WTF is wrong with my car?
05-17-2005, 10:36 AM
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WTF is wrong with my car?
Hey All,
I was driving home in the rain last fall (car has been parked since) and all of a sudden my car felt and sounded like it was running on 3 cylinders. I was cruising at a steady speed of 55mph, and was not in boost. It went away within a couple hundred feet, maybe less... as it went away before I could even get completely pulled over to the side of the road. Once it went away I just kept going since it was less than a mile to my place. I got the car home and it was smoking so bad I could barely see around me once I stopped the car. It was dark and raining when this happened so I didnt notice the smoke until I stopped. It is a B16A3 with 90,000 on the clock, less than 1000 of that with the turbo on it.
Last night I finally had some time to work on the car. I pulled the plugs and they were black. There doesnt seem to be any oil in my coolant, or vise versa. I did a compression test (my gauge seems to be stuck at 62 at idle) and got 230 across the board (+/- 1 PSI), which is prolly 170 or so since the gauge rests at 62. I dunno if I did it right however. I pulled all the plugs, disconnected the fuel pump, and put the gauge in. I then cranked the motor over 7 times for each cylinder. With each crank the pressure would climb about 20 PSI or so. Cranking past 7 cranks didnt seem to make it go any higher than 230. I tried pouring in about a tablespoon or so of oil into one of the cylinders to see if it would change the compression. It didnt, the motor just seemed to lock up and the pressure went off the charts on the gauge. Was this the right way to do all this? My buddy is going to bring over his compression tester later this week to test it again with a gauge that isnt sitting at 62 to try and get an accurate reading.
I then pulled the turbo off, and both the turbine and compressor sides are nice and clean. The charge pipes are also clean. The intercooler is spotless inside. I even flipped it up so if there was any oil inside it would drain out. Nothing has came out in the last 12 hours. When I look at the throttle body the butterfly is nice and brass colored. Once you flip it open and look inside the intake manifold, it is black and WET, very very wet. It seems to smell like a gas/oil mix, but it is hard to tell right now cause I have a pretty damned good cold! I dont get what is wrong. If it was the turbo seals, then the pipes, turbo, and intercooler would have signs of oil in/on them. If it was a head gasket I should see it in the compression test, as well as possibly see oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil depending on how/where it blew. If it was valves or valve guides, then I should also see that in the compression test. Anyone have any insight, tips, or other things to test or try?
I was driving home in the rain last fall (car has been parked since) and all of a sudden my car felt and sounded like it was running on 3 cylinders. I was cruising at a steady speed of 55mph, and was not in boost. It went away within a couple hundred feet, maybe less... as it went away before I could even get completely pulled over to the side of the road. Once it went away I just kept going since it was less than a mile to my place. I got the car home and it was smoking so bad I could barely see around me once I stopped the car. It was dark and raining when this happened so I didnt notice the smoke until I stopped. It is a B16A3 with 90,000 on the clock, less than 1000 of that with the turbo on it.
Last night I finally had some time to work on the car. I pulled the plugs and they were black. There doesnt seem to be any oil in my coolant, or vise versa. I did a compression test (my gauge seems to be stuck at 62 at idle) and got 230 across the board (+/- 1 PSI), which is prolly 170 or so since the gauge rests at 62. I dunno if I did it right however. I pulled all the plugs, disconnected the fuel pump, and put the gauge in. I then cranked the motor over 7 times for each cylinder. With each crank the pressure would climb about 20 PSI or so. Cranking past 7 cranks didnt seem to make it go any higher than 230. I tried pouring in about a tablespoon or so of oil into one of the cylinders to see if it would change the compression. It didnt, the motor just seemed to lock up and the pressure went off the charts on the gauge. Was this the right way to do all this? My buddy is going to bring over his compression tester later this week to test it again with a gauge that isnt sitting at 62 to try and get an accurate reading.
I then pulled the turbo off, and both the turbine and compressor sides are nice and clean. The charge pipes are also clean. The intercooler is spotless inside. I even flipped it up so if there was any oil inside it would drain out. Nothing has came out in the last 12 hours. When I look at the throttle body the butterfly is nice and brass colored. Once you flip it open and look inside the intake manifold, it is black and WET, very very wet. It seems to smell like a gas/oil mix, but it is hard to tell right now cause I have a pretty damned good cold! I dont get what is wrong. If it was the turbo seals, then the pipes, turbo, and intercooler would have signs of oil in/on them. If it was a head gasket I should see it in the compression test, as well as possibly see oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil depending on how/where it blew. If it was valves or valve guides, then I should also see that in the compression test. Anyone have any insight, tips, or other things to test or try?
05-17-2005, 10:49 AM
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Re: WTF is wrong with my car? (DigitalFusion)
I am tossing in a pic of the throttle body: I know its hard to tell, but it is black and soaking wet in there. Also, the back of the butterfly (side that would face the inside of intake main when closed) is just as soaked as the interior of the mani.
05-17-2005, 11:16 AM
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wait... i was just doing some searching on HT here for compression tests. I read you are supposed to hold the throttle at WOT? I didnt do this... I really dont understand why u are supposed to do that. How much would this effect my test numbers?
05-17-2005, 11:29 AM
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lol... tell me about it.... I am so damned confused right now. I have two buddies who are ASE mechanics and they dont know either! I am trying to get my hands on a leak down tester and a compression tester that is known to work.
05-17-2005, 11:33 AM
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how is your pcv system hooked up ??
if the crank is smoking up the pcv with oil vapours to the manifold it might cause this
d series motors have the pcv hose running to the intake manifold, not exactly sure about the b series
try doing a leak down test
if the crank is smoking up the pcv with oil vapours to the manifold it might cause this
d series motors have the pcv hose running to the intake manifold, not exactly sure about the b series
try doing a leak down test
05-17-2005, 11:34 AM
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Re: (JadedGamerX)
wow, can't wait to hear the rute cause of this one...
check out your PCV system... thats the only thing I can think of that links oil with your intake mani
edit: blackcrx... you beat me by a minute you bastard!
and yes B-series has the vacuum for PCV can hooked up to the mani. maybe your can is clogged and overflowed, with the PCV valve open, it will suck that oil right into your intake mani... I have never seen or experienced this, so thats my guess.
oh and for the compression test, not having WOT will result in lower numbers. so when you do it correctly it should only improve the already good numbers some. holding the plate open allows air to get into the cyl so it could be compressed. there is a bypass for the TB plate to allow the motor to sip a little air while at idle, and enough to make a wrong compression measurement...
Modified by turbosi03 at 12:45 PM 5/17/2005
check out your PCV system... thats the only thing I can think of that links oil with your intake mani
edit: blackcrx... you beat me by a minute you bastard!
and yes B-series has the vacuum for PCV can hooked up to the mani. maybe your can is clogged and overflowed, with the PCV valve open, it will suck that oil right into your intake mani... I have never seen or experienced this, so thats my guess.
oh and for the compression test, not having WOT will result in lower numbers. so when you do it correctly it should only improve the already good numbers some. holding the plate open allows air to get into the cyl so it could be compressed. there is a bypass for the TB plate to allow the motor to sip a little air while at idle, and enough to make a wrong compression measurement...
Modified by turbosi03 at 12:45 PM 5/17/2005
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05-17-2005, 01:26 PM
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The PCV valve is still there, with the hose connected to the intake mani. What "can" are you referring to that could be clogged or overflowed?
05-17-2005, 01:35 PM
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Re: (DigitalFusion)
the black box thats on the back of the block... it's the factory "catch can". the PCV valve is inline with the hose going into the blackbox.
it's the only thing other then something MAJORLY wrong with your head, that could possibly put oil into your intake mani...
unless some other vacuum line is sucking in oil from the turbo or something
disconnect the PCV valve and see if it's wet inside that vacuum hose... but then check another vacuum hose to see if it's dry... if only the PCV hose is wet then you have isolated your problem, if they are all wet with oil then boost could have pushed oil into all the vacuum lines...?
it's the only thing other then something MAJORLY wrong with your head, that could possibly put oil into your intake mani...
unless some other vacuum line is sucking in oil from the turbo or something
disconnect the PCV valve and see if it's wet inside that vacuum hose... but then check another vacuum hose to see if it's dry... if only the PCV hose is wet then you have isolated your problem, if they are all wet with oil then boost could have pushed oil into all the vacuum lines...?
05-17-2005, 06:43 PM
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Re: (DigitalFusion)
try disconnecting your pcv from the intake manifold, plug that, then just run an open tube to the ground. hondas factor pcv system is really shitty for turbo cars, you build up crazy amounts of pressure and it can blow your ringlands.
if you think it is only running on three cylinders, try checking your ignition, mine was doing the same and i noticed that one of my plug wires was pulled from the distributer and it had to work like crazy to make the arc and it fried the coil.
you could also have a gunked up fuel injector and its not firing, but then you would probably throw code 16. has your car been tuned? maybe your running ridiculously rich and thats causing the problem. as for **** in yor throttle body, it could be coolant. im not sure on a b, but on d's there is collant that runs to your throttle body. ive never had one apart, but maybe its getting inside there somehow.
if you think it is only running on three cylinders, try checking your ignition, mine was doing the same and i noticed that one of my plug wires was pulled from the distributer and it had to work like crazy to make the arc and it fried the coil.
you could also have a gunked up fuel injector and its not firing, but then you would probably throw code 16. has your car been tuned? maybe your running ridiculously rich and thats causing the problem. as for **** in yor throttle body, it could be coolant. im not sure on a b, but on d's there is collant that runs to your throttle body. ive never had one apart, but maybe its getting inside there somehow.
05-17-2005, 08:25 PM
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Re: WTF is wrong with my car? (DigitalFusion)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DigitalFusion »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I tried pouring in about a tablespoon or so of oil into one of the cylinders to see if it would change the compression. It didnt, the motor just seemed to lock up and the pressure went off the charts on the gauge. Was this the right way to do all this? </TD></TR></TABLE>
Whoa - after reading this, I think you may have put too much oil in (or there was already a lot of oil there...?). A few drops will do. The motor locking up and the compression gauge going off the charts def means your cylinder is full of some incompressible fluid. Don't start your motor it until you pull it out - use a syringe, maybe...
I tried pouring in about a tablespoon or so of oil into one of the cylinders to see if it would change the compression. It didnt, the motor just seemed to lock up and the pressure went off the charts on the gauge. Was this the right way to do all this? </TD></TR></TABLE>
Whoa - after reading this, I think you may have put too much oil in (or there was already a lot of oil there...?). A few drops will do. The motor locking up and the compression gauge going off the charts def means your cylinder is full of some incompressible fluid. Don't start your motor it until you pull it out - use a syringe, maybe...
05-18-2005, 10:30 AM
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Re: (raiden571)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by raiden571 »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">try disconnecting your pcv from the intake manifold, plug that, then just run an open tube to the ground. hondas factor pcv system is really shitty for turbo cars, you build up crazy amounts of pressure and it can blow your ringlands.
if you think it is only running on three cylinders, try checking your ignition, mine was doing the same and i noticed that one of my plug wires was pulled from the distributer and it had to work like crazy to make the arc and it fried the coil.
you could also have a gunked up fuel injector and its not firing, but then you would probably throw code 16. has your car been tuned? maybe your running ridiculously rich and thats causing the problem. as for **** in yor throttle body, it could be coolant. im not sure on a b, but on d's there is collant that runs to your throttle body. ive never had one apart, but maybe its getting inside there somehow. </TD></TR></TABLE>
I think I am going to invest in the endyn breather kit that replaces the crappy PCV system. It isnt running on 3 cylinders now, it just did for a second or two that one night, it runs normal now. I havent had any codes at all. The crap in the TB isnt coolant, its oil, with a slight gas smell to it.
if you think it is only running on three cylinders, try checking your ignition, mine was doing the same and i noticed that one of my plug wires was pulled from the distributer and it had to work like crazy to make the arc and it fried the coil.
you could also have a gunked up fuel injector and its not firing, but then you would probably throw code 16. has your car been tuned? maybe your running ridiculously rich and thats causing the problem. as for **** in yor throttle body, it could be coolant. im not sure on a b, but on d's there is collant that runs to your throttle body. ive never had one apart, but maybe its getting inside there somehow. </TD></TR></TABLE>
I think I am going to invest in the endyn breather kit that replaces the crappy PCV system. It isnt running on 3 cylinders now, it just did for a second or two that one night, it runs normal now. I havent had any codes at all. The crap in the TB isnt coolant, its oil, with a slight gas smell to it.
05-18-2005, 10:32 AM
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Re: WTF is wrong with my car? (turncoat)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by turncoat »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Whoa - after reading this, I think you may have put too much oil in (or there was already a lot of oil there...?). A few drops will do. The motor locking up and the compression gauge going off the charts def means your cylinder is full of some incompressible fluid. Don't start your motor it until you pull it out - use a syringe, maybe...</TD></TR></TABLE>
I have already pulled the oil out of the chamber with a syringe. My mechanic buddy said if it locks like that then I know that the rings are fine since it is trying to compress the oil and isnt able to.
I have already pulled the oil out of the chamber with a syringe. My mechanic buddy said if it locks like that then I know that the rings are fine since it is trying to compress the oil and isnt able to.
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