Elle wrote:
> On Sep 11, 5:52�pm, jim beam <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
>> what brand of oil are you using? �and what brand of gasoline?
>
> At purchase in July 2008, the dealer said Mobil 1 synthetic was in it.
> After noticing the high rate of oil consumption, I switched to
> conventional Pennzoil 5w30 oil. No change in oil consumption. I
> returned to Mobil 1 synthetic 5w30 in mid-August. No change.
>
> I have been using regular unleaded Conoco Phillips gasoline, ethanol
> blended in where I live.

well, plug deposits, barring a weak spark which you don't seem to have
at 40+mpg, and poor gasoline, which in my opinion is debatable [!], is
oil consumption. that leaves sudden onset of excessive wear [unlikely],
all fours rings suddenly cracking [even more unlikely], or some kind of
breather issue.

as you've found, stem seals are seldom much of an issue on your kind of
honda because the seats are above the oil pool, so they only see a
little splash, they are not submerged.

i'd go back over the breather system with a fine tooth comb. buy the
right gaskets and replace them all, and maybe hoses too. i've seen
silicone gasket flakes get all kinds of places and really foul things
up, so make sure you don't have any floating about.

also, do a common-sense blow-by test on the motor. with the engine at
working temp, carefully unscrew the oil filler cap. if the engine's
breathing right, and you don't have a compression/wear problem, you'll
get a bit of chuff out of the hole, [and some oil spray]. if there's
something [badly] wrong, either the cap will want to shoot out of your
hand as you get close to removal, or you can feel some vacuum if you
have your hand over the hole. what you /should/ feel is a reasonable
degree of positive pressure.

oh, and please confirm - this sudden increase in consumption - was it
after first oil change after you bought the car? or later than that?