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The dreaded head gasket/oil delusion discussion post

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Cyber-rider

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
I see there is still talk online about oil delusion being everpresent in turbo Hondas and of course the head gasket weakening and failing. Keep in mind we are years past the 17-18 Canadian Honda fiasco so there should be little talk about this anymore from responsible owners.

I didn't have these problems visit my 2.0t accord at 78k, and neither did my mother who is at 60k on her older 1.5t Civic. So will I still avoid major problems if I do the following?

1)Do not take short trips
2)Heat up your car so the revs drop every cold start
3)Use higher octanes to avoid knock and LSPI
4)Don't gun it like a muscle car
5)Change oil religiously
6)Keep extra coolant in resivoir

Does anyone have experience with anything I mentioned above?
Thanks
 
#2 ·
Following because I too am curious. I already follow most of these guidelines: run the car for a few minutes (on mornings when it's cold, or at the very least let it run until the blue temp light goes away), run primarily 93 fuel, shift at around 3.5k rpms (4k max), and change oil every 3-4k miles. I did get mine used @ 25k miles though, so how the previous owner ran it I'm not entirely sure. But I already have had plenty of head gasket troubles with past cars so I'd really like to not have them with this car 😅
 
#3 · (Edited)
IMO the oil dilution issues are blown way out of proportion and are only a concern for a very small fraction of people. If you drive 5 mile trips in sub freezing temps all year, you have some concern. Personally I’m using 0w-20, 87 octane, and driving back roads 17,000 miles a year in an area where we get all 4 seasons and my oil level does not rise. Letting the car idle and warm up is the opposite of what you want to do, because the car warms up slower at idle than if you took off and drove it slowly. You have MORE of a chance diluting the oil letting the car sit there and warm up in cold weather. You want to minimize the time the car spends below its operating temp, and the best way to do that is to start the car and start driving after 30 seconds or so at most, and gently as this will warm up the engine much quicker than letting the car sit there idling.

Headgasket wise not sure what to tell you but I don’t think that keeping extra coolant in the reservoir is going to help you
 
#4 · (Edited)
Oh Lord have mercy not another one of these threads. 🫥 If you change the oil and filter every 5,000 miles you'll never have a problem no matter what you do with the car. It'll stay under the percentage that is at the top end of acceptable fuel in oil by doing that. Adding a catch can modification to the positive crankcase ventilation. That will mitigate most carbon build up on valves issues pretty good. I don't think I'd overfill the overflow for radiator coolant. Just make sure it stays full overfilling it can probably cause some pretty nasty issues. As far as the heads go as long as you're not doing a ton of power mods or tuning. You should be fine there if it ever does give out upgrade the head bolts from torque to yield to studs from arp arp 2000 studs they allow being torqued to a higher spec. The main thing is you want the oil to get hot enough to boil off any gas in it. If you let the car warm up just make sure it goes for a long enough drive to do that.

Here's one of the most comprehensive explanations I've ever found on the internet in simple terms in regards to oil dilution. It goes through mitigation strategies all sorts even ways to test how much gasoline is in the oil.
 
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#6 ·
cryptolime said:
the only oil delusion i have is being uncomfortable waiting until 15% on the maintenance minder to change my oil. i'm at 7000 miles on the factory fill and no signs of oil/fuel dilution yet.
Click to expand...
It was at 50% at 4,700 Miles right? What's that thing reading now at 7,000 for a percentage? I'm just curious I never let it get that far out on mine.

Are you going to do just the drain and fill for oil or disregard the maintenance minder instructions and do oil and filter both which is a maintenance minder schedule B?

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#7 ·
Heartland2022 said:
It was at 50% at 4,700 Miles right? What's that thing reading now at 7,000 for a percentage? I'm just curious I never let it get that far out on mine.

Are you going to do just the drain and fill for oil or disregard the maintenance minder instructions and do oil and filter both which is a maintenance minder schedule B?

View attachment 18881
Click to expand...
it's at 30% now but been that way for almost 500 miles. i think it's about to go to 20% any mile now.

i'm just going to leave the factory fill until 15%. oil still looks like it's in good shape.

usually i change it early but think i'm just going to let Honda handle the first couple services until i can buy some new ramps. have a service appointment scheduled for Wednesday. I heard they won't change it until 15% so hope i don't have to argue with them to change it or come back again a week later.

i was worried about fuel/oil dilution but oil level is still the same as the day i drove it off the lot. most of my driving is delivering pizzas with lots of short trips but the engine stays warm enough between trips that i don't think it's a problem.
 
#8 ·
That sounds about right 7,520 MI and you'll still have roughly 20% remaining. Looks like part of that software update they did actually did change that algorithm. When you go to change the oil if it wouldn't be too much trouble. Let me know if it calls for a schedule A or a B in the maintenance minder. I'd like to know if they made any changes there also.
 
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#9 ·
I've posted my recent Blackstone oil report in some of the other threads but here it is again. NO oil dilution and I change the oil every 4k-5k miles and ignore the maintenance minder on all required maintenance. As far as the head gasket issues, running 25 lbs or more of boost on crappy gas will surely kill the head gasket. My '22 Si has the TSP stage 1 tune and I almost never run it on map 3 (25 lbs). I always run 93 octane. Knock on wood but I'm confident the gasket will hold up for a long time. All that being said, my next engine mod will be installing the ARP head studs at some point for the piece of mind.
 

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#10 ·
The only delusion will be to assume that it can't happen :) But with proper attention I think you can baby the L engine along a good long while.

Ironic that Honda's attempt at a very high thermal efficiency engine, ie less waste heat, is leading to the best practice of: run your car long enough each trip, or else idle it so the oil hits full operating temp. What a waste!

For those who say "can't see who this is an issue for", well I can tell you: virtually every elementary school parent in my neighborhood drives their kid to school, because its close enough to be under bus range but too far to walk in the winter. That's a 0.8 mile drive 4x a day, and I'd say for about 80 parents. This pattern is repeated across town, because we have 5 elementary schools, most of which have similar clusters of houses around them. Not good right? ;)

The turbo 1.5 are the worst here for sure, but this problem also manifests itself in a smaller way in the n/a L from my Honda Fit. You can get oil foam on the oil cap if you haven't taken enough long trips. It never seems to hit "problem" level, though, I've tested the oil.
 
#11 ·
Fujisawa said:
The only delusion will be to assume that it can't happen :) But with proper attention I think you can baby the L engine along a good long while.

Ironic that Honda's attempt at a very high thermal efficiency engine, ie less waste heat, is leading to the best practice of: run your car long enough each trip, or else idle it so the oil hits full operating temp. What a waste!

For those who say "can't see who this is an issue for", well I can tell you: virtually every elementary school parent in my neighborhood drives their kid to school, because its close enough to be under bus range but too far to walk in the winter. That's a 0.8 mile drive 4x a day, and I'd say for about 80 parents. This pattern is repeated across town, because we have 5 elementary schools, most of which have similar clusters of houses around them. Not good right? ;)

The turbo 1.5 are the worst here for sure, but this problem also manifests itself in a smaller way in the n/a L from my Honda Fit. You can get oil foam on the oil cap if you haven't taken enough long trips. It never seems to hit "problem" level, though, I've tested the oil.
Click to expand...
Source: trust me bro

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#12 ·
I don’t think any rational person denies this is a real problem, but it’s not nearly as prevalent as people make it out to be. Same goes for carbon buildup, and failed steering racks, and everything else that people feel the need to throw hissy fits about.
 
Discussion starter · #13 ·
OGGSR said:
I've posted my recent Blackstone oil report in some of the other threads but here it is again. NO oil dilution and I change the oil every 4k-5k miles and ignore the maintenance minder on all required maintenance. As far as the head gasket issues, running 25 lbs or more of boost on crappy gas will surely kill the head gasket. My '22 Si has the TSP stage 1 tune and I almost never run it on map 3 (25 lbs). I always run 93 octane. Knock on wood but I'm confident the gasket will hold up for a long time. All that being said, my next engine mod will be installing the ARP head studs at some point for the piece of mind.
Click to expand...
I'm going to run this exact tune when Ktuner updates their ECU compatibility to 2024s. This report makes me feel very confident. I'm still not confident about the intercooler, though, so I had to buy that. I'm dreading paying for the install.
 
#14 ·
Cyber-rider said:
I'm going to run this exact tune when Ktuner updates their ECU compatibility to 2024s. This report makes me feel very confident. I'm still not confident about the intercooler, though, so I had to buy that. I'm dreading paying for the install.
Click to expand...
Unless you track your car or repeatedly run 2-3-4-5 gear pulls the stock intercooler is just fine. Maybe if you live in a very warm climate like S. Florida or the Southwest an intercooler is a good upgrade.
Install of an intercooler is very easy and there are several youtube videos of the removal of the front bumper which is the hardest part of the install.
 
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