timothyj94

1997 honda civic ex. Auto 1.6L SOHC

Hi, to introduce my self let me say that I am not a Honda guy by any means. Im a mitsubishi guy. The reason for joining is because my friends car is a honda civic and I am looking for some insight. let me start with explaining what happened and what I have done.

A few days ago it was below 0F over night and my friend had her car parked outside my house over night. She went to start it in the morning and left driving up the street. The car came to a sudden stop and died on her. She wasnt able to restart the car. I arrive up the street to her car to find that the car cranks over smoothly (no firing). Assuming there must just be ice in the fuel line and it being way to cold to do anything at the moment I had a friend tow it to a warm garage.

After sitting in the warm garage it still refused to start. I also added HEET to the fuel, and some additional fuel.

1. I pulled the plugs and checked for spark. all 4 sparked good.

2. I felt the fuel line pulsing in the engine bay with my fingers while someone cranked the car over. I also can hear the fuel pump come on for 3-5 seconds. Checked fuel pressure and it was up to 40 psi while cranking

3. I tested the compression to find that almost all of the cylinders were at roughly 30 psi. Now keep in mind this is on a cold engine.

4. I poured some oil in the cylinders and the compression shot up, so my assumption is that the rings are bad and causing low compression causing a no start. after pouring three capfuls of oil in each cylinder and checking the compression the cylinders ranged from 90-130 psi. (I dont remember the exact cylinders)

5. I through the plugs back in and tried to start it. It fired for like half a second but didnt start up. I think fuel also washed oil out somewhat because compression dropped and plugs were full of fuel and oil.

6. I pulled the distributor cap off and made sure the rotor was spinning to make sure timing belt was good. I also looked into the oil cap hole to see cam moving.

7. I decided to go out and get some really really thick friction modifier (thicker than LUCAS). The bottle said to help compression by sealing valve seals and piston rings. The bottle said add to oil but I was trying to make quick compression so I added some to each cylinder. It got every cylinder into the 100+ psi range. put plugs in and crank it with injectors unplugged to try and get it to go all around the rings. pull plugs out and burn them clean with a torch and put em back in. Crank again no injectors pull plugs and they dont have any oil on them so I proceed to plug in the injectors, and turn key and sure enough it fired for barely a second. Didnt start up tho. I held pedal down incase it was flooding. Pull plugs out they are full of fuel. Clean them off and try again still nothing.


I discussed with the my friends mother since it is their family car (and only car) and apearently 8-12 weeks ago when they went in for an oil change the honda dealer upsold them something (a repair)... but when they got the car back the oil pressure light was on sooner than normal. The car normaly leaked some oil so by the time they needed the regular 3 month oil change the light would be on. So she brought it back in sooner than it should have been (4 weeks after said oil change) and the tech tried to tell them that it was out of oil and must be burning oil really bad, but they would "throw in a free oil change".

I think that they forgot to put oil in the car during said oil change, which could have caused the rings to wear out really really bad. because after the dealer did the "free oil change" the car had not "lost" as much oil as before (only 2 quarts after like 2000 miles, where as before it was almost dry after the assumed time they forgot to put oil in). SO I THINK they forgot the oil and caused damage to my friends car... but they will probably never admit to it lets be serious.


So I suppose my question is; is it correct to assume the rings causing loss of compression is causing the car to not start? So the engine is done, a new engine is needed if this is the case. (I can do the engine swap in a weekend easy, but id rather not do the engine swap to find out im wrong as to why its not starting.)

Adding the friction modifier/oil to the cylinders didnt really get it to start, but it almost fired up, where as before it didnt try to fire up at all.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Anything else I can try? It has spark and fuel clearly.

BTW doing anything on this car was a CAKEWALK compared to my car. I am normally under the hood of a Mitsubishi 3000gt VR4 lol. Gotta hand it to honda for making this easy. My only complaints were that you couldnt remove the timing cover without removing the valve cover, and to disconnect the ignition coil plug you had to disconnect it from the bracket first. I thought both of these were stupid.

92ehatch

They have been driving a car that has a leak and constantly throws an oil pressure light?

Compression test 30 psi?

New engine sir

timothyj94

This is what im like 99% sure on. however my paranoia has me worried ill tell them it needs and engine for sure... and then find out its something stupid causing it not to start. Way over thinking this but rather be sure.

92ehatch

Double check the mechanical timing on the engine belt may have skipped some teeth.

Then condemn engine if that's not it.

timothyj94

The car wasnt smoking super bad leading up to this as far as I can remember. Although if the dealer forgot to put oil in like im thinkng then the rings could have worn out super fast and I didnt notice it blowing smoke before it died on her.

Ill check the actual timing tho.

belairbrian

This. Maybe 30 minutes work tops.

timothyj94

Took like 5 minutes to check the timing. I turned it by the cam even tho you really shouldn't...

Couldn't get the marks to line up. made sure the first cylinder was at TDC using the dip stick lol.

So im assuming timing is off unless there is some other way the marks wouldn't line up. That or the marks on the crank pulley aren't right. See the video.

http://youtu.be/kZJK6tE0Dus