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Hey guys, i really do hate to start out with a question, but i guess i have to. I bought a 94 Civic ex (i think, could be a dx) either way, its a 4-door with the 1.6 vtec in it. When a bought it, i thought for sure it had just jumped timing and i would be driving it that afternoon. Of course i wasnt nearly that lucky. I will post some pics if i can, but when i lined up all the timing marks (after removing all the wonderful bs it takes to get the timing covers off) they all ine up perfect. I havent found a pic of a timing mark on here or google that looks anything like mine, so i just put #1 cylinder at top dead center and the cam gear show the "up" right and the top and the other marks line up as well.

The people i bought the car from said it felt like it "lost a cylinder". which im assuming means a bad miss. (not a very mechanically inclined family to say the least, lol). So they kept driving it for a month or two after that untill it "felt like it dropped another cylinder. The car starts up fine, i was able to drive it up their drive was and across the street to load it on the tow dolleys. But then, it didn't have enough power to pull itself all the up on the dolleys. In neutral, it will rev up with a pretty good miss, but in gear it has NO POWER.

So, i've got one buddy dead set that its a head gasket issue.
And another buddy who thinks that i have two bad fuel injectors.

Any suggestions? Im already was over budget for this car so im trying hard not to the the "try and see method" unless i don't have a choice. I actually have to go right by a semi local pull-a-part tomorrow so im atleast going to get a set of in injectors tomorrow.

ANY AND ALL help and info would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks a lot everyone.

ps, in the kast pic, i circled the "up" on the cam gear

 
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start with a compression test

 
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actually going to try that today. gonna pick up the tool on the way back from charlotte. (gotta reassemble some first of course) and will a cold compression test work. I mean it runs crappy. i doubt it will even start up when i emove one of the plugs that's actually on a firing cylinder to test it? and how much psi should i be looking for? thanks a ton for the response!

 
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something around 125psi i would guess or higher on an older engine, but more importantly how the readings compare to each other. make sure you read and understand how the test is done. you loosely but securely put the tester into a spark plug hole, floor the gas pedal, and crank the car about 5 seconds until the gauge holds a reading. ofcourse the injectors should be unplugged. if you see something like 125, 120, 50, 40 the last two have little to no compression.

 
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ok, awesome. thanks a lot. going to try it if it ever stops raining here. And does anyone know if and where the timiing mark is located on the crank gear?? i just use putting # one at TDC, but if im not mistaking, doing it that way counld possibly get yous timing 180 degrees out. Thanks guys

 
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i meant ignition timing, not cam timing. you need a timing gun i believe to check the ignition timing and set by moving the distributor. for cam timing, there are marks on the crank pulley and UP on the cam pulley.

 
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well, i guess i should of know if bad luck happens, it happens to me. i did the compression test today and (i know these are not in the correct order but its for dramatic purposes lol). Cylinder #4 130psi, #3 130 psi, #1 130psi and # 2...........a big fat frigging ZERO psi. lol. so im assuming its a bent or broken valve. I did get kinda lucky and remembered that im related (kinda) to a "honda guru" and he may either be able to fix my head or have one that will fit it. Fingers crossed, waiting on that phone call now. And i did the test on the # 2 cylinder at least five times just to be sure. i Just hope that there is no piston damage. It would idle and rev up (never tried to push it) in neutral, but when you put her in gear she didnt even have enough power to pull her self up on the tow Dollys. so, again, fingers crossed

 
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And i'm very sorry to ask a stupid question, but i'm having trouble find the DIY write up on the head gasket change for my 1.6 vtec. Anyone have a link? Thanks a lot!!

 
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and does anyone know what a "average" price on a used replacement head should cost? Like off craigslist or something. Because im getting some stupid numbers

 
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Sorry to keep posting on my on thread since no one is responding. but just wondering is these 1.6L engines are bad bout when a valve bends if they break off and destroy the piston. Sorry to keep asking questions everyone, but it's driving me crazy waiting till the weekend to work on them. If anyone has an answer, please keep in mind that it would run when you start it (did not wanna move very much) and just sounded like it had a bad bad miss. But no noise that sounded lke the end of a valve clanking around. Thanks for anyone who responds. And thank you very much Gearbox for your help so for. I'm very great full.

 
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around $100-150 for a good used head. plus you need to pay a machine shop a lil extra to test it and clean up for install. a bent valve can do damage to the piston as well. hard to know without taking it apart. in these cases its almost easier to swap the whole engine. used engines go for around $600 and the labor is a lil more than doing a head gasket. rebuilding an engine where you are not sure of the exact problem can get very costly.