delsoldrvr

I have a 1993 Honda Del Sol S (1.5L), motor wise it is stock except for a CAI. And I am having MAJOR problems with it. When I start up the vehicle it blows major plumes of white smoke, which dies down as the car warms up. As I am driving the car, the temp needle goes haywire. When sitting at a light, it pegs past the "H" mark and sometimes cools back down as I pull away from the light, sometimes it stays hot. At cold start, it runs OK, but then after driving for a bit, the motor idles at around 500 RPM and almost creates mini earth quakes it shakes so bad. After idling at a light, once the light turns green, the car has significantly reduced power for a few seconds when I hit the pedal on the right. And last but not least, the exhaust has a very strong gas like smell to it (take this with a grain of salt because my nose does not work the best).

This is my daily driver so I REALLY need to get the issues fixed, PLEASE HELP!!!!!

synopsis: plumes of white smoke, erratic overheating, rough idle, sometimes reduced power, gassy smell (i think)

Thanks in advance

TaffetaEj6

sounds as if the motor has seen better days...headgasket issues, thermostat issues, iacv issues.
plumes of white smoke=coolant getting burnt...headgasket
erratic overheating=thermostat or the fact your loosing your coolant and actually overheating the car
rough idle=iacv (idle air control valve)....not sure could be other things

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

^All of the above.
Chances are you are going to have to replace that engine.
You can do a compression test and a leakdown test.

delsoldrvr

yeah I was thinking headgasket as well. as for the rough idle, that do you think of the idea that it might be idling rough because there is coolant in the cylinder?

As For the thermo, I just replaced that a few weeks back and I just topped my collant level up 2 days ago

TaffetaEj6

Its possible rough idle being from coolant in the cylinders, Esp if you say the car shakes really rough, but then again i dunno. Might get better insight with that from someone else.
I would say IMO that since you have the lil d15b7 in it and it is grenading on you... all the money you will spend refurbishing that motor you would be better off finding any d16 longblock off craigslist

vartok

I would bet money on the headgasket... and since you have continued to drive it with the temp bouncing up to the H, you may now have a warped head and just a new head gasket wont fix it.

If it was me, i would track down a d16z6 and swap the ECU out with a p28 (not needed for the swap, but needed for VTEC) and call it done.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

That's what I'm saying. That engine is most likely toast.

TaffetaEj6

since it was a del sol s w/ a non vtec motor, he will also need to wire it for vtec

delsoldrvr

so I had to drive the car home tonight from work (obviously couldn't leave it at work) and it ran fine on the way home. No rough idle and no smoking, no overheating or anything. I spoke with my wife's father, a mechanic, and he told me as a test, on a cold start (first thing in the morning) to run the engine for a minute or so, and see if the radiator hose hardens up, that its a sign of a compression leak, and that this is a good headgasket test. so I will be doing that in the morning.

vartok

Really, the best way is to get a compression guage and check the compression on all the cylinders, if they are low, you can do a leak down test to see where where the compression is going

crankcase= pistion rings usually, or other piston related problem
coolant= head gasket
intake/exhaust= valves

if you would like, i can track down some how-to vids of a comp test and a leak down test

delsoldrvr

If you could find those vids that be awesome. So the results of my test this morning: I went outside after the car sat for about 10 hours. The upper rad hose was obviously soft, started the car, revved it twice, ran it for about 30 seconds and shut it off. Once the car was shut back off, I felt the radiator hose, there was some good pressure on it, the coolant was also pressurized cus when I went to take the rad cap off, coolant started spewing out. So I decided that I was gonna run a second test with the rad cap open to see if I could see like bubbles or something. At firing, coolant just shot out of the rad like old faithful herself, and then just started somewhat violently coming out of the radiator until I shut the motor back off a few seconds after.

95streetciv

Head gasket is toast, I'd bet money on it.
Replace with a Metal multilayer gasket. a good upgrade.
The d15b7 engines mostly used the junk head gaskets.
I just had to do this to a d15b7 and it runs like new now.

vartok

oooooh yeah, thats defiantly the headgasket, you shouldnt have pressure in your coolant system after 30sec

comp test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_tbksFYhl4

Leakdown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgrfT0LFMhc



This guy has alot of good video and quite a few on honda videos, all his vids are on his web site

delsoldrvr

cool, thanks for the video. Does anyone have a good link to a good write up for head gasket replacement? Ive found a few articles and have read my Haynes manual but I am a visual person and nothing I have seen has pictures.

95streetciv

I don't have any good links for you.
maybe this will help.
undo battery, remove spark plug wires from head, remove valve cover, remove distributer(optional, I left mine on the head), remove bolts on intake, remove bolts on exhaust manifold, remove head bolts, Mark the timing belt and gear with a paint marker for easy re-install.
remove head being careful to keep the timing belt from dropping into the cover.
clean /scrap old gasket with non-scoring straight edge. check head for warpage with straight edge. get head resurfaced (depending on result). place new MLS gasket. install head lining up your timing belt with the paint marks, and bolt head bolts in correct order. torque head bolts according to haynes etc. re-install intake, and exhaust manifold. reinstall valve cover, plug wires, re-connect battery.

Ayyxbro

Get the engine compression tested. Most likely gonna be the head gasket for the smoke. Just did a mini-me and its plumes white clouds lol. Think that would also explain the over heating issue as well.

delsoldrvr

so update: I just spent a day and a half replacing the headgasket, everything is back together again, when I start the car up, it does not pressurize the cooling system anymore. New problem though, and I am thinking it might be something I did during the R&R process. I started it up and it runs, but I think i have a slight tick in cylinder #4. I hear it ticking when I rev it up but just by listening I cant be 100% sure it's #4, but its on that side of the motor. My check engine light also came on, I have not pulled the codes on it but it's on. When I was putting the timing back together I made sure to rotate the engine a few times before finalizing it to make sure it turned, it did.

any ideas on where to go from here, the car drives and stuff, I just dont like a tick.

delsoldrvr

no ideas?

vartok

i woulds say do a valve adjustment, or maybe your timing is slightly off, but check the CEL first. Most of the time, when you have an engine issue, if there is a CEL, start there

Sonia's Driver

You forgot two important steps:

*before removing the timing belt, untighten the timing belt tensioner bolt before removing the timing belt.
*after replacing the timing belt, torque the timing belt tensioner to the proper force.
Also, anytime the timing belt is removed, it is a great opportunity to re-time the engine. The harmonic balancer can be aligned with the timing mark before removing it, and the cam sprocket can be aligned with the head properly. That way the timing isn't set wrong if the belt stretches or if it was previously set wrong. Just a thought.

OP: buy a mechanic's stethescope so that you can tell where the ticking is coming from. It sounds to me like your valves need adjustment (which should be done shockingly often on the d15b7, according to the manuals) if the timing tension is way off, or it is out of time, that could also cause problems.