thesandmn

Need some quick help. Have a 92 Honda vx all stock engine. has run great but was on the freeway couple days ago and it started to miss intermittently on one cylinder for about 30 seconds then the cylinder went completely dead. I pulled the plugs and the #3 cyl was wet/oily while the other nice and tan. I put the plug back into the wire and grounded it for a spark test and the spark looked great. Then I pulled all the plugs and did a compression test on all 4 cylinders and they were all 180. So now I'm thinking it is the injector so I swapped a good injector to the #3 and it still doesn't fire. When listening to the injectors when the engine is running they sound the same. I poppled off the valve cover and nothing is broken in the valve train. So what the HELL?? What else could be the problem??

also check power to the injector and proper resistance, all good

TomCat39

Being you still have good compression in the cylinder, that rules out stuck/burnt valve or broken rings.

If the plug is oil fouled then you could have bad valve seals or carbon clogged/stuck rings.

If you can do the work yourself, I'd first attempt valve seals and see if that stops the fouling. You can do that job without pulling the head if you do it right and it's cheap parts. It's my plan of attack for my car that is burning oil quite a bit and smoking at times. Some times more so than others.

Have you tried putting a fresh spark plug into that cylinder and see if it runs?

Also you could unhook your distributor wire harness (2 grey plugs?), crank that car for about 10-20 seconds or so and pull that cylinder's spark plug first and see if it is wet with fuel? That will rule out totally clogged injector.

Also you can resistance test the injectors, all 4 should be close to each other in resistance, somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 ohms usually.

I think your injector swap pretty much made those last two tests mentioned pointless but still threw them out there.

To rule out the fuel injector signal you need a noid light to plug into the injector wire harness while cranking to see if it blinks consistently.

Also, I'm not sure just how valid using the spark plug itself is for a solid ignition system tester. The usual method that is recommended for our High Energy Ignition (HEI) systems is to get an HEI spark tester. Unlike regular spark testers, the yes or no result is definitive with the HEI tester. I think the spark plug is going to be closer in range to a standard spark plug tester and it's results could lie within a big grey area. Not saying your results are in that grey area, just mentioning that it is one possible issue in your tests thus far. If nothing else pans out, it may be worth revisiting.

shotoutacc0rd

Is the air filter and assembly all stock? Maybe some foreign object got sucked in and is now blocking the intake port for cyl #3.

either there's no air, or no fuel (if you got correct test results for spark and compression). I would check if that replacement injector is squirting fuel. As tomcat said, disconnect the wires to the distributor, crank the car for a while, and quickly pull the plug for cyl #3 and sniff it for gasoline.

TomCat39

Something like this could impede the fuel mixture while still allowing a good seal on the valve for solid compression results:



Even though, I don't believe that happens on the intake side but is more than likely the oil being baked onto the exhaust side.

thesandmn

I'll revisit some of those tests. I only had used spark splugs. I tried one from my spare engine and one from another cylinder on the same engine with the same results. I also could smell raw gas fumes coming out the exhaust when its running on the 3 cyl so Im pretty sure fuel is being injected into the cylinder. I'll probably have to take it to a shop that has the right testing equipment. The engine has 250k miles on it but doesn't smoke and burns less than a quart of oil between oil changes. The air cleaner, in fact everything under the hood is stock and was previously maintain by a Japanese Honda trained mechanic guy. I have noticed that black carbon particles collect on the back of the car but I think that might be related to the aftermarket exhaust that is still on the car.

Former User

Is spark bright white at all 4 plugs?

Do all 4 injectors spray fuel?

78F350

I know you saw a good spark, but two quick, simple things to check:

The spark plug wire may have abrasion and be shorting when it is in the installed position.

Pull the cap off the dizzy and give it a good check for hairline cracks or corrosion.

thesandmn

The wires and cap are good. The distributor, cap and wires are new from about a year ago

thesandmn

found the problem. I was double checking that the spark plug was good and had switched two of them. When I pulled the spark plug wires to see if the problem switched to another cylinder, I notice spark was flying out of the side of the long plastic spark plug connector to the side of the plug hole. Replaced the spark plug wire and all is good. The plastic was cooked and brittle right and the bottom were it meet the rubber plug seal. Would like to add a pic but looks like I don't have that privilege.

shotoutacc0rd

You could upload it to a photo sharing website like photo bucket or imageshack, and post the direct link in [img] brackets.

TomCat39

This is why my next set of wires will be Aurora wires. They are the only ones I know that provide lifetime warranty and single wire replacement and even offer warranty on commercial applications.

And lucky for me they are located within 50 kilometers of me.

http://auroraignitionwires.com/conte...-us/d1225.html

Friend of mine said they are the best you can buy and he doesn't trust any other wires anymore.