whateg01

Well, I've searched and didn't see anything quite like this, so here goes...

I bought a '92 Civic LX, D15B7, Auto. 180k. $400.

The body is in pretty good shape with only a little cancer above the rear wheelwells and a small ding near the LF turn-signal. The car was advertised as not running, but the guy said he'd had it looked at and it had no compression in the #2 and had water in the oil, so it was supposed to be a blown head gasket. Knowing it might be more than this and I may end up replacing the motor, I figured the price was right and worth the chance.

So, I got the car home and pulled the head. Burned exhaust valve in #2. Some combustion getting by the head gasket on #1 and #4. Bad corrosion on #2 port on distributor cap. Head has about 0.009" of clearance between 2 and 3, so my assessment was bad head gasket and warped head contributed to water in the oil.

I bought a head from the salvage yard that looked decent and was within 2 thou of being flat. I put the new head gasket, timing belt, water pump, drive belts, and new (used) head on. Filled the fluids and it started. (Strange thing, though. It doesn't want to start right up. I have to press the gas a little; then it starts right up. )

I haven't had it running for more than about 20 minutes so far, about 10 minutes Tuesday night and about 10 minutes tonight. But, it smokes badly, so perhaps new rings are in order. Haven't checked compression yet, though. Also, and importantly, when I pulled the plugs after letting it run for a few minutes, I have white vapor coming from #2. It doesn't smell like water/anti-freeze, but what else would it be? I didn't have any from #3. It was getting dark, so I didn't pull #1 or #4 after it ran. I did pull all 4 plugs before starting it tonight and they looked a little dark, and there was a bit of moisture on #2, again pointing to water.

I don't have a lot of experience with aluminum engines, so I don't know much about these sleeves. Is it possible to crack the block and the sleeve? I suppose with a burnt valve, the previous owner could have hurt the block too. I also didn't check the block for flatness. Is that a common problem with these motors?

Like I said before, if I have to replace the motor, I'm willing to do so. I think I'll still come out ahead. But if it's something simple and less expensive, I'd like to just fix what's there. I'm not hurting for the car, as it was purchased to become the new daily driver so my gas-guzzling truck could take a break.

Thanks for sticking with me this long. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Dave

whateg01

Here are some pics of the motor when it was apart. The puddles on top of the piston are from the head removal.






(If you look closely, you can see where remnants of the valve (I think) bounced off the piston.)

Dave

whateg01

I checked compression today. I have between 150 and 160 on each cylinder. Not bad for 180k. But, the #2 plug is dark. And the car is smoking badly, so I guess I need to put some rings on the #2 piston. And since I'll have to at least drop the pan anyway, I guess I may as well replace the rings in all of them. And since I'll be doing that, I suppose I should replace at least the rod bearings. I'm not sure if I should do all of that without having the block gone over, which means I'll need to pull the motor.

So, this is turning into a real "fixer-upper". I am still half-considering swapping the motor with another one that runs, but if I buy another, unless I buy from one of the Ebay sellers who claim to only import 40-60k motors, I'll still have a high-mileage motor that will need work in the near future. At least if I go through this motor, I'll know that I'm starting with something good. I hope. Darn cars!

Dave

dogcar

From your pictures, it is apparent that the #2 cylinder got "steam cleaned" from the original head gasket leak. You've only run 20 minutes so it doesn't have the 180k miles worth of brown deposits that the other pistons have (nothing wrong with that). Your head & valves (from the salvage) shows an very oily appearance on the #2. Since your compression check is good at 160 psi (is that hot or cold?) then the rings cannot be too bad. The specs say to measure it hot, but if you only ran 10 minutes at a time.) I suspect that it is sucking oil down along the valve guides. If you want to get by cheap, then inspect the valve stems and rework the ones with oily crud build-up.
Mr. DogCar

whateg01

Thanks! I went ahead and pulled one of the slugs last night and the oil ring has no spring left to it at all, so I pulled all 4 and put rings and rod bearings in. I did pull the valves and clean the head up, too. I think between the valve seals and the new rings, it's much better now. It still smokes very slightly, but it's only noticeable if you're looking for it.

Now, on to the other issues - motor mounts, control arm bushings, maybe a halfshaft...