brianjones757

Today I cleaned out my throttle body and pulled the fuse for the Ecu to relearn idle speed. Now the car will start, run good for about 10 seconds, then rough idle until sputtered and dies. Then I can't get it to start again, unless holding down the gas Petal to the floor, which makes it sputter and almost start but not actually start. I don't know what to do, I checked the throttle body and everything is connected correctly. Yes there is gas lol I need this car running by 6am tomorrow for work.... kinda stressing and to be honest broke as a church mouse at the moment. And diagnostic ideas or solutions?
Also I did a coolant flush yesterday, but the big hose coming from the radiator seems to have air in it when I squeeze it there's air and coolant, not sure if this info is at all important Orr not.

ANY HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

Dc4LsTeG

iTrader: (7)

Cel?

brianjones757

No cel

01_civic

try this.... start the car up and hold it at 3k rpm for 5 mins. then let it die out and then when you restart the car again it should work ( at least it did for me) i had the same probs as u.

brianjones757

I tried that, just now, car will start but there is a constant blume of smoke from the exhaust, after a minute or so I had to turn it off and ask if this is at all expected.

Sleepy_Red_hatch

very hard to diag over the internet at this point. does the smoke from the exhaust smell sweet? if so you have a headgasket issue (likely) if not, its possible that you filled the intake with carb cleaner?

brianjones757

Ok so update, thick white smoke from exhaust when I can manage to start it. Smells like kinda sweet(I guess) however, I do remember something I forgot to mention. When I open the throttle body valve thingy and look down in it, I see and can feel a black gasket kinda in a D shape hanging into the throttle body, clearly mistakes where made. I also know this can't be the gasket directly under the throttle body cause that one was blue not black. Also forgot to mention I did a coolant flush the other day.

Hope this is helpful.

And I have this feeling I f***ed up like an idiot so please be easy on me lol

wolfy47

sounds like you have a blown head gasket SiR.

as for the gasket in the tb i dont know what it could be...can you maybe take a picture??? so someone can maybe take a better guess of what it could be??

brianjones757

Will upload pics tonight if possible. And provide any updates when I get back home and tear into it.

brianjones757

Quick update,I would have had to replace the timing belt really soon so I just went ahead and went for replacing the head gasket myself while doing the timing belt/tensioner/water pump. I have everything disconnected from my head except those last 8 bolts. How much force does it usually take to loosen them? I'm afraid I may break them with to much, is it normal to have to really put some muscle behind it? Oh. And I'm going to definately have to upload a pic of the set up I used for the crank pulley bolt, made it easy as hell, like I had it off after only about a minute after setting up surprisingly this hasn't been a pertucularly hard job yet, just time consuming. I'm getting the head milled on Monday, just takeing tomorrow to clean up my engine bay (very dirty).

It Wasn't Me

It's a good thing you're taking the head in to have it machined, it's more than likely going to need it.




I don't mean to be rude, but have you done this kind of work before?

brianjones757

I haven't, but I'm a very mechanically minded Guy, good at making things work lol

brianjones757

ok so its been a hell of a week. i changed the head gasket, new one leaked. trashed that one, bought another one and new cylinder head bolts. i dont see any leaks from around the head gasket anymore but now i cant get it to start... yet again. there is one new thing, there is a clicking sound coming from behind my glovebox. i got the car started for about a minute, it ran fine then abruptly just cut off and now wont start again. i checked my battery (its only 3 weeks old anyway) ive never heard this clicking before but before i go spending more money i want to get some opinions. thanks!

01_civic

sounds like a main relay problem

brianjones757

So basically this is a quick recap. To make sure I include everything.

I was having a slightly rough idle, nothing major, so I took my throttle body off and cleaned it. When I was putting it back together, I must have messed up with something becouse I could feel a gasket and see a part of a gasket in the TB, I took it off again to further inspect and fix what I screwed up (was being careless and may not have been exactly in a normal state of mind lol). Well I never found the gasket that I was seeing. And eventually thought I was loading my mind, put the TB and intake back on, and started the car. I ran for a bit and then shut off. I know know why. The gasket I was seeing was the gasket between the iacv and the TB. What was happwening is the coolant bypass that connects to the iacv was now missing a gasket causeing coolant to pour into my intake manifold. Ok so I f***ed up. I figured it out and fixed it a couple days later (its warming up now so its not exactly a pressing issue of getting coolant to warm up the iacv, so I merely bypassed it with some hose connectors and new hose.)
At some point I pulled the fuse for my ecu to learn idle again. But I know don't believe that has any significance.

So moving on the the real problem. I needed to do a timing belt/ tensioner/ water pump, and had put it off for a long time. I knew my head gasket had started to leak oil but not badly at all, I would occationally see a spot or two of oil on the ground. So I decided to replace my head gasket as I would already have the timing belt off and it wouldn't be that much work. I got my cylinder head off, and took it to a shop and had it milled. While I waited a couple days to get it back I cleaned up my engine compartment so I would see any new leaks. I put Tue new head gasket in but reused the bolts, they looked good enough and I figured what the hell. Well, it still leaked lots of coolant and oil all over my garage. So I took it apart again, went back to Honda bought another new head gasket and new bolts. After putting it all back together I had a problem again with it starting. Turned out to be the ground that goes to the thermostat housing. /facepalm
Once I got it started it was good, except after about 3500 rpm oil started coming off the engine again, around the head gasket again. I know I am tightening the bolts in the correct sequence, and with the correct torque (I have a PDF version of the factory manual, lots of good info in there). New bolts and new gasket ( did not reuse the first new gasket, got another one) and it will not seal. I honestly couldn't tighten the head bolts tighter if I wanted to. Oh and I made sure the mating surfaces were all clean and dry.

At this point I have gone broke fixing the damn car (had to rebuild the whole front suspension a couple weeks ago to pass state inspection. All bearings and ball joints were pretty well past due to be replaced.) So I have just invested a lot of money in this car but I'm out of ideas.

motegicivic

First off why did you take off the throttle body to clean it? I am wonder like you said you did not put back the IACV gasket correctly got coolant into the intake and that was the white smoke you saw.........then you said let's go do the headgasket, unless you are sure you had oil in the coolant?

I doubt it but could your actual block be warped? Also, the def milled the head correctly?

You said you are following the correct torque sequence, sometimes copper spray helps for the head gasket.

brianjones757

Yea I screwed up on the iacv, but I took the throttle body off to clean it cause I can be a perfectionist at times and I had some extra time and decided to clean it really well by hand. As far as the head gasket, its been leaking very slowly, and I did have to do the timing belt, so it just made since to do the head gasket at the same time. I have to assume the shop milled it correctly, I mean, its kinda hard to jump to conclussions like "oh that guy just did his job wrong" I pretty much am assuming that he did it right.
far as the block goes, honestly at this point I'm about to just figure out a way to finance a engine swap. The real question now is what engine should I get? I don't know what engine fit, but a remanufactured d17a2 is goin for 1750 on eBay or 3k at advance auto. So if I do need to do a swap, I want to make sure I get it right.