This is for the guys who say their valve train is spotless. Skip to the middle and see how clean this engine is. Then go to around 33 minutes and beyond and see the gummed up and stuck oil control rings. Of course if your engine isn't burning oil then the rings are probably pretty clean.
New Mobil 1 Advanced Clean
- Thread starter buster
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Don't think it was over heated, and if pistons ever got that hot to cause something like that there would be other signs of heat damage. There are clearly lots of deposits in the oil control rings and the compression rings are still free, that's why the oil control rings were not working well. The top of the pistons and ring pack run pretty hot in normal use, so even though some oils can keep the engine spotlessly clean, the oil can break down in the ring pack and leave deposits.
Been some members here who have clean looking engine internals but their engine used oil due to stuck rings. Then after running Valvoline Restore and Protect the oil burning was drastically reduced.
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I agree on the pistons. I've seen every kind of piston damage from detonation to melting from pre-ignition to siezed from overheating and there's always plenty of evidence of what happened. Stuck rings is largely a design & operation problem but can definitely be a result of poor oil quality / application.
JTK
$100 Site Donor 2025
I think the difference is GDI vs port injection. Your 2018 and 2008 would be port injected, which tend to stay cleaner. All these ring pack issues are with GDI and GDI turbo'd engines.
Chris said he could not get his hands on any failed K20C4 engines, and that he found one. This tells me that failure in these engines is not common and history of this engine is unknown.
Also, if you go through Honda Accord forums, you will not find people complaining about oil consumption, so dont think stuck piston rings are common on K20C4 unless its neglected or abused
Also, if you go through Honda Accord forums, you will not find people complaining about oil consumption, so dont think stuck piston rings are common on K20C4 unless its neglected or abused
Color me skeptical.
I had a Ford Ecoboost that ran Mobil 1 Extended Protection 5w30 on 10k OCI´s. No issue there, either. AT 80k, it blew out all the oil due to an oil change shop mistake. When the engine was removed, the valve covers were off and the valve train was clean without any varnish.
Side note. When the tech showed it to me, he picked up one of the turbos and poured metal shavings out of it. Looked like sand. It was sad to see a great engine ruined by a 16 year old who didn´t realize he double-gasketed the filter. Fortunately, the shop´s insurance paid for a Ford factory reman engine and installation...A cool $12,000. Yikes!
JTK
$100 Site Donor 2025
I'm sure there's plenty of examples out there, but I think as a whole, many of these newer GDI engines have top ends and bottom ends that aren't filthy, yet have oil rings that are completely stuck or soon to be stuck.
I do agree that there doesn't seem to be any other indicators of overheating. It's kind of strange to not really see any cause for the issue outside of just him showing the oil rings are stuck. Doesn't Honda say 10k on these? Add in low oil grade and perhaps this can happen. Interesting to ponder.
It's too bad we don't know what the owner may or may have not done. Perhaps we're all doomed for this eventually. Makes you wonder if they used Valvoline Restore and Protect if it would have stayed on the road and never seen the video. He gets the engines and no backstory most of the time. Fun to watch "what is wrong" after breaking them down.
What did the piston rings look like?
Well I’ve got a Toyota so it won’t need to be torn down but they probably have some deposits based on the bulk Jiffy Lube dino the PO used, but not for much longer since I’m running Valvoline Restore and Protect.
10k OCIs in an Ecoboost without issues is an impressive result. Were you burning any oil when they destroyed your engine? Which shop will use Mobil 1 Extended Performance or did you bring your own?
Nah, no usage of oil and a couple of UOA´s looked good. I brought my own oil and filters to the shop and they did the change for $20, at the time. The owner is a friend. The Transit was so low that it was just too hard for me to change the oil in the driveway. On top of that, my ex drove the hell out of that van. She put miles on it quickly, so if I did less than 10k (which was where the OLM always seemed to land on for signaling a change) I was going to be constantly changing oil. I also had 2 kids cars and 2 Jeeps of my own to maintain, so after a couple good UOA´s, I decided 10k was what it was going to go.
The two engines ran perfectly. And strong. That van was a big mid-roof 15 passenger version and it would go 0-60 in 7 seconds flat. I loved driving it, even though it looked like a big guppy. It was comfortable and drove really well with a nice ride and 20mpg on the highway with a load of kids and luggage. It was one of my favorite vehicles I owned.
That's an impressive result. Personally, if someone has had good luck on an oil in a Subaru turbo GDI engine, Hyundai/Kia engine known for oil consumption, or a Ecobeast, that speaks to that oil's quality, especially if you ran it to 10k.
60k Ecoboost engine. (1.5 L engine.) Based on the Ford filter on the engine, I'm guessing they ran low buck Motorcraft.
Here's the full length video that shows the pistons and rings. Another example where an engine that looks spotless everywhere inside can have messed up stuck rings.
Great point. I almost posted the full video too, but everyone's attention span is so short these days, I went with the short he clipped from the full video.
We could start a collection of these videos now, along with the "I Do Cars" 1.5 L Honda video.
The short didn't even show the piston and rings, so he failed on making that short, lol. The ring pack is a good test for motor oil.Great point. I almost posted the full video too, but everyone's attention span is so short these days, I went with the short he clipped from the full video.
We could start a collection of these videos now, along with the "I Do Cars" 1.5 L Honda video.
lol yes you're right. It was just in the thumbnail
Midwest F150 cuts open a filter after Mobil 1 Advanced Clean and shows some carbon removal. The photos he posts are extremely blurry so you can't tell, but he says that the engine viewed through the oil fill hole shows some cleaning too. This is in a 2020 Honda Civic that accidentally went 15,000 miles on an oil change.
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