ZackN

Well after 4 years of battling with the previous owners who screwed me over I finally got the dam car registered and insured in my name. Total of 7 years rotting away not being driven.

Its a 1993 civic SI with 307,588mi on the clock.
When i got it 4 years ago I did:
Timing belt and water pump
Lil bit of seafoam and an oil change.
New Plugs and O2 sensor.
New battery
New airfilter.
Lots of cursing the previous owners untill now.

Now that I can finally legally drive it around I feel that is is really lacking power.
I had a friend (former mechanic) drive it, and he also said it was low on power.

Maybe we just arent used to the small honda engine though? As it does get a little more acceleration once you get up to 2500 and 3000 rpm. Anything below and it bogs down like there are 4 sumo wrestlers in the trunk.

Since I have zero experience with honda cars (love honda dirtbikes though) I figured that id come here and see what the experts have to say.

I checked the cap, had some build up on the internals, sanded it down some, didnt do much. The neighbor gave me a new used distrubitor yesterday, so maybe ill stick the cap and rotor from that one (20k on it) in to mine with who knows how many miles on it.
I also put a new master cylinder in it a few weeks ago to get it to the smog shop.

Id like to TRY and restore some of the power i know it once had. Yes i realize that with 307K it might never get to where I want it.
I would like to make this a reliable commuter car. There is a medium mountian pass between my house and where I need to go, so the power would be nice too.

I got the car for basically a bunch of yard work, MANY hours at DMV, and im about 500 in to parts now. Id rather keep the current engine, ill sell it before I swap an engine (probably anyway)

So what should I do next besides some new oil and get that cap n rotor figured out?
Also going to do a lil clean up on the brakes, they are a bit rusty lol (7 freakin years)
Its all stock as far as I know, except for the front shock/strut support bar and maybe the shocks? Will post pics tomorrow.


Thanks in advance for the help in getting this awesome lil car back on the road!

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

compression test?

tony_2018

Rebuild.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

TomCat39

^--- x2

Compression test will tell you much about the health of the motor. Wet and Dry, if there isn't much change between the wet and dry I'd then follow with a leak down test.

It's probably going to tell you a rebuild is in the books for this car if you want to restore power.

94 accord typeR

we all gotta start somewhere

while ur at it check the ohms on the plug wires and change trans fluid

welcome to the forums

Fnix

iTrader: (1)

Go get yourself a B16a2 at Hmotorsonline

delsolintegra

Get yourself a can of PB Blaster and spray all electrical connections under the hood. Disconnect each one and spray both sides of the connections than reconnect with some force. Especially the MAP sensor and the coolant temp sensor. Disconnect and clean the IACV (Idle air control valve). After 7 years I would also disconnect the wire harness connectors to the ECU and spray them. The OBD1 cars depended on these sensors to talk to the ECU for fuel, timing and acceleration, all the things you're missing right now.

mithious

I think a compression test is always worthwhile, and easy to do, but...

I used to think my EK was gutless (1997, 300,000k), but then I realized I just didn't know how to drive a Honda. I'm sure the other guys here can explain it better than I, but there is way more power above 3000rpm. I don't know which engine you have, but a D16Y7 for example redlines about 6800. *** 6800 ***. Try driving around 4000-5000 rpm's and then see how that feels.

Now I don't drive like that all the time, but when I need it I rev it up and that little car has some serious pick up. And that's stock, with a ton of miles on it. I'll baby it the rest of the time, and I get great mileage and I know I'm not unnecessarily beating the crap out of my car.

ZackN

I have only used PB blaster for stuck and rusted bolts. Are you thinking of electrical cleaner or something?

Maybe this is it. Maybe i just dont know how to drive this car? I have been driving a diesel truck for the past 3 years, and it has plenty of low end torque. It just seems like the civic should have a little more power below 3k.


I am going to see when my friend will let me borrow his compression tester. That or just buy one for myself.

Here is a picture of my new car. I wasnt too excited about it at first, but after driving it around quite a bit today... its growing on me.




When i first start it and its in open loop, it actually has some power, and drives pretty decent, but once closed loop starts up it really acts slow.
Even the idle drops wayyyyy down, the motor stumbles and is rough at idle.
As you can see in this picture idle is basically zero. Im not sure what that line is there right before zero, but it pretty much stays right around there.
Ill try cleaning my connections and the MAF tomorrow to see if that helps. Thanks for the ideas guys!



Edit
Being a complete noob, i dont think i can post pics till after my 5 days are up.
Ill see what i can do.
Got em!

mithious

I've been working on a 93 del sol that was sitting for 3 years. The first test drives it did the same thing, stumbling and rough idling really low.

Then I drove the CRAP out of it. Hard. High revs, about an hour. I don't know if I burned off carbon deposits or what but it purrs at 700rpm now.

TomCat39

Yeah electrical cleaner might be a bit gentler on the plastics and rubber, it's basically aerosol based isopropyl alcohol. Not sure the chemical makeup of PB blaster.

By the sounds the IACV and FITV could use a good cleaning too.

I'd still want to see what the compression numbers are like.

Word to the wise, crack all your spark plugs when the engine is cold, pull 'em out and put some grey (aluminum based) anti seize on them and put them back in at 13 ft-lbs then warm up the engine. That way when you go to pull them after warming the engine up they will pop right out without fear of taking threads with the plugs. I do that anytime the plugs have been in any length of time. They tend to set up after a bit and that is when pulling them with a warm engine can be catastrophic.

ZackN

Thanks, ill do that.


Also should have mentioned that i put a new fuel filter on it. The old one had some nasty brown fuel come out of it when i drained it. Also, i have hard starts sometimes. But other times it starts right up. Last thing: The header was cracked. I brazed it shut, but i think it opened up again. I was reading another thread and remembered these things.

ZackN

Got some better pictures today.
Also really ringed out the motor, up to 5500.
I think I may have not been used to driving a car. I shift at 2k in my truck, dont ever go over 2500.
Power in this lil guy dosent even start untill 3500!
Totally different animal.

sanegb16

iTrader: (2)

Seafoam breaks down the crude that was sealing your valves and bumping up your compression slightly. I dont personally recommend seafoam on higher mileage cars for that reason. Do a valve adjustment, check timing remember that z6 cam tdc is different than other d series. Leakdown test is more precise but compression test will help too

ZackN

Yesterday I pulled the distributor cap off and put on a different used one from my neighbor hoping that it would help. No apparent change, but both caps have corrosion on the cap contacts.

I also did a compression test.

Pictures of spark plugs, and compression numbers are attached.
Cyl 1 : 160 5 cranks


Cyl 2 : 160 5 cranks


Cyl 3 : 170 7 cranks


Cyl 4 : 170 7 cranks


Cyl 1 : 170 Retest at 7 cranks instead of 5


Cyl 2 : 165 Retest at 7 cranks instead of 5



Seems pretty good to me.
I need to check the timing and see if that will help at all.

But looking at my plugs it looks like im burning oil, I don't think they should be that black.







Also the previous owner put this strut bar on. Good stuff or not?



Along with these shocks all around. Good Brand?

crazyhouse2011

That line between the 1 and 0 on your tach marks 500 rpm. They just squashed in the first 500 rpm because realistically, an engine wont run in that range without serious issues.

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

those are good struts. are you using oil?

TomCat39

The third plug from the left in the four plug picture looks wet with oil. Hard to tell, if the ceramic and the outer electrode (the metal hook part) is a tan in color, it's not enough oil to be fouling the plugs.

Black only at the tip of the threads is common and not stopping the plugs from self cleaning. If the electrode is black and/or the ceramic insulator is black, that is a fouling plug.

The plugs look to be new, the v-power mark is still sharp.

A close up of each plug might be better for others to see the plug readings. Hard to tell from just the one pic what you see in person.

Never mind, clicking on the photo helped. I don't see fouling on those plugs yet, but they are definitely brand new. The 2nd and 4th from the left seem a little darker in the ceramic. One is probably normal from the PCV system but the other maybe from oil burning.

shotoutacc0rd

Rev it to 7,500 and see if it explodes or not.

actually dude, your wheel wells aren't even rusty. It seems to me you've actually got a nice car here

94 accord typeR

do not do that.

u can get NGK platinum plugs for $3 a piece @ advance auto parts

looks like the PO was Auto-Savvy putting Neuspeed and Tokico parts on the car. I would suggest a OEM Honda Distributor Cap and Rotor along with new plugs/wires. remember: engines dont consist of too many parts

also u might wanna try a bottle of Prestone Complete Fuel System Cleaner

94EG8

At 5500RPM it should be just starting to work good. Shift it at 7200RPM and see how it works. It's going to be pretty dead below 3000RPM.

When I had my '94 sedan with Si swap, typical shift points when driving it around just normally were 4000RPM 1st to 2nd, 3000RPM 2nd to 3rd and then about 2500RPM from there on out.

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

wow, lol. you make me seem like a grandpa. i baby my dx.

TomCat39

If she seems to be running smooth, run it for a couple of months and then inspect your spark plugs again. That should give it enough time to show any potential issues.

If the electrodes and ceramic is still light or dark tan in color then nothing major is wrong.

If your oil consumption is up you might be looking at a valve seal job down the road.

Think you managed to score yourself a nice little EG SI.

ZackN

Thanks for the welcome.

What type of fluid can i use for the trans?

What should the reisitance be on the plug wires?

And what can you tell me about timing? Someone else said to be careful because its different than other timings or some sort of honda talk that I dont understand.


Thanks for the help guys!