Originally Posted by Mr.Kenny

I hate to say this but it is common knowledge amongst the Honda crowd that once you overheat a Honda motor it will need rings, or will smoke a lot....really a lot. The fragile oil control rings collapse and become useless.

My daughter was driving our first Miata on the interstate until it started making funny pinging noise; she looked at the temp gauge and she has no idea how long it was pegged in the red.....fast forward.... Badly warped head. The cylinder walls looked great and the piston tops looked fine. I surfaced the head & with a new head gasket' it started and ran great; but now it was a mosquito fogging machine. The fragile oil control rings had collapsed, but the compression rings were fine.
It was a gross polluter; I should have just changed out with a used engine.
Also; Note to Self: ......Thermostats are periodic maintenance replacement items; the originals don't last forever.