Rep Power: 0

Sorry so long, but I need expert help. I am losing oil, took it to the shop and they did a full rebuild on the head. Got it back went 3K miles down the road, and went to change the oil and there was none registering on the dipstick. Took it back to them and we did a compression check, and a leak down test. They checked the intake for residual oil. Can't find anything. No external leaks as well. No CEL either. Any ideas? Could a vtech solenoid leak internally and cause this. I can't tell if the vtech solenoid is working or not? I am grabbing at straws here. They even scoped the cylinders with a camera.
Couple of other things or symptoms. If I start it up in the morning and take off it will get maybe a 200 ft down the road and it will bog down and fall flat on its face. No throttle response. I push in the clutch, pump the gas, and off we go with no further issues. If I let it idle for a little bit before taking off, it will run fine. Also I can hear a reasonating sound in the engine bay that seems to be the loudest around 70mph (3500rpms). 180K on the clock. Plugs are clean. Runs fine with the exception of the morning loss of power. No smoking or anything. I can get between 34-37 mpg out of it in its present condition. Just trying to find other options.

 
Rep Power: 242

How many miles are on the engine? It's normal to burn some oil with some miles on the engine.

 
Rep Power: 0

Almost 180K miles. But to burn a a quart in less than 700 miles?

 
Rep Power: 185

I find that really hard to believe if it's not burning oil. Have you done an inspection yourself?

If I were you I'd get under the car and do your own inspection. Too consume that much oil and not have an external leak or burning it off....I find that extremely hard to believe.

VTEC solenoid leak would be considered an external leak.

 
Rep Power: 511

I've had an oil loss problem for a while, too. Burn about 1 quart every 1000 miles. No smoke out the tail pipe, no visible leaks, and I've searched high and low for a leak. If I ever find the time, I'm gonna take my head off, have a shop recondition the valve guides with new valves, and I'll install new seals. I'ma see if that does anything. If it doesn't, then I'm out of ideas.. Other than completely overhauling the bottom end, as well

I had the oil problem solved after I did my head gasket change, that is, until I had a catastrophic mishap and got frustrated enough to send it to my dad's mechanic. Never gonna make that mistake again.

the tl;dr version of my mishap (in case you wanna know)...
Did a head swap (same engine, newer head), moved all sensors over. About 2000 miles later, TDC sensor decided it wanted to come undone and have timing belt for breakfast. Bent all 16 valves. Dad's mechanic "fixed" it, I was out $1500 and pissed bc I could have done the job for <$500. Now, I add 2 quarts of oil every 2000 miles just to keep my baby happy.

 
Rep Power: 242

Not that a Scion xB is the same as a civic, but in the manual for my wife's xB it says that the max oil consumption is 1.1 quarts per 600 miles. That seems like alot to me. I checked in ours it doesn't mention oil consumption. I think the dip stick only measures about a half to 3/4 of a quart... The bogging down after you start it and go could be from lack of oil in the head. You should always give the engine some time for the oil to circulate and get where it needs to be.

 
Rep Power: 0

Iv'e done a thourogh check for external leaks. I had the car put on a rack and I 409'ed the hell out of it and rinsed it down. Wasn't much grime on there to begin with but I wanted it spotless so that I could look for leaks.
I am going to take another look for external leaks. Since I don't have any more faith in my mechanic, I am going to stick some qtips in the spark plug holes to see if I can pull out any oil. I am hoping I find oil, and my problem is found, and since the head was completely rebuilt, it will be under warranty.
I asked about the vtec solenoid because I thought it had threes small sections to include two oil sections and a vacuum section. The three loop oring that goes on it could be leaking and oil could be pulling into the vacuum side. I plan on pulling it off today to see if there is any oil in the vacuum side.