I have been working on my new 91 Accord Wagon and this forum has been extremely helpful for me so far. The car has 231k miles on it and it runs great - but when I got it the p/o told me he was adding 1 qt. of oil per week. I replaced the valve cover gasket and upper spark plug seals and it has slowed it down - I added 1/2 qt. after driving 500 miles so it is still going somewhere. There is very little oil in the spark plug tubes now so I don't think the lower seals are the source of the leak. There seems to be oil or tranny fluid all over the passenger side of the engine and tranny - and on the other side too. Is it possible for an oil leak under the timing cover to lose that much oil?

To make matter even more fun - the car seems to have coolant dissapearing too. I replaced the t-stat and flushed the radiator but I only used water - not a chemical flush of any kind. The system was very dirty so I am thinking that there may be a problem with a plugged up radiator or something. The car never gets above normal temp - and it warms up within minutes. After running for a while the lower hose never really gets hot and after driving on the highway and then shutting the car off the fan kicks on for a few minutes and I can hear the system "burping"?Even with the car warmed upitdoesn't seem likecoolant is flowing through the radiator much - if at all. Could thewater pump be bad -or maybe a bad t-stat out of the box?The car runs great and the tranny starting going into torque converter lockup once warmed up on the highway (it did not do that prior to replacing the t-stat.). Any suggestions?

I know I need to do the timing belt and water pump but I am hoping to put it off for a little while because of the cost and time to do the job.

 

There are 4 oil seals under the timing belt cover that can definitely leak that much oil if they are bad (the camshaft, crankshaft, balance shaft, and oil pump) . The balance shaft seal has been know to pop out and cause a massive oil leak that would drain all of your oil in the matter of minutes. Honda had a recall and put in a seal retainer to prevent this from happening. The oil pump seal is an o-ring that seals the gear housing to the block. Those can get brittle and cause a leak.

I would try to clean the engine and remove as much of the oil as possible. Try to trace any new sources of oil once cleaned. There is a drain path on the lower timing belt cover that could show oil and coolant leaking. If that is the case, then take off the upper timing belt cover and make sure that the timing belt isn't oil or coolant soaked. That can drasitcally reduce the belt's life which could break and cause thousands of dollars of damage to your engine.

 

When you replaced the T-stat, did you burp the air out of the block thru the 12mm bleed screw at the T-stat housing? Due to the location of the temp sender a honda can overheat while showing normal on the temp gauge, if the sender is not immersed in coolant.
The oil problem could be leaking rear main seal, and leaking seals on the engine face. But with that many miles you could also have 'collapsed' oil wiper rings, allowing some oil to be burned.
When you have the T-belt replaced have all the seals replaced at the same time.
here's a link that will help you see the engine face
http://members.troublecodes.net/hond...98ludebelt.htm

. Prelude has the same configuration except the T-belt tensioner

 

I did burp the system using the 12 mm bolt on the t-stat housing a few times but I didn't seem to help that much. When I did a compression test I was nearly 185 all all cylinders and I don't see any evidence of oil on the coolant or visa versa. How would I replace the rear main seal - is it between the tranny and the engine like on a small block Chevy v8? Does the upper timing cover just come off easily so I can look in there to check for a leak? Thanks so far gentleman!

 

Yes the compression test tells you the pistons are going up and down and the 2 compression rings are still touching the cylinder walls.
Trans needs to come off to replace the rear main.
loosen the valve cover and raise it up about 1/4 inch then remove the 2-10mm bolts holding the upper timing cover on.
Look at the 'shelf' on the back of the motor about even with the head, drive belt side. If it has oil on it the cam seal is puking.

 

clean the engine as adviced,add some oil dye in the oil, than you can see where the leak is at .. also is there any smoke out of the tail pipe ? could be leaking valve seals or worn piston rings
when you do a compression test and any cylinder is low, add a bit of oil into the cyliner, remove the spark plug to do so,, if compress comes up you got worn rings
have the cooling system pressuarized to chk for any leaks .. if so , repair as necessary . if no leaks, start the engine and make sure that the t-stat opens , lower radiator hose should feel hot , almost as hot as top hose ,,