juriah

I've tried searching the forum for some answers and I read some posts that are sort of similar but not the same. My stepdad, my friends, my neighbors who also work on vehicles all their life, random people, and myself so far can't figure out what's going on exactly. Probably is a simple answer.

I appreciate any help I get. Here is the problem and what I've figured out and things I've done so far:

This is not the original engine. This car had a non vtec motor it was a 99 Civic LX. I allowed my female friend to borrow the car while I was in Army training at Ft Leonard Wood as long as she paid for full coverage, at that time nobody knew about the problem. The car ran great for me during the short 6 months time after I purchased it. I asked her to keep an eye on the oil and coolant just to be safe because that's the smart thing to do. So she told me the radiator cracked and leaked out coolant, it was winter, so she had it replaced paying for it herself. Upon my getting home she was complaining it was shutting off that very night but she'd start it and keep driving it, she told me this after we finally met to exchange vehicles... If I'd known I would have told her to park it and not go anywhere I'd look at it and have it towed if need be. I come to find the main crankshaft bearings were shot and crank was bent, long story I just know I saw there was a shim at one of bearings, so this was pre-existing problem. Likely due to lack of oil, result of oil leak and negligence no doubt.

Ok so I had to get another motor, my stepdad told me it'd be a pain in *** to fool with it, now I wish I just fixed that one. So like most people around here I went to junk yard got motor from car with slightly less miles like 140k. It was a totaled car but no physical damage to engine. Now this is first Honda I had so wasn't familiar with VTECS. Little did I know that tell-tale solenoid on it was a clue but they gave us one of those instead of base 1.6 like I asked for. Well I was busy so I hired a guy who's a friend of a friend that works on a lot of Hondas and he said just to keep the motor and he'd make it work with correct ecu/ecm, that it was a good thing to get an upgrade. Ok he was the Honda pro so I trusted his advice. (I should have taken it back, talked to them about it, a week later they had a base 1.6. Also I should have made time and saved the money and did it myself, after owning this Honda I see how easy they are to work on anyway.) Ok so it ran pretty decent for a while but started overheating when I went on a long business trip. Damn thing needs a BEEP or buzz when it's getting close to be too hot. I was distracted and just driving along, didn't look down at temp. It probably got too hot, I came to find out this engine had it's own demons. So I replaced thermostat, and that switch that kicks on the radiator fan. Had a fat return hose bust on me so replaced that. This damn thing was getting hot despite my keeping coolant in it. Then I start to see oil mixing with the coolant. So I knew damn head gasket shot.

I take this head off and to a machine shop to have it checked for cracks, planed down, resurfaced, and cleaned. They said it indeed was warped, damn aluminum. Ok so I got Fel-Pro head gasket repair kit. Cleaned everything up real good again before putting it all back together. Now it had new intake and exhaust, rocker cover gaskets along with everything else of course. Did a good timing job on it with my stepdad and his timing light. All new NGK spark plugs. Also had a new distributor cap and rotor. I know new wires would have been ideal but I was running out of money, the wires resistance checked out the same and they didn't look very old good quality american made wires so I just kept them. ALL new belts, timing belt and all. Car ran great for a while, had plenty of power I hadn't felt in it since I first got it. However I did notice a tinging noise and found out it was the valves but never did any adjusting on them. I was inclined to go ahead and adjust them if need be and make sure they were within spec. But everyone told me not to worry about it no big deal. Just an annoying sound that light tapping. I came to notice after a few months I was losing my power, now it's come time to sell the car anyway and I want to make sure it's running right. So here's what I do:

It might have something to do with those valves pinging.
Anyway, I checked some thing to get to the root of problem.

Spark plug and cylinder on 1 are black, the tip burned off the plug too so it had been running down for quite a while. All other plugs were a normal light brown. So this is alarming, running rich, you could smell the gas out the exhaust kinda of strong for a while. Like I said, replaced the #1 plug new one and it's getting dark already in small amount of time.

Just to be safe I changed the injector with a known good injector. These injectors of course have been cleaned and new o rings and seals when changed head gasket. It must be working anyway if burning rich.

Ok so I checked the resistance on the plug wires again, around 8000 ohms on longest #1 cyl or less. I did check and made sure all wire produced a spark and checked with spark plugs in them also, temporarily inserting spare plug into the hole.

Did compression test on all cylinders, all holding, no pressure drops,
cyl 1 155psi, cyl 2 160psi, cyl 3 155psi, cyl 4 155psi , good news

The timing belt jumping a notch was considered but I think highly unlikely, I can adjust the timing at the distributor and notice change in engine from retarded to advanced. If go too far either way it ends up being pretty crappy but did mark original position with sharpie.

Ok now I unplugged only cyl 1 sparkplug, car keeps running almost made no difference. The lack of power makes sense now, I've been running on 3 cylinders... Now I reconnect 1 and then disconnect any of the other 3 and the motor dies. This is almost always the case but I have once or twice been able to run it on the 1 cyl while unplugged one other.

I have not tested the fuel pressure that's 150 bucks on loan a tool program I don't have that atm.

Could this also be the ecu/ecm?

I have OBD 2 scanner and Torque app for my phone, which is great tool. The fault codes I'm getting are multiple random misfires on all cylinders. Fuel bank 1 running lean. Makes you think timing but read what I said above about that?? Says running lean but spark plug and cylinder looks rich and smells rich at exhaust..

So what do you think folks? Sorry it was long but I try to be detailed as possible. And sure I missed some relevant information even still. :\

Wankenstein

Did you do a dry and wet compression test at WOT? If not follow the video attached.
If after testing compression numbers are in spec then it's possibly leaking valve(s) in the 1st cylinder. Recommend doing a Leak-Down test.

The recurring black deposit on the spark plug could be from a bad oil ring in that cylinder or improper combustion in that cylinder.

ezone

low compression.


Valve adjustment first.
Redo compression test after valve adjustment.

With a good gauge and procedures, I expect to see 180+ PSI.

Crank it until the gauge quits climbing, then keep cranking a few more hits just to make sure its maxed out.

juriah

@ turd_ferguson : A dry test. Thank you guys for the tips I will do these things asap. Lord I hope it's not serious damage. I'll hope for the best.

Wankenstein

After you do a valve adjustment:
Perform dry compression test
A couple tablespoons of oil in each cylinder is all that's needed for the wet compression test.

If it were due to a bad oil ring you would most likely see and smell burnt oil (dark blue-ish) fumes coming from exhaust tail pipe. If you are unsure have some one follow behind and check for visible fumes (smoke) while you accelerate and decelerate quickly at various speeds. Also, there would be associated higher than normal oil consumption.

Here's a related thread to your query: http://honda-tech.com/honda-accord-1...ssure-3200155/

juriah

Thanks again, I'll give this a shot

juriah

New update, biggest problem is found, even though it worked like it should when I'd check it, this time I checked I saw it plain as day, arc through the spark plug wire shield to the valve cover from jacket down in spark plug tube. Difficult to see it in daylight. Uhg of course something simple, I knew it was simple. Though something still isn't right, I'll have to do more work on it. Still lacking on power in first gear (low rpms), I did adjust timing belt it was off a tooth, but belt seems to have proper tension, can't even twist halfway on long left side. Not sure how that happened. Bought new wires, and runs better after putting them on. I'll keep looking into it.

TS2008

Not quite sure, but I don't think you can really ajust the tension left side of timing belt. Only the right side (water pump) can be ajust. But I could be wrong.

Wankenstein

Simple is good... better than the opposite of.

Were the timing marks on the back of the cam level with the top of the cylinder head when you tensioned the belt?
Did you pull the crank pulley off? If so, did you check alignment of the crank gear/sprocket and arrow on block?

This is one way to tension it (7:10 time mark):

ezone

Still lacking power?


Triple check cam timing, are you using the correct marks?

Check ignition timing......if it's 10*-15* out of spec then your cam probably isn't timed right. (assuming the distributor was correctly timed at some point in its life and has never been touched since then)