Wagon-only oil dipstick?

EFin Wagoon

This sounds really dumb, but I need to know if the oil dipstick for the 88-91 wagons is the same as the civic/crx's of the same years.

I need to know because I have a stick out of an old DX hatch and if it is correct I have NO oil in my car, even after putting a litre in and driving ~25 km's it says I'm empty. I also did an oil change no longer than 2 weeks ago and out in 3.5 litres then as well.

I don't see any oil puddles on the ground where I park and the motor doesn't seem down on power so I have a hard time believing I am burning 3 litres in two weeks.

Any advice would be appreciated,

bam-bam

Just to be safe, drain the oil again. Fill with one quart less than the recommended capacity, make an 'add' mark on the stick. Top off to full capacity and mark 'full'.Then monitor closely to see if you're really losing so much oil.

91civicZC

I don’t see how, unless you have a 4wd and the D16 and the D15 oil pans were different. I don’t think they are though. Can someone confirm?

White&Nerdy

I can compare my wagon's stick to my gf's CRX Si (once I dig it out from snow and ice - again). Both are D16A6, though, so I'd expect both of ours to be the same.

Jaker

A 1.5 block is shorter in height than a 1.6 block, so if your Wagon has a 1.6 in it, and you're using the 1.5 dipstick, you could very well have a difference there.

After a bit more investigation, according to the parts listings from Majestic Honda (www.Hondauatomotiveparts.com), the following cars all have the same dipstick and dipstick tube:

1990 Civic hatch Si (1.6)
1990 Civic hatch DX (1.5)
1990 Civic Wagovan RT4WD (1.6)
1990 Civic Wagovan DX (1.5)

bam-bam

yes...but was the stick from the"old DX hatch" the right one?

Haydz

The dipstick will only show the last 700-1000mL of Oil... It's possible you were very very empty and just need to add another litre or so.

EFin Wagoon

Thanks for the help everyone, it's been ridiculously cold lately so I've just been adding a litre here and there for the last little while. Now that it's warming up I can really work on it.

It looks like I did have the correct dipstick, so my best guesses are that either;

A - Rear main seal leaks a LOT. This seems unlikely though because it should still leak under the car and there are no visible leaks.

B - My car is burning oil at higher RPM's, so I can't tell when the car is just idling.

I've just ordered a gasket set of eBay and I pulled a spare DPFI intake manifold off a car at the wreckers. So over the week I'm going to strip and clean the manifold and hopefully track down the oil leak when I replace it. I'm also going to replace the PCV valve and that black box at the back of the block. I'm not even sure what it does but I hear that cleaning it can help.

durfeec

the black box on the back of the block is like a oil catch can. and it helps relieve crankcase pressure along with the pcv vavle. it really has nothing to do with burning/losing oil.

sounds like you are leakin massive amounts of oil. should be all over underneath on the car or your motor needs rings now.

Slammedtallboy

Mine burns oil i believe at higher rpm's. Cause i add about a QT every 800 miles. No visible leaks, so now its time to get ready for my ZC swap

lucskywalker

as you are taking the manifold of anyway check if you have oil leaking down your valve stems, sometimes its just the valve seals. do a compression test, squirt some oil in the cyl's, if the rings are bad the compression will rise if not, valve seals. in any case if its burning oil that fast you would notice the smoke, it would be thick and cars would move and pass to get away!