. Those
> Mazda engineers thought of everything!



The gingerbread men thought of everything, too. The body and interior
decoration on those things was exceedingly complicated and busy and oh so
Japanese.



>
> When we left CA, I sold it to our friend's son for $500. What a deal for
> him. I think he probably blew it up or trashed it.



I sold mine to my sister's then-boyfriend. I sold it just in time. A few
months later, one of the rotors seized up on the highway in a mess of
galled and scorched steel and aluminum. 80,000 miles and it was toast.
We're still not quite sure what happened.
Engine replacement included my very first experience with JDM engines, and
what an experience that was.


--
Tegger

On 1/15/2010 8:14 AM, Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/(B wrote:
> Even when I was a kid I liked Japanese cars, even though you didn't see
> too many around here. But I remember one old guy's Mazda "Rotary Power"
> Pickup (the tailgate said "Rotary Power" instead of Mazda!)
>

I'd like to have one of those, it was a ballsy move for Mazda to
emblazon the tailgate with that proclamation. They also had neat
trick-looking round taillights. Ford put out their version of this truck
with a plain old piston engine. That was just another forgettable small
pickup with "Ford" on the gate. The rotary however, must have been a
real bomb - I mean that in a good way. :-) As far as I know, nothing
else like that was sold in N. America.

In addition to the RX-2, I had a RX-3 station wagon which was somewhat
embarrassing for me as far as the way it looked. The styling was
cluttered with some space age cliches thrown-on but the effect was not
sleek - just ill-proportioned. As an added incentive to keep buyers
away, it was painted a horrible florescent lime green. No matter, the
appeal of the rotary engine even with the automatic was undeniable. :-)

"Chris F." > wrote in
:

>
>> It'll never be valuable like a '57 Bel Air is. But it will definitely
>> be cool in a quirky sort of way, like a Crosley. I'd say it's worth
>> restoring.
>> When was the last time you saw one on the road?
>
> In 1991, the day my parents traded in our 1982 4-speed 1300FE. Come
> to think of it, I don't remember seeing many of them around in the 80's
> either.



They rusted out like nobody's business.

Earlier Hondas were absolutely awful for rust. I still remember the
original '76 Accords. They rusted so badly that, if my memory is not
deceiving me, there was actually a recall for badly-rusted unibodies.




> If one of these were to be prominently featured in a movie, they'd
> probably become a hot collectible. I mean, look what Back to the
> Future did for the Delorean.....
>
>


And what "Cars" did for the Hudson Hornet, one of Hudson's big mistakes.

But I don't think that's actually going to happen. Those old Civics were
slow, cramped, quirky, and, well, Japanese.

Love it for what it is to you, and don't consider what others may think.

Just resign yourself to the fact that whatever money you pour into it is
lost forever; you'll never get it back on a sale.


--
Tegger

"Chris F." > wrote in
:

>>
>> For me the 80s were a dark pit of automotive crappiness that I'd
>> never even think about preserving (with the possible exception of a
>> Buick GNX). But I still can't bring myself to think of 80s cars as
>> particularly "old."
>
> They might not be "old" compared to most classic cars, but it's the
> scarcity of some of these cars, particularly imports, that makes them
> worth preserving. The first-gen Toyota Tercel (1980-83), for example,
> is probably one of the hardest to find



I saw, to my utter shock, one of these in my town of 15,000 people. I
didn't get a look at the VIN plate, but I'd guess it around 1980. It's the
ONLY one I've seen in at least 10 years.

And last week I saw a Hyundai Pony. Really. It was moving under its own
steam down the highway. And a few weeks before that a Plymouth Horizon,
again from about 1980. And just after that, a ~'75 Mustang II, with
sprayed-on primer, yet. To my tooth-gnashing frustration, these things pass
by far too quickly for me to get out a camera and capture them.

You southerners be quiet. In the Rust Belt, older cars are extremely rare,
especially in winter. Those like me cherish every sighting.



--
Tegger

On 1/15/2010 3:48 PM, Tegger wrote:
> > wrote in news:Cs44n.23930$AO4.14756
> @newsfe02.iad:
>
>> On 1/14/2010 1:04 PM, Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/(B wrote:
>>
>>> For yuou Jap car fans...
>>>
>>> http://www.japaneseclassiccarshow.com/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I'll bet you'd dig a RX-2 coupe like the one I used to have. It was a
>> 2400 lb car with a smooth engine that had the power of a 6. Pretty good
>> handling too and I thought it had a beautiful body - especially the rear
>> end.
>
>
>
> I had a '74 RX-4! A 2-door coupe. It was purple, a very fetchingly '70s
> color indeed.

My RX-2 was painted a very nice metallic blue set off with a very nice
set of graphite painted steel wheels with shiny trim rings. Somewhere
along the way Mazda went astray. Purple was somewhat goofy, their aqua
blue was too. Of course, nothing matches fluorescent green for shocking
goofiness.

>
> This car was the very first to have Mazda's "big" 13B rotary. And in its
> day it was fairly quick (in spite of its weight). And silky smooth. And
> fragile...
>
>
>
>>
>> It had two vents that blew air through the steering wheel into your face
>> and a vent directly below that to cool or heat up your genitals. Those
>> Mazda engineers thought of everything!
>
>
>
> The gingerbread men thought of everything, too. The body and interior
> decoration on those things was exceedingly complicated and busy and oh so
> Japanese.

As I recall, they really like shark gills. :-)

>
>
>>
>> When we left CA, I sold it to our friend's son for $500. What a deal for
>> him. I think he probably blew it up or trashed it.
>
>
>
> I sold mine to my sister's then-boyfriend. I sold it just in time. A few
> months later, one of the rotors seized up on the highway in a mess of
> galled and scorched steel and aluminum. 80,000 miles and it was toast.
> We're still not quite sure what happened.

Sounds like he was running without coolant.

> Engine replacement included my very first experience with JDM engines, and
> what an experience that was.

Ah yes, those were the days. :-)


>
>

"Chris F." > wrote in
:

> Just a quick update.... I tried pulling the sparkplugs (recently
> replaced with new ones) and noted that one was perfectly clean and
> dry, two were black but dry, and one was black and dripping wet (with
> gasoline). Maybe a combination of valve and ignition problems?



Check to make sure you've actually got spark at that plug.

Do you get solid continuity through that plug wire, even when you wiggle it
around while testing?

What does the distributor cap look like inside? Any signs of carbon
tracking?



--
Tegger

On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:31:57 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:

> On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:15:21 +0000 (UTC), Tegger >
> wrote:
>
>>"Chris F." > wrote in
:
>>
>>
>>>> For me the 80s were a dark pit of automotive crappiness that I'd never
>>>> even think about preserving (with the possible exception of a Buick
>>>> GNX). But I still can't bring myself to think of 80s cars as
>>>> particularly "old."
>>>
>>> They might not be "old" compared to most classic cars, but it's the
>>> scarcity of some of these cars, particularly imports, that makes them
>>> worth preserving. The first-gen Toyota Tercel (1980-83), for example,
>>> is probably one of the hardest to find
>>
>>
>>
>>I saw, to my utter shock, one of these in my town of 15,000 people. I
>>didn't get a look at the VIN plate, but I'd guess it around 1980. It's
>>the ONLY one I've seen in at least 10 years.
>>
>>And last week I saw a Hyundai Pony. Really. It was moving under its own
>>steam down the highway. And a few weeks before that a Plymouth Horizon,
>>again from about 1980. And just after that, a ~'75 Mustang II, with
>>sprayed-on primer, yet. To my tooth-gnashing frustration, these things
>>pass by far too quickly for me to get out a camera and capture them.
>>
>>You southerners be quiet. In the Rust Belt, older cars are extremely
>>rare, especially in winter. Those like me cherish every sighting.
>
>
> I saw a real running not particularly beat up Chevette on the road a
> couple weeks ago. It had been a LONG time since I saw one of those. And a
> couple months ago I saw a Yugo being driven around.

I saw a MINT Chevette back in the fall. Guy never drives it in the winter.
There's also a mint Citation X-11 around here, too.

On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:51:01 +0000, Tegger wrote:

> =?iso-2022-jp?q?Hachiroku_=1B$B%O%A%m%=2F=1B=28B?= > wrote
> in news >
>> On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:30:32 +0000, Tegger wrote:
>>
>>
>
>>>> Same here, especially the TE72 Corolla that's WAY overdone.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I had two of those, an '81 and an '82. Both were Liftbacks, just one of
>>> a staggering SIX body-styles for that generation.
>>
>>
>> I was going to get a Liftback (1980) but went with the Coupe,
>
>
>
> I did consider the Coupe (which I found better-looking), but its steeply-
> sloped rear hatch cut down significantly on cargo capacity, so the
> Liftback it was.
>
>
>
>> which in
>> Japan was the Treuno (and the same model as my 1985 "Hachiroku" Corolla
>> GTS) and was the first Toyota I took over 200,000 miles...WELL over. In
>> Japan it got an earlier version of the DOHC engine asan option.
>
>
> Yup. The 2T-GEU, as I recall.

Hmmm...a G series engine, eh?