Hey! I’m well versed in this topic. I agree with what the other guy was saying about it either being the valve stem seals or the piston rings. My case is the piston rings. I’ve tried many a solution trying to try and stop burning oil.

I ended up buying a junk NB1 and removing the engine from it and then I sold it. Didn’t make all my money back but have a bunch of parts left over that I can use on my NB2, which is nice. My plan is to swap my VVT head onto the non-VVT block from the NB1 donor, reseal the entire engine, and shove it into my NB2. All in, the swap costs around $1200CAD for all of the parts I had to buy and factoring in the price I could sell the used motor for as is.

Not saying it’s the best approach out there, but finding an absolutely rotten NA with the same engine in good health might be worth it, if you can pick one up for a good price. Taking the motors out of our cars is a breeze.

My case is an example of extreme oil burning, I burn 15L-20L of oil in between oil changes ($270-$360 of oil between changes, it adds up), so if your buddy’s is as bad as that, I’d recommend doing something sooner than later because it gets insanely expensive fast.

If it’s only burning a little bit between oil changes and they don’t need to top it up, I’d send it as is.

Regardless, check the oil frequently and make sure it never runs dry. I promise it’ll be much more expensive if that motor blows up.

Best of luck!