My car didn't idle well when I got it, it's a 97 prelude base with the h22a4. I stalled the enigne in a deep puddle, but didn't realize what the problem was until afterwards. I cranked it, I know that's not the best thing to do after sucking water into the motor, but I wasn't thinking straight. Anyways, I cranked it a few times, and it started. It was missing like crazy for a few minutes, then it went back to the way it was before. Just missing sporadically at idle, like it had been doing since I got it.

Ok, here's the question. Would an engine with a bent rod run well? The thing still runs great down the highway, v-tech engages pretty well, and never shows any symptoms of anything except at idle. The valves clatter a little bit, as they have always done since I got the car. Compression test shows 190, 120, 90, 90. Something is really wrong, but I don't know if it could be the rods or if I bought the car with a valve problem. Any advice?

 

If you say that your engine is running well, and you have good acceleration, i doubt that the compression reading you have are good. Meaning the test was not properly performed. Because, those are real ugly numbers. Does it start fine? Because low compression like that would cause some hard starting issues i would think.

How did you do the comp test?

When did this all happen? It is possible that there is still water somewhere that is causing this (ecu, etc...).

fs

 

Compression test was just the basic, took the plugs out, disconnected the coil so no spark went anywhere, and cranked the motor with the pedal to the floor until the guage peaked. I did it three times with two different guages to the same result. Did the test on my friends celica, and he came out 225 across the board. It isn't hard to start, but it does turn over a couple of times before it fires. I keep getting a CEL saying there is a misfire on cylinder #2. I've changed everything. Like I said, it runs great all the time except at idle. At idle it misses and seems to have a lope. Occasionally it even dies. I'm hoping that maybe it wasn't hydrolocked, and that I had just sucked up enough water to stall it. The problem was there before that anyway, it just seems to have gotten a little worse. Could it be something as simple as the valve clearances being WAY off?

 

How many miles are on your car? I think your supposed to do a valve adj. every 30k on the H22's, so maybe its just in diar need of a valve adj.

Your original problem could have been a need for a valve adjustment and the water problem may not have played as large of a role as you think it is.

 

if you started you car in a puddle, and those are your compression numbers...your engine is FUBAR. you busted a piece of your piston, or bent a rod, or blew off a piece of your valve.

 

Quick question on the compression test.

Did you do it when the motor was warm?

It's probably not gonna make much of a difference,
but that's the was you're supposed to do it.

I have a feeling that it's gonna need more than a valve adjustment.

Good luck either way and let us know what it ends up being.

welcome to H-T

 

You need to redo the copression test, but for add about a 2 table spoons of motor oil down the sprk plug tube, install the gauge and crank. if the copression gets better, your piston rings are gone, if they do not, it is a valve problem.

 

The puddle wasn't really that deep, just the way the filter got splashed. The previous owner cut away the splash guard. It wasn't even deep enough to reach the filter, except waybe the wave being pushed my by tire. It cranked fine afterwards, it just took a minute to gave it running again. There was no bang, or gurgling or anything, it just sputtered and died. I hope it's just a valve problem, but I guess I'd have to pull the head and see if any of the pistons don't rise up as much as they should before I could tell if I've got a bent rod or something. Just because the puddle that I hit wasn't that deep doesn't mean that the itiot before me didn't drive into a pond. To answer another Q', yeah, the engine was warm when I did the test. A mechanic I talked to insisted that it was my head gasket, the way the numbers drop from one side to the other, but I would expect other problems that are usually assosiated with a head gasket failure if that were the case right? Oh yeah, it has 123k miles