95civ928

Hey guys, my friend has a 96 accord, Auto with 238k, vtec and sunroof. I don't know what engine is in it, I don't really know accords much. So anyways she just had an engine put in for 1500 bucks because she blew her head or something. I believe she is dealing with a shadey mechanic because it seems this new engine has symptoms of either a cracked block, warped head or bad head gasket or something.. It overheated right after the swap. The mechanic said that they're warranty is up or some bullshit (they just had this swap done and it overheated within days). I'm still trying to figure everything out since I've only seen the car briefly today..but anyways here are the symptoms:



The oil light flashes sometimes while driving. Sometimes it'll be like a one second flash, kinda like a long pause CEL flash. At idle it will spaz out completely, blinking really fast and cutting out.

The check engine light is on. The car runs good, except I came to a stop on a steep hill and it was misfiring and struggling going from a dead stop to about 20, where it would kick back to normal. I told her about this and she said it happened to her before. Other than that the car has power..kinda feels like it's not all there though.

There is coolant leaking somewhere, because the rad need to be filled a couple quarts everytime before driving. I went under the car quick before and after driving and found no puddles.

Another thing is the coolant resevoir is empty (she was told by mechanic to leave it empty), yet after driving you can hear mostly air and a small amount of coolant bubbling furiously inside the empty reservoir. Answer me this, could this be excess air coming from a cracked block/headgasket leak?

Also, about the oil level itself. There's a thin brown film going like a third way up the stick, but there's the actual oil level which is closer to minimum. The oil is a decent looking brown but it feels very light with my fingers. I also would pull the stick out and let the oil drip. It seemed to drip too easy. She was driving a rental car (it's like a 7th or 8th gen accord) which uses 0-20 oil, and that oil was definately more viscous/thicker than her Honda.

Some other little things...it smells like antifreeze while driving, the temperature was at a solid 1/3 at operating temperature when I test drove it, and the timing cover was a lil wet... Water pump??

Also, I'm going to my friends small shop to look at it also. I plan on running my fingers inside the exhaust, taking out the spark plugs and inspecting and testing compression on all cylinders. Is there anything else I can do to help diagnose this car's problem?

So thank you guys for Reading my post. I'm just trying to explain in as much detail as I can. Even though your not directly helping me, any input would be going out to help some really good people out.

95civ928

bump

halninek

omg im so sorry, sounds like whoever sold her this engine/did the swap is either a moron or shady.

do a compression test first, keep coolant in it and drive as little as possible. DONT let it overheat, carry extra water if you have to drive it

i have no idea why the guy said to leave the coolant overflow empty....wrong....but if you can hear it boiling/bubbling then either the car is running hot and is pretty damn low on coolant, or the cooling system is being pressurized by the engine (blown head gasket, cracked head, etc.)

sounds like this engine has a lot of problems. is there white smoke coming out of the exhaust? it is, however, possible that the water pump has sheared off and is not circulating anything...and it could easily be leaking at the same time if it were installed wrong.

pressure test the cooling system too. you're definitely going to need to find the leaks and probably need a new water pump at the very least.

if all pressures are good and there isn't coolant in the oil, change the oil and oil filter. put in at least 5w30, or instead use 5w40 if its a warmer climate. but then u also said the oil light is blinking. that's either because the oil used was too thin or the oil pump is going bad.

any strange noises coming from valvetrain or oilpan?

i mean, ****, if she paid $1500 and this is what she got then at least maybe it can be fixed....i dunno....are u sure its even a different engine?

holmesnmanny

yeah, it sounds like its a junk engine. Just get a compression tester and just make sure to pull the ECU fuse to disable spark, and the main relay to disable fuel pump before you test.