Another oil burning thread.. 1.8vvti

[Fungist]

Yeah i know.

I just wanna know if i could rule out piston rings as being the cause, and pinpoint stem seals as the car only smokes like crazy on cold start, but no or very little smoke while driving.

Its a 2003 (old type 1.8)

 

Car had some problems i wanted to sort out as i got it cheap.

So basically fixed most things, and are left with a P420 (cat threshold code), and ridiculous oil burning.

 

Car uses around 0.6-1.0 liters oil every 400km.

In US terms that would be around a quart per 250 i guess.

 

I wanted to replace plugs to cure a rough idle, and noticed very bad oil leak in the plug wells, also around the cover. 

But never find oil on the ground under car, so i guess i could rule this one out as well. Pretty sure im burning all of it.

 

Since i need to replace the head cover gasket, is there anything i could do while its off to help seals soften?

I am not handy enough to replace them.

Was thinking if possible to just dump some chemicals straight into the area? Like engine flush, and let it rest?

 

Also wanna talk about p420 cat code.

Pops up after car idling for and extended period of time. Doesnt seem to pop while driving.

Not sure if cat really bad or just very oily smoke triggering code???

 

I dont know how these cars are supposed to perform.

Pulls pretty well from 3k to 5k rpm.

But feels pretty weak from 1k to 3k, usually preffer to downshift and cruise at 3k

Adding some pictures as refference.

 

-Showing old sparkplugs that was replaced.

-showing new Iridium on cyl3 after 1 day of use.

-coldstart smoking

-warmed up not smoking.

-oily plug after gasket leak cyl3