I'm in the market...Civic Si Oil dilution affected?

foehammerone

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Nice ! I was about to post saying you should just get the Si for a the extra 2k roughly it cost extra. I've got a blue coupe, put on the 19/23 PSI Ktuner base map with the boost and throttle response turned up, makes a massive difference. I rarely drive the car in Sport mode because the 19 PSI mode feels perfect to me. I put an SRI on mine to get a bit more turbo spool and intake sound.
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Royal_Purple_Oil_Filter

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Nice ! I was about to post saying you should just get the Si for a the extra 2k roughly it cost extra. I've got a blue coupe, put on the 19/23 PSI Ktuner base map with the boost and throttle response turned up, makes a massive difference. I rarely drive the car in Sport mode because the 19 PSI mode feels perfect to me. I put an SRI on mine to get a bit more turbo spool and intake sound.

Thanks. Though I like the idea of mods, but I bought this with lifetime powertrain warranty and I don't want to lose that so I won't be doing any mods on the powertrain of this car. But definitely I'm going to replace the wheels and tires, rear sway bar, big brake kits on the front, and most probably HFP suspension.
 
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Pepper's Dad

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Wow beautiful. Be prepared to get a lot of attention from a lot of random folks, cops included.
Cops worried about a 4 cylinder Civic? Not enough Camaro's and Mustang's on the road I guess.
 

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Hi guys,

I'm finally in the market to buy a new car. After driving my 2012 Civic Coupe Ex-L for 7 years, I had enough. the slow 1.8L engine and automatic transmission is boring as hell.

Right now I've set my eyes on Civic Coupe and I'm deciding whether to get the Si or the Sport.

Is the Civic Si affected by the oil dilution the 1.5L turbo's is having? All the complaints I've read so far are coming from the CR-Vs and Civics which are a bunch of EX/EX-T/Touring. I've not yet read any complaints on the Si about oil dilution.

The oil dilution issue is holding me back in getting the Si that's why the Sport is in my selection because it uses the good old port injection, NA, K20 series engine which doesn't suffer under oil dilution and its manual at least so I will have the freedom what RPM I'll use.

Oh, and is having the Si's LSD really makes a difference? I'm thinking about some occasional track for my new car (but I'm really not going to race, just to have a good space to drive fast and really rev the car).
A few observations. Ivet 49 000 miles on my '17 SI. Once I swapped the all seasons for Michelin Pilot Sport 4S handling improved significantly, and it was good before. The SI is worth it for the chassis, adaptive suspension/steering, and brakes. The engine so far, no issues. That said I take longer drives, and dont let it warm up too long. And change oil every 3 months. But doesn't full synthetic last way longer? Yes, but oil filters are good for maybe six months tops. And especially given the oil dilution issue, etc. a couple extra oil changes a year is very cheap insurance.
So buy the SI and take care of it properly and you should be fine. Dont settle.
 

si_well

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I was too lazy to go through all 6 pages of this thread, so forgive me if this was already mentioned or if the OP is no longer looking for an answer, but if the potential of oil dilution is your only gripe preventing you from getting an Si; then getting an oil catch can is your solution to quell that concern. You can get a decent one from $80-$130 depending on which brand you go with and are super easy to install.
 


ShadowFiend

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I was too lazy to go through all 6 pages of this thread, so forgive me if this was already mentioned or if the OP is no longer looking for an answer, but if the potential of oil dilution is your only gripe preventing you from getting an Si; then getting an oil catch can is your solution to quell that concern. You can get a decent one from $80-$130 depending on which brand you go with and are super easy to install.
Does this really solve the oil dilution issue though?
 

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si_well

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My bad. I misunderstood what oil dilution really was. Getting an oil catch can will reduce the amount of oil vapors (which can have contaminates) re-circulated into the intake of the engine. I didn't realize oil dilution was when un-combusted excess seeps into the oil at the bottom of the crankcase, to which a catch can would serve no purpose.
 

ShadowFiend

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My bad. I misunderstood what oil dilution really was. Getting an oil catch can will reduce the amount of oil vapors (which can have contaminates) re-circulated into the intake of the engine. I didn't realize oil dilution was when un-combusted excess seeps into the oil at the bottom of the crankcase, to which a catch can would serve no purpose.
Yeah no probs. We all worry about the oil dilution issue. Especially me living in Canada, we have more tendency to have this problem. Hopefully the next gen SI will be a little bit bigger than 1.5 to combat this.
 

Friction

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Yeah no probs. We all worry about the oil dilution issue. Especially me living in Canada, we have more tendency to have this problem. Hopefully the next gen SI will be a little bit bigger than 1.5 to combat this.
I didn't realize the issue was attributed to the displacement. How will a larger displacement fix it? Real question. I'm somewhat ignorant to the causes.
 


ShadowFiend

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I didn't realize the issue was attributed to the displacement. How will a larger displacement fix it? Real question. I'm somewhat ignorant to the causes.
I'm not a pro as well but I think it has to do with it being too efficient and it being a GDI. "Excess fuel vapors in Honda's 1.5-liter engine aren't burning off and diluting the engine's oil." - as per Google lol.
But yeah shorter drives and cold weather makes it worse cause it takes a while for the engine to heat up. If it doesn't reach operating temps, that's when the oil dilution start. Someone correct me if I'm wrong!
 

Dimitron84

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It’s not only an oil dilution problem with these engines being DI this means the injectors are ported right into the cylinder head and no longer spray on the valves, this causes the valves to no longer be cleaned with fuel and starts deposits on them that requires an engine tear down to clean up!
 

RoB y4h3ll

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It’s not only an oil dilution problem with these engines being DI this means the injectors are ported right into the cylinder head and no longer spray on the valves, this causes the valves to no longer be cleaned with fuel and starts deposits on them that requires an engine tear down to clean up!
Can't you run something like spray sea-foam in the intake per directed on the can to break down some of the deposits on the valves? I am only wondering because usually like you say, the fuel is also sprayed on them too.. so is this even a good idea?
 

RoB y4h3ll

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So, I am just confirming that the problem with the oil dilution on the 2020 civic Si is still a problem. I am a bit over 6,700k miles on my Si, and I checked the oil roughly around (1,000k) after my FIRST oil change just to see how things looked/smelled.(Yes I changed it about 1,000k early per dealership recommendation "5,500k"). I also smelled it just to see, and well wouldn't you know it smelt just like it came straight from the gas pump lol... (Over exaggerated a bit here)

Is there any heavier weight oil we can use for this issue to help? I live in Tyler Texas, and its usually not cold enough for this issue... so I thought. I do sometimes sit idle a little bit, some times 5-20 minutes... <<<I just read that this is one of the common issues. Last question, Why the FUHHQ was this not mentioned to me by the dealership BEFORE I bought this car, and why the HELL would I buy a car that I can't sit idle in???????????? My job requires me to meet about 5-15 people daily Monday-Friday. Its fricken cold right now in Tyler, so I should be able to run HEAT/AC idle if I want to. I drive this car for about an hour minimum at a time between stops. For example, just tonight I drove for about 3 hours, stop and go, stop and go all night.

Finally, I just bought this car on the 20th of December. I put a crap ton of miles on this car already for the amount of time I've owned it. Is this going to cause any major issues?
 

z06fun

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Honda and the dealer don't want to go advertising the oil dilution issue of course. Else they won't sell cars :)
As you have found, the problem is very real, and it gets worse if you are in a colder area where you start the car from colder temps. I'm on my 2nd 10th gen Si, first was a 2018, now I have 2019. My engine picks up about 1/2 quart per 2000 miles during our cold months in the northeast. My 2018 was similar.
Idling the car is not bad IF its already at operating temp where the rings are sealing well. You definitely don't want to idle it a lot from cold though. To minimize the amount of gas accumulation, the goal is to get the engine up to temp fast to minimize the amount of run time where the rings are not sealing well and letting gas into the oil.

If a half decent law firm ever gets serious about this, we may actually get a real fix from Honda like a simple ECU controlled oil heater. All that is needed is to heat the oil to~ 210F occasionally, and the gas will all burn off. Unfortunately in cold temps I have found that this simply never happens with this engine, even if you drive the car for an hour straight on the highway. These engines will have a high wear rate carrying so much gas in the already very thin 20 weight oil they use. Of course when its starts using a lot of oil from the high wear, it won't be Honda's problem anymore, and so they have no real reason to actually fix it.
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