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Hey there.

I have a 1992 Honda Civic DX with close to 200k miles on it, just recently got it a couple months ago and took it on a road-trip across the US, from CA to the east coast and back. On the east coast, I noticed the engine running really rough and lost some performance rather suddenly, so I got the car checked and got a compression check, found compression on cylinder #3 about 70 pounds instead of 120, the default, which was what the other cylinders had.

So since then, I did an air leak test on the bad cylinder with the exhaust and intake valves closed, and air leaked into the 4th cylinder. Naturally I assumed it was a head gasket break, so I got a head gasket set and opened up the cylinder head today--to find that the head gasket was alright and one of the exhaust valves had a small break in the metal. Basically a burned valve. I think this would definitely explain the compression loss and the occasional overheating the car's had when I've pushed the engine for a while, like going uphill.

As the situation stands, this is what I'm trying to figure out, whether to:
1. take the car into a professional, have him replace just the two exhaust valves in the bad cylinder,
2. have the pro replace all the valves, or
3. get a new cylinder head

I was talking with my mechanic cousin, who helped me out with this, and suggested I just take it to a pro and just have the two exhaust valves replaced. I'm just wondering, considering the age, should I do that, replace everything, or would it be cheaper, with labor + parts together for the pro jobs, to just get another cylinder head and do that myself? I'm still figuring out how much it'd be, taking it to a pro. Thanks.

-Jon