So a few weeks ago I had the car in the shop, and they found coolant residue on my plugs. My car is mostly stock, just cold air intake and a catback. Tests showed normal compression numbers, but 10%+ leakdown, so I decided to have them pull the head. They found some bent exhaust valves, so I had them do a full valve job and put in flat valves, Hondata IM gasket, and a slightly thinner 2-layer HG (modified OEM). Figured it might help restore my compression, but when the job was done compression was the same, though leakdown went to 0%.

1200 miles of normal driving later, my car has been going through oil like mad. I'm almost through 2 quarts in 1200 miles. I had a little oil burning before, maybe 1 qt every 3000, but consumption suddenly shot up after the head work. I keep having sudden losses of coolant from my overflow tank as well, but understand that may be from the Hondata gasket(?).

The car feels like it's running fine, and I haven't seen any smoke or noticed anything abnormal other than oil/coolant losses. The shop says it's probably my rings and that I should try running 10w40 (I run 10w30 Mobil 1 now). Does that sound right? Anyone have any other advice? I really really hope it's not my rings...

 

Same problem, (with oil), i switched from mobil 1 to the new Castrol Edge 10w30 and ive gone a few thousand miles and my oil has only gone down 1 mark on the dip stick. When i used to use mobil 1, id have to top off every time i would fill up on gas...
Not to say its the oil, but ive had my valvetrain checked, and did a compression test n such and everything has come out with the same results as you...unfortunately, im starting to believe it is the rings, which yea, sucks, but its w.e...im starting a new project anyway so i continue to just add oil and drive it like it should be and until the day the engine takes a sh*t on me, ill have another boost built engine waiting to be dropped in...

Good luck with your S, hope you find your oil problem.

 

None of that is normal.

Are the oil and gas mixing in either the engine (frothy oil cap) or overflow?

 

The coolant overflow has a very small amount of oily-looking residue on top. It's not black, or beading up like oil, it just looks a little greasy on the surface. The shop mentioned that a small amount of gas may have gotten into the coolant during the head work, and said not to worry about it.

The coolant has dropped from the max of the overflow tank to about 2" below the low mark twice since the head work. I refilled it each time. I have also noticed periodic coolant smell in my engine bay/garage (especially right after getting the car back from the shop), but haven't seen any drips on my garage floor or engine bay. I have heard the Hondata intake manifold gasket tends to leak small amounts of coolant on occasion, so I figured it may be due to that.

 

My hondata img has been on for tens of thousands of miles, and im boosted, and it has never done that. It is not normal. Sounds like headgasket install was botched.

 

I'm going by the info in these threads:
https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/742...t__p__17468055
https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/451...st__p__9460335

The other thing I was thinking of is if the cooling system has some air bubbles in it. But then again, the coolant level never rises rapidly, it stays fairly constant for a week or two and then drops suddenly.

 

head gasket is bad

 

How do I determine it's a bad HG if the compression and leakdown tests are both normal? I guess next time I'm in the shop I'll see if they can pressurize the radiator and check for coolant leaks.

Just did an oil change last night to Valvoline Synpower 10w30 and replaced my PCV, hopefully it will fix my oil consumption.