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Prepare for a wall of text, and thank you for your time!

Greetings all! After researching around the web and stalking this forum for awhile, I've decided to post and see if any of you engine guru's could potentially help me fix my car, or if I'm just wasting my time on it.

Where to begin! I originally bought it from a parents co-worker for an unreasonably low price, it had zero issues at the time of purchase except it needed brakes replaced. The vehicle drove perfectly fine for around a month before at first it started to leak gas under the passenger side door randomly (it wasn't consistently all the time.) I was going to take it into a mechanic the following week (busy schedule with college) when it decided to shake/knock really hard, smoke profusely, and basically dump oil all over the ground. Thankfully that was about 10ft from my house so I just pushed it back. When it does its death rattle it displays Battery and Oil lights on the Cluster.

Since then I've went and bought oil (kind as dictated in the manual) and added it to the engine till the dip stick said it was topped off. Tried to turn the engine on and it basically would start 50% of the time perfectly fine, no problems/hic ups, and the other 50% it would do its death rattle again. I checked the coolant, saw that it was sucking air, so I topped that off with some AutoZone no silicate universal fluid as the manual said Honda Coolant or Universal Coolants until I can take it in. After that, now it won't turn over at all so I'm afraid either the new coolant didn't mix well/killed it, or the engine just gave up on itself.

If it's of any use also, it had a CEL when I bought it, the lady before me had the exhaust replaced and from what I read the CEL was from the computer freaking out about new o2 sensors or something along the line. So I disconnected the battery, left it off for 30 mins, re connected it and the CEL went away. When I start the ignition I get no CEL both when it starts fine, and when it death rattles. Also, it smokes terribly and smells like burnt hair/something just not awesome when it knocks and dies.

I can't tell whats wrong/where to even start. So with the description and pictures I'll provide, what do you guys/(gals?) think I should do? Feel free to ask me questions and I'll look into them, or for more pictures of specific areas and no problemo!

Direct Shot of block, not sure what to think of the apparent damp area/leakage if thats normal or not.


More of apparent leakage of some fluid. Swabbed it with my finger, was pretty much a thin film of grime.


Angle of the block.



From what I remember, this is a close up of the header, I noticed a crack coming out from the bolt and wasn't sure if maybe the exhaust header itself is cracked, or if its just a part of the header where it mounts to the frame (i.e. the mount is cracked, but the exhaust is still sealed inside, if that makes sense.)




Engine sticker showing that its a d16y7. EDIT: Total goob moment and thought it was a y8 even though its clearly a y7 as shown in this photo.




Thank you all for your time and any help/comments you have! Feel free to ask questions/request more photo's!

 
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I'm by no means an engine guru, but that crack could be the reason why the o2 sensor was acting all funky.

 
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correct^

 
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your engines a d16y7 check the sticker again bro looks like the d 1 6 7 have been etched out somewhat

 
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He's right. To be sure go around the front of the car and see what is stamped into the block in this area:

 
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last i checked 1997 dx civics are d16y7's...

the other way to check is under the hood where the VIN is below that it should have the engine type then some random numbers should be something like d16y7 and then 7 numbers after it

 
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Correct Correct, I totally read the sticker wrong on the block, even in the photo it clearly says its a y7, my apologies! The o2 sensor tripped only because of the exhaust being replaced, the crack hasn't tripped the CEL yet, so afaik it just means the car will run loud until I replace it. But that isn't too much of a problem considering it doesn't turn over. This friday I'll be looking at it with a mechanic buddy of mine and we'll see what we can figure out.