ghozt107

hey honda-tech, sorry for writing such a long article but I need some advice. I have a 1994 integra ls non vtec with 166k on the car and the body. When I bought the car, the car had a blown head gasket. I drove the car around with the blown head gasket for about 7 months before the oil and coolant eventually began to mix. Before the engine seized, I decided to replace the head gasket to prevent further damage. After replacing the head gasket with one from AutoZone (I believe the name of the head gasket is felpro) the car ran fine for about 3 days and then the head gasket went again. I then decided to check the head and saw that it was warped. When I took the head to get resurfaced, the machinist discovered 3 bent valves on the exhaust side. I replaced the valves and sanded the ends of the block as recommended by the machinist so the head would bind properly to the block. I had also replaced the intake manifold gasket and one of the gaskets where the upper radiator coolant line runs into the block. So, after replacing the head gasket, the car was still getting bad gas mileage, just like it was getting with the blown head gasket. I decided it must be the tires so I replaced the tires which yielded no results. Then I decided maybe the oxygen sensor is bad from the contamination of the coolant. I replaced the oxygen sensor and still yielded no results. I pulled the plugs and they looked fine, no sign of burning rich or poor. I then checked the timing and the timing was a bit off so I adjusted it to manufacturer settings but still it was getting bad gas mileage. I then decided, you know what?, maybe I should just advance the timing and get the most power out of the car but when I tilted the distributor towards the firewall of the car, it yielded no results (performance wise), just the same results when I tilted the distributer away from the firewall to retard the timing. The car was responding the same when I advanced and retarded the timing, it was very sluggish. Usually I know when you advance the timing, the throttle response is quicker but the car burns richer. I then replaced the spark plug wires because when I put the valve cover on the car, I didn’t torque it down to 7lbs and oil got into cylinder 3 and 4 (the top of the spark plug where the spark plug wire and the top of the spark plugs meet. I believed the wires were contaminated due to the oil so I replaced them with some NGK spark plug wires and the car was still performing the same. I did a compression test and the meter I was using wasn’t the greatest to tell me how many pounds of pressure are in each cylinder but it did tell me that the cylinders were consistent with one another, there was not much fluctuation between the cylinders. I eventually got fed up and tried Chevron Techron from all the great reviews they received about the product, however, it yielded me no results. Currently I am getting more or less around 17 mpg and my driving is mixed between city and highway. The way I calculated this was completely filling the fuel tank and looking at how many gallons went into the car, then I drove the car around until near empty and filled up the car with gas again. I then noted how many gallons went into the car and took that number and divided it into the mileage I had drove to get my results.
When I purchased the car, I performed a full tune up which included, air filter, oil filter, Pennzoil 10w30 oil, fuel filter, put dry gas into the fuel tank to get whatever moisture was in the gas tank, automatic transmission fluid, replaced the pcv valve, NGK spark plugs and distributor cap and rotor. Now before anyone says that I need to replace this and that, when I replaced the head gasket the first time without planing the head, the car was getting excellent gas mileage. I would say in those 3 days I got about 25 to 30 mpg and the car was performing great. Remember the car had all the old parts in it and it was performing, now I replaced a lot of parts and the car is sluggish. My question to you is, can anyone point me in a direction. I would like to know if you know anything else I can try to achieve gas mileage of fellow integra owners. If you need any more info feel free to ask because I am spending way too much on gas. All input is greatly appreciated and thanks for trying to help!

la_makina

motor swap!!