High MIleage Honda.

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OK im going to buy a 94 Accord tomorrow to get me to and from school it has over 200,000 miles and sounds good other than the valves need to be adjusted. What oil would you guys reccomend for this application. Any help is appreciated.
 
Thats not that high miles for a Honda. Use least expensive oil you can find.

Our old 1998 Civic EX has over 250K miles and uses dino with no consumption.
 
Originally Posted By: SubyRoo
OK im going to buy a 94 Accord tomorrow to get me to and from school it has over 200,000 miles and sounds good other than the valves need to be adjusted. What oil would you guys reccomend for this application. Any help is appreciated.
Honda's aren't picky at all, and with 200K miles it probablly consumes a bit, I would use the cheapest SM rated dino I could find. Use a decent quality filter and change out at a reasonable OCI and you will be good to go! This engine would love Pennzoil Yellow Bottle IMO!

Originally Posted By: tig1
Not being a Honda guy, can you adjust the valves in that engine?


On these Honda engines yes they can, and need to be done regularly as they don't have an HLA system.
 
I used 5w30 GTX and YB on our 94 Accord for 7 years. When my mechanic changed the timing belt, seals and valve cover gasket at 120k miles, It was very clean inside. I sold it about a year ago with 145k and the engine and transmission were in great condition.
 
I would auto-rx it and use a middle grade oil filter along with pennzoil YB or Valvoline. Change at every 5K and enjoy!
 
V6 or I4?

Interestingly I finally talked to a guy with an oil temp guage with an aftermarket supercharged 3.2L Honda V6. I hear these things are easy on oil but it was neat to hear actual temps in a worse than possible scenario when stock.

200 degrees during normal city driving. 210-220 with lots of full throttle bursts, remember this is supercharged. 260 in a hot Atlanta summer on a roadcourse which a non supercharged engine would never see.
 
Get the valves adjusted. Fairly simple proceedure to do. Then change the oil. If it were me, I'd use a Purolator Premium Plus oil filter, then add 1 quart of Marvel Mystery Oil and the rest with a synthetic blend in order to clean the [censored] out of it. Then I'd change it at 3000 miles and go to a basic dino oil.

But thats just my way. Its always worked very well for me.
 
200k is a lot of miles on any engine I don't care who made it. I'd be more concerned with the maintenance history.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
I'd be more concerned with the maintenance history.


That is what i was thinking also. The valves on this car are really easy to adjust and I planned on replacing the timing belt too just to be safe. I have never used Marvel Mystery Oil in anything. How well does it really work?
 
Originally Posted By: SubyRoo
That is what i was thinking also. The valves on this car are really easy to adjust and I planned on replacing the timing belt too just to be safe. I have never used Marvel Mystery Oil in anything. How well does it really work?


I just started using it in every tank of gas and I like what I see so far. I have never used it in the oil...
 
Before dumping Mystery Goo into the engine, set the valves.
IMO, there is no need for any additives unless you see signs of sludge. (Varnish is harmless, gunky deposits are the worry.) Even if there is light sludge, I'd prefer using a synthetic (whichever is on sale) to clean the engine. If then engine is already fairly clean, leave it alone and run any decent oil and a good filter. Syn is nice for cleaning and longer change intervals, but it dino juice will protect just as well.

IMO, avoid the cheapo filters. Spend another $3 and get a solid mid-range unit. Purolator/PureOne, Bosch, Wix, and several others are well build and will cost somewhere around 6~7 bucks. M1, K/N, Royal Purple and other $10+ filers are all very well built, but are not really necessary.

Don't bet on the engine using much oil. My 92 Accord with almost 200K burns less then one qt. per 10K.

As mentioned, the valves are a cinch to tweak.

Other things to look for include:

Check the spark plug tubes for seepage. Depending upon the design of your engine, there will be one or two sets of o-rings that seal the plug tubes off from the valve area. The upper set are easy to change, and you might wish to do so when you're checking the valve lash.

Ball joint and steering rack grease boots will be cracking by now. If cracked, these need to be replaced to avoid expensive repairs down the road. Dry ball lower joints will eventually fail, causing the wheel will fall off! http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/lowerballjoint/index.html

Suspension bushings may be cracking. Aftermarket urethane replacements are easy to install and work well.

Check the ancillary coolant hoses. The small buggers that run behind the engine will be getting brittle by now. Check to be sure that none are rubbing on something they shouldn't be.

Enjoy your ride!
 
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Originally Posted By: Geonerd


Suspension bushings may be cracking. Aftermarket urethane replacements are easy to install and work well.



Aren't these noisy?
 
Originally Posted By: DeeAgeaux
Originally Posted By: Geonerd


Suspension bushings may be cracking. Aftermarket urethane replacements are easy to install and work well.



Aren't these noisy?


So far, so good. I installed them only about a year ago, and greased the snot out of them at the time.
 
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Any 5W-30 will work great in your '94 Accord. Adjusting the valves is an easy procedure, provided the monkeys that did it last didn't overtighten the locking nuts that allow you to adjust them in the first place.
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I've used a bunch of different brands in my '95 Honda engine (made in '94) and I haven't really noticed any difference in performance/noise between any of them. Synthetic or conventional, it all seemed the same to me. I don't know if you have any nearby but right now Pep Boys has a deal where you can get 5 quarts of Pennzoil (you'll only need 4 for your oil change however) and a Purolator oil filter for $15. You'll also get a $5 mail-in rebate bringing the total price down to $10. Hard to beat that now-a-days.
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Originally Posted By: BuickGN
V6 or I4?

Interestingly I finally talked to a guy with an oil temp guage with an aftermarket supercharged 3.2L Honda V6. I hear these things are easy on oil but it was neat to hear actual temps in a worse than possible scenario when stock.

200 degrees during normal city driving. 210-220 with lots of full throttle bursts, remember this is supercharged. 260 in a hot Atlanta summer on a roadcourse which a non supercharged engine would never see.
That is surprisingly low especially supercharge.
 
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