Rep Power: 0

i have a 99 civic ex, bought about 2 months ago, 70,000 miles

didnt find out untill a week after i bought it, it burns oil, smokes at about 4.5k rpm

unless i drive up alot of hills, or on the highway it runs fine, but a few hundred miles on the highway and it's basicly out of oil

in regular city driving its fine, thats where i don't understand, it seems like the rings are bad, but its only bad up hill or on the highway, theres no leak anywhere so it has to be burning it
but every car i know that burned oil half as bad, smoked all the time

yet while idleing or 30-40 mph driving theres no smoke at all

before i go and pull out the pistons i thought id ask if anyone had any advise
thank you

 
Rep Power: 338

leave the car on the drive way for a couple of days if you can, see if you can see any spotting of oil. jack the car up and look around the head and the oil pan to check if your gaskets are leaking. if its not that it could be a fouled plug, piston rings like you mentioned, or other things. what color is the smoke

 
Rep Power: 364

that is QUITE a lot of oil to burn. does the motor even have anything left of its piston rings?

time for a rebuild I think.

 
Rep Power: 454

damn after only a few hundred miles you are out of oil.....

Now realize that bad piston rings is not the only cause of a car burning oil. You could have bad valve guides or bad valve guide seals causing oil to slip past there and burn in the combustion chamber.

I dont know what to tell you man, if you are losing oil that fast, you either have a major external leak or a major internal leak.

I would do what majlinB said above, first leave your car outside for a few days and see if any oil is leaking. you might have several oil leaks casuing you to lose oil. If you find no leaks, then a rebuild might be up your alley. But figure out if it is bad piston rings, or bad valve guides or valve guide seals.
I know there is a way to figure out which is causing the problem, but I am not sure. I think that of you are running low compression in any cylinder, if you squirt a bit of oil in that cylinder and then compression goes up, then the piston rings are worn in that cylinder.

I say the first thing you should do is a compression test to see which cylinder (cylinders) may be causing a problem.

 
Rep Power: 0

i know its not leaking,not around the oil pan or valve cover, not wet at all, nothing on the ground if it sits either

the cars still responsive, the plugs are 1 moth old bosch platnum 2's and they have alot of carbon buildup ive never seen plugs look bad so fast

i'll try a compression test soon

man, never buy from an auction of repo vehicles, if they didn't pay for the car chances are pretty damn good they beat the hell out of it

 
Rep Power: 338

good luck on findin the answer

 
Rep Power: 304

Put a bottle of restore in the engine as a stopgap measure.

http://www.restoreusa.com/restorer.html

Now, I don't usually recomend additives, but I have had excellent results with this stuff in my first honda beater that ran similar to yours. I have used it in old engines with good results. On hondas, check the front oil seal. It ONLY leaks when you drive. It may have a single drop of oil on the bottom of the timing belt cover when you look at it. But from the description of your plugs, it's internal. The restore could help seal up the engine until you can do something permanent about it. Another good product is tune up from motor purr. A red fluid that will swell the rubber seals slightly in an engine. I SWEAR by that stuff for worn out engines. You dump in a bottle and then drive on the freeway for a good half hour. The liquid will totally evaporate in 24 hours, but it will cause the valve guide seals and main seals to swell just a little. They will stay that way from then on. Again, very good results, but only recomended for worn motors that you will rebuild anyway. On a side note, I use the tune up in my 85 nissan truck every couple of years. I just had the tranny overhauled. They replaced the rear main engine oil seal and could not belive it was 153,000 miles old. It was just a good and pliable as new. My old Z24 engine is still ticking over like new. The stuff works.

Of course, if both of these stopgap solutions don't help, you WILL have to overhaul the engine. Sooner than later. I'd start with the valve guide seals, since they can be replaced without removing the head, and are a few bucks. You will need a spring compressor, and a way of keeping each valve from falling into the engine. I simply turned each cylinder to top dead center as I worked on it, none fell in. Was an hours job. Then, If it still burns oil like mad, I'm afraid the rings are shot. That would be odd since honda uses chrome molly rings that last a LOOOONG time. You could also have a cracked piston. Had a mercedes like that once. Ran fine, but gulped a quart of oil in 100 miles. Cost too much to fix, so I gave it away.

Good luck.

 
Rep Power: 320

might be cheaper/easier adn quick to buy a used engine.

 
Rep Power: 454

thats probably why the vehicle was there in the first place.