The car is a 1991 Civic EX. It is my moms car and i am working on it for her so i cant be absolutely positive on some things. My mom tried to start the car one morning and she said it "almost started the first time she cranked it", then it started making a whiring noise. When i got home i cranked it and noticed immediate symptoms of no compression.

Checked the timing and everything was right on time. I assumed the timing belt slipped for it to lose compression like that. The car has 170xxx miles on it, but hasnt been using any oil or smoking so i assume the rings WERE fine. I went ahead and did the next step and pulled the head off. Nothing looked majorly amiss in the cylinders, they looked perfectly normal. I dont see how there could be any problems like blown ring lands etc since the motor is bone stock, and ran perfectly when she parked it in the driveway.


With the head off i rotated the cam and checked to make sure none of the valves appeared to be sticking. I didnt actually check the valve seats to make sure they were seating perfectly... but they look fine. Went ahead and replaced the head gasket and timing belt, put most everything back together and cranked the motor by hand... cranks like there is no compression.

I checked the key on the cam gear and the gear appears to be aligned properly on the camshaft. I am at wits end .. and need to get this car running again! If anyone has ANY ideas.. would be greatly appreciated.

 

looks like your head gasket is pretty shitty...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rcoolb2002 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">When i got home i cranked it and noticed immediate symptoms of no compression.</TD></TR></TABLE>

What are these Immediate signs of no compression?
You didnt do a compression test, but you knew there was no compression? You lost me there. Ive been working on cars for some time and i would still need a compression tester to ever be sure. From the pics and what you wrote, i see nothing wrong. You would need some really big holes for it to have no compression.

While its very possible i was a head gasket, Its not very possible that every part of it started leaking right as it was trying to be started.

This is what i would do.. Put the motor back together, with a new headgasket. See if it runs. If it doesn't, then you need to look at other things. Like the distributor. Its more common for it to be that than a headgasket. Hondas are know to have Dizzys go bad in them. IMO i think you did alot more work than needed. If it was a compression problem that was that bad. There would be some sort of Visual problem found when you took it apart.

 

yah, I dont see how you can HEAR no compression, I think he took the Fast Cranking as a sighn of no compression. Witch is not true.

hell, that could have been a FUSE, or a Relay. I would have checked for Gas\Spark FIRST.

If timming is STILL on, then its IMPOSSIBLE to lose compression.

has it ever smoked? It just wouldnt UP and have no compression. Unless there Mechanical Damage.

 

maybe check the ecu fuse??? that might be it??? check the dizzy, coil, ignitor, rotor, cap....dont ever just start jumping into major conclusions like that then relzize it was a fuse now u gotta put it all back to gether u know...just my 2cents

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rcoolb2002 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Went ahead and replaced the head gasket and timing belt</TD></TR></TABLE>

Looks like he already did

 

Reading comprehension is your friend. Motor is already back together.

After you have heard a honda cranking with no compression, you will know what it sounds like. I DID do a compression check and came up with something like 30-25-25-30.

 

This will sound crazy,but mine did something simular and wouldnt crank after I changed the dizzy,couldnt figure it out,ended up squirt'n a couple of squirts of oil in each cylinder,put plugs back in,left overnight, crank the next mourning and been running fine since then,almost a year-n-a-half. Guess I flushed the oil off cylinder wall tryn to crank before I figured out it was the dizzy it which ='d low compression.You could tell it was low by the way it sounded also.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DpSyChO &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This will sound crazy,but mine did something simular and wouldnt crank after I changed the dizzy,couldnt figure it out,ended up squirt'n a couple of squirts of oil in each cylinder,put plugs back in,left overnight, crank the next mourning and been running fine since then,almost a year-n-a-half. Guess I flushed the oil off cylinder wall tryn to crank before I figured out it was the dizzy it which ='d low compression.You could tell it was low by the way it sounded also.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Seems to have been something like that. I put it back together with the new headgasket, new timing belt, new rotor, and new spark plugs. I put quite a bit of oil in each cylinder and started cranking. I could hear it starting to build compression back up after cranking for like 20 times. It is started now, but running weird crappy lol. Oh well at least its running.