Skryblz

95 Civic LX with D15b7, 150k miles. Car was driving perfectly fine for the past 6+ months, went on a 2 hour trip with a friend to look at an STi and it started misfiring as we got back home off the highway. Next day it feels like its running on 2-3 cylinders the bogging and misfiring is so bad, couldn't really give it any gas because it would feel like hitting a wall and stop accelerating. I'd have to let off the gas and give it just a little bit to speed up, then let off again and repeat. More than 1/3 throttle felt like I was flooding it the bogging was so bad.

So, I cleaned my valve cover gasket + plug seals yesterday, also the PCV valve, car turned over and idled smooth, but within 1/4 mile it was misfiring/bogging and did not have full power anymore. Figuring I had never changed the valve gasket set, I buy a Felpro set from Autozone and replaced it this morning, along with new nut caps and also ran a die down the valve cover studs so there was a solid seal. Same issue though, within a 1/4 mile it is misfiring and bogging down under acceleration. Cover was nice and tight still so the gasket set *should* be sealed properly.

Yesterday when I pulled the plugs and cleaned the first set, 1 plug was completely black and fouled (2nd in from passenger side), the others had just minor orange tint (not even 1/4 of the electrode) and the left 3 cylinder spark plug threads were pretty wet with oil. 3 of the wires had significant oil on the ends too (same left 3). I replaced the fouled plug and cleaned all the wires of oil. Today when I pulled them (to put the new valve cover set on), the same 3 wires had just minor oil spray on them, but not completely wet. I just drained some oil since it showed I was at the top line + a bit extra, figuring there was too much, but it still is idling rough/misfiring.

I should add, I did the whole headgasket at 130k, including having the head checked by a machine shop and the valve stem seals replaced. Car has been 100% since then, no idle or driving issues and no misfires. What else could cause oil to get in there or cause misfires this bad? Should I pull off my dizzy and make sure it has no oil in it either? I've read there are tube seals UNDER the rocker arm assembly as well? I've tried looking on autozone, google, and my haynes manual but can't find other seals on the spark plug tubes or any gasket under the rocker arms. I mean, I replaced the ones between the valve cover and the TOP of the rocker arms, they were in the gasket set.

Ross 2.0

If the spark plug wires are wet that would be my #1 priority to fix. I would blow the tubes out with compressed air to get any debris out, pull the spark plugs and give the tubes/ plugs a good clean out with brake cleaner and let those sit for a while.

Now go to the plug wires.
#1 Are they Honda or Denso (blue)? If not I would highly recommend you replace them.
#2 are the rubber boots at the bottom of the wires bloated? If so replace them. If the boots are just oil soaked just give them a good cleaning with brake cleaner and let then dry for a little while.

Once the above is completed you need to find out why you are still getting oil into the tubes. My guess is the off brand valve cover gasket. I ALWAYS use Honda parts on my cars, no matter how old. Your car doesn't have the lower tube seals either so it has to be coming through the valve cover grommets somehow.

Once all that is sealed up and put back together. When you try to start the car it's going to take a while. DON'T PANIC. Just let the car try to crank and don't touch the gas. It's going to misfire a bit and smoke like crazy but then it should level out and start running normally.

Skryblz

It's dark and I'm garage-less, so I'll save this for tomorrow.

The wires are Bosch 8mm, put on at ~120k when I first bought the car... The boots do feel bloated/loose at the bottom, I'll look at getting new ones and replace the spark plugs as well since I'm taking them out.

94EG8

Those Bosch wires are junk. I'm not saying they're you're problem but they are junk. OEM wires (Sumitomo) or NGK blue wires are the only ones worth buying.

Skryblz

I just ordered an OEM valve cover gasket because my problem hasn't cleared up. For the next couple of days, it would idle/drive fine for ~1 mile, then start missing. Every time, the front left nut cap kept coming a little loose (about 1/2-3/4 turn). I bought these replacements, all 4 at Home Depot because 2 were stripped, but I don't think the lip is the same diameter. I tried just a drop of threadlocker blue on each nut, and this made it drive for ~10 miles the next day before it started missing again. Can over-torquing it cause a leak? I did them just fairly snug with a wrench, I know its low 16lb/in right?

When the OEM gasket comes in, I guess I'll try the original 2 caps that were OK on the side that keeps leaking and pull all the plugs/wires again. I'll also check the wires resistance make sure they are OK. Any other suggestions?

TomCat39

The seals you are talking about are known as lower tower seals. The #3 cylinder lower tower seal is the most common one to leak on the D15B7 being it's not a simple o-ring but a modified figure 8 rubber seal.

http://www.hondapartsnow.com/Page_Pr...ID=74361476496

Select Cylinder Head from the component drop down.

On this page you want 3 of #16 and 1 of #17. Those are the lower tower seals for your head. It's also not a bad idea to replace the upper tower seals, they are the bigger flat rubber rings on the valve cover. The tower seals prevent oil from getting into the plug wire area of the spark plug tube.

Currently, to fix your misfire, go buy 4 NGK ZFR5F-11 plugs, gap them to .043" and get them in. Then you can drive around a bit and see how fast your one plug is fouling. Once fouled the car will rarely clear itself up. Thankfully the plugs are cheap so having to swap them a few times to diagnose won't be very costly. Also make sure to put some antisieze on the threads of the spark plugs before putting them in and torque them to 13 ft.lbs.

The torque and gap and plug type is all straight from the Factory Service Manual.

And no 16 ft lbs for the valve cover nuts is WAAAAY to much. It's 7 ft-lbs.

Your misfire has to do with #3 being oil fouled. New plugs, drive a touch and pull #3 (2nd from the passenger side) and see if it's fouling in just a day or two.

I'd do a compression check just to see if your rings are doing okay being you said you just had the valve seals and head gasket done not long ago.

Skryblz

I ordered a set of those seals... I had replaced them ~ 30k miles ago when I did the head gasket though, pretty sure. O well, I guess new seals never really hurt :\

I just bought a new set of NGK's and put them in. The plug doesn't foul right away, but it does start misfiring pretty soon after startup. Haven't driven it the past few days, was waiting for the valve cover now these. Hope it does the trick, don't know what else it could be if it isn't the valve cover or those lower seals.

TomCat39

#3 can sit improperly pretty easily. IT's one that many people will add hondabond too.

The others probably aren't giving you issues.

As for the fouling, well that's not a good thing. I would do a compression test on all 4 cylinders to make sure the one that is misfiring and fouling isn't low and in line with the other 3.

Do a dry test on all 4 followed by a wet test. A wet test is the same as a dry compression test with the exception of putting about a teaspoon of oil into the cylinder.

Your car will smoke something fierce for about 5 or so minutes burning that oil off so you might **** off yer neighbors but it will give you some ideas as to your engine condition.

Once you know those numbers you can decide were you have to check next.

Skryblz

So I replaced the lower seals with OEM ones, but the misfire is still there.

I'm starting to think it's something electrical, because my plugs were all pristine white still (even though it had been misfiring on/off for ~20 miles). The spark wires themselves don't seem to be connected very tight on the distributor side, very loose in general. Real easy to pull off of the cap and they spin around very easily.

Going to clean up those ends and make sure the cap/rotor are still OK. The distributor was replaced as a whole unit ~20k miles ago.

Former User

Install OEM plug wires.

Replace the cap and rotor if they are old.

Ohm test the coil and have AutoZone test the igniter unit.

Any CEL codes?

Skryblz

Did some testing and I think it's bits and parts from all over my ignition system.

Tested wires @ 20k ohms, readings were 1.02//4.09//3.16//6.92

I'm attaching pictures of the cap ends and rotor, they looked kind of scorched has brown/rusty looking burrs on them. Inside of cap was very clean though; no oil or grime, orange dust, or really anything which is good.

Primary coil and secondary coil were in spec, 01.0 @ 200 ohms, 13.52 @ 20k ohms. I tried testing the resistance on the ICM, but I don't think I was touching the right terminals; couldn't get a reading so I'm gonna head to Autozone in a few.

I'm just going to get new cap//rotor//wires since they all look like ****. From this picture http://www.bkhondaparts.com/parts-ca...ord-spark-plug it seems like #5 is the whole wireset + trays and #17 is just wires, but #17 is more? Am I missing something?

Former User

Could indicate a bad distributor bearing.

Click the Spark link in my signature. You need to subtract the internal resistance of your meter from this measurement.