Hey everyone, I've got a really strange problem that I can't seem to figure out and would like some ideas or help with it. To give some context, a few months ago I had a major oil leak from a punctured filter which drained the car of nearly all it's oil, I only realised when it started splattering onto the exhaust and I could smell burning oil. I confirmed visually the car was definitely leaking from the filter, but this was after me taking it into vtec several times without knowing this shooting out high pressure oil everywhere. Had a panic moment that I ruined yet another F20C, but seemingly, replaced the filter, new oil, and it didn't majorly leak oil anymore but now had a slow leak from somewhere. No weird knocking, grinding sounds that would indicate damage, there was seemingly no metallic debris in the old oil either, but to be on the safe side, after confirming no knocks with the new oil, I replaced it again (with a new filter) to check for any contamination but it was just clean oil. Car pulls hard, and drives exactly how it used to aside from the new slow oil leak. It was driven like this for a while and was fine.

Fast forward to the past few weeks. The car is being driven hard (meticulously checking the oil to ensure its always topped up), but then halfway into hard driving I feel it losing power at WOT, and it's not pulling as hard in any gear, feels like it's cutting ignition/power, this eventually gets worse and the car cuts out completely. I try to turn it on again, it would crank but not start. What a notice is light smoke from the rear of the engine and a strong oil smell, I assume I've broken the engine again and leave it for a few hours. I come back to it, check the oil level, it's fine, start it up and it's fine and drive it cautiously home.

I leave it for a few weeks, replace the VTEC solonoid gasket (because that's where I thought the slow leak was), recharge the battery, let it warm up check for leaks and drive. Everything's perfectly normal, going into vtec strong, driving fine for about 30 minutes. Then it does the same as before power slowly dies in the higher gears, until it eventually cuts out entirely. Strong oil smell, smoke from the rear of the engine, oil level seems fine but top it up just in case. I wait 10 mins and it starts right back up, and drives normally again but again drove it cautiously home, where it sits now.

I'm confused because I'm not seeing any major oil leaks with the level always being at H. It doesn't seem like there's any internal damage because before it starts cutting power it's driving fine with no strange sounds. Why does it only occur after hard driving rather than sedate driving? If it was purely an electric problem like coils or plugs, why is it fine for a good 20 mins of hard driving and not a consistent problem. No check engine lights at all. Any sort of insight would be much appreciated thanks

 

compression & leak down test, may be a broken piston ring/bore/damage

 

Does the oil pressure light come on when at idle, just before it dies?