1st post y'awll, bear with me..

It appears my distributor o-ring gasket is leaking.. while im in there replacing the leaky o-ring, should i replace the distributor cap and rotor? chiltons reccomends to check/replace at 60k.. im new to all this and dont know much about mechanical wear or whatnot... if i do end up replacing cap/rotor, does it matter what brand i get? i've seen bosch avail at the local part shop (kragen), ive seen some msd cap/rotor kits online, that's about it.. guess im basically looking for the best parts for my car without paying the local honda dealer prices.. the dealers quotes make me want to sacrifice honda oem quality and settle for aftermarket kragen parts i dont know what to choose anymore.

ahh.. and since im on the topic of ignition, i think my plug wires might need to be changed.. i tried checking the resistance of each wire with a cheapy ohm meter and couldnt get a reading off any of the plug wires, on any of the ohm meters settings (continuity, resistance, etc.) yet the ohm meter worked when i checked continuity and resist on a ground wire.. but the car seems to produce spark just fine.. i duno.. chilton reccomends plug wire check/replacement at 60k.. says to replace wires if any wire is resisting more then 25,000 ohms..?

Chiltons, a stepbrother, and a stepfather have been my only guides thus far to honda wisdom. Im trying to restore my stock d16z6 motor before doing any bolt ons or whatnot.. she's pretty beat up right now and sounding ragged, especially in the trannie area.. im trying to avoid paying shops to do my dirty work.. she always seems to come back slightly worse than the way she once was when i choose the shop route ..

guide me, wise ones.


-newbie d16.

[Modified by StockD16OwnzJoo, 2:07 AM 4/17/2002]


[Modified by StockD16OwnzJoo, 5:16 AM 4/17/2002]

 

Gonna go ahead and add the rest of my motor's problems to this thread so i dont double post or offend anyone flooding the EG forum with multiple broke d16z6 issues which could've been handled in one thread... (or not at all) :D


Alright.. so here we go.. My car's a '95 Civic Coupe, EX .. d16z6 motor. basically no mods, just a K&N air filter in the stock box, an exhaust, and some 15's on 50 series tires.. ..

besides the distributor cap/rotor and spark plug wire replacement mentioned in the previous post, i'm hearing a noise that i'm not too familiar with coming from my timing belt or maybe my power steering pump area (around the belts somewhere) and also hearing a couple noises coming from my transmission, as well as experiencing just a plain tired engine, it seem like.. Any/All help would be greatly appreciated.. I don't want the shop run-around anymore.. although i realize i may have to go in for diagnostics once in a while as i dont have tools for that.

the timing belt area noise sounds like a bearing winding down as the engine winds down.. sounds like a bearing going out or a bearing needing lube or ?.. I have a new timing belt, just had my valves adjusted and my car timed , they originally put the belt on too tight and had to replace it (sounded like my car was turbo'd) .. now it sounds like how i originally described.. has me worried.. the tight belt ruin a bearing or something?

and im hearing a continual grinding coming from my trannie housing in synch with the rpms .. sounds crusty... and once i warm up and downshift a bit, then stop and idle, i hear chirping (only when im under the car and staring at the trannie housing, the motor kinda shields the chirping.. and the chirps not in synch, random..) .. plus my car drives choppy.. cant seem to maintain a consistant speed without the car slightly jerking until i reach about 3500 rpms.. if i downshift from 3rd to 2nd and the RPMS hit like 5000+ it sounds like my motor's gonna blow up instead of the aggressive steady wind down it used to make..instead, the wind down is a bunch of backfiring .... i recently got a recycled trannie w/ a lifetime warranty, and am thinking i need to swap this chirpin No gear grabbin piece of grindin **** back out and take up the recyclers on their lifetime warranty.. sound right?

other than that my engine sounds tired... she doesnt have the bite she once had.. ive got to replace my oil pan gasket and my distributor o-ring, as well as my power steering pump due to them all having slow leaks.. so the shop says.. (although my power steering works fine and doesnt seem to ever need to be topped off with fluid, nor my oil) .. will all these gasket replacements fix any loss in compression that may be making my engine seem tired? i dont know what else to do to .... my oils n fluids are always clean.. could the gaskest in combination with the timing belt bearing noise in combination with this chirpin trannie finally be the end to all my tired engine woes? or is there more to it that i'm not seeing?

your opinions please...


[Modified by StockD16OwnzJoo, 6:10 AM 4/17/2002]

 

hmmm.. here's a simple one for ya...

Am i posting these problems in the right forum? or even on the right board? OR am i just being too impatient waiting for an answer... if there's a board that deals specifically with stock motor problems can ya'll send me a link?

peace..

-d16z

 

MSD SCI, blaster coil , distributor cap and wires

 

geez your a total newbie man. Most people here probably ignored it, thinking it could be solved by regular maintence and doing the right tune-ups.

How would we know if all those problems that you so "adequately" described are doing to an engine that we know hardly anything about except that evidently no one has taken care of it, if all of it igntition system parts are going to hell. How many miles are on your engine? Do you perform regular scheduled maintence? Your problems are just regular shopwork IMO.


On measuring the voltage and resistance of your plugs.....did you have the car on or someone crank it while it was tested??


Alot of what your describing sounds like your engine wasnt taken care of, if its that bad at 60k, guessing thats how many are on it. Why Did you get this engine if it was that bad?

 

deepnite- thx for the MSD reccomendations.. ill keep it in mind when it comes time to purchase these ignition system components. it'd be nice if i could get some detail behind product .. such as, is it neccessary? i dont want to spend 300 on some **** that's going to produce a spark 300x more accurate or whatever the Jaz on the packet says, if it isn't going to improve over stock performance.. but if it's cheaper than stock OEM replacement parts, im all for it.. unnastand my situation?


"geez your a total newbie man. Most people here probably ignored it, thinking it could be solved by regular maintence and doing the right tune-ups."

samdawg- thanks as well, for the reply.. I told ya'll i was newbie, you didn't need to re-itorate it.. We all learned somewhere, at one point in time, right? well my point in time is now.. i'm also trying my best to diagnose these problems.. we all know how hard description through only words can be. Thanks for the concern.. :D
that said. here we go.

"How would we know if all those problems that you so "adequately" described are doing to an engine that we know hardly anything about except that evidently no one has taken care of it, if all of it igntition system parts are going to hell. How many miles are on your engine? Do you perform regular scheduled maintence? Your problems are just regular shopwork IMO."

Engine has 82,500 miles.. I've had this car since 96, bought it with 20k on the motor.. ran very clean and nothing wrong with it at time of purchase... (that i or anyone else knew of) she responded beautifully and was real fun to drive.. now i can barely stand to drive above 5000 rpms or below 3500.. i've gone through about 6 axles, 3 sets of front rotors, 6 sets of pads (i know that sounds weird being that ive gone through more pads then rotors, im baffled as well) i've changed her oil every 4 months or so, never waiting longer then 3000-5000 miles to change oil... delivered pizzas in this car for about 25,000 (fun to drive) miles.. in which i was on top of changing the lubes.. but was skirt-happy (first car that was able to burn rubber), i burnt out my clutch in that timeframe, my trannie went to ****.. had both replaced.. this is when i realized shopwork wasn't in my best interest, nor mindless revving to satisfy any desire for the smell of burnt rubber i may've had at the time.. so i immediately went out and bought a chilton and started performing all my maitenance myself, and am in the proccess of attacking the shops that warranted their fucked up work.. I.E.: NOISY trannie, terrible sounding engine, rough idle-backfiring.. car that passes smog before a tune up, yet fails after? (and i didnt even tune it up, had a shop do it before i got a chilton/a little bit of knowledge) you feel my pain? damn... i dont want nothin' to do with shops anymore im tellin ya.. ill even rip my trannie in half and replace gears if i have to.. ive got the original broke one still sitting in my garage on my workbench, ready to be molested for fun.. (no job, nothing to do) .. im willing to listen if ya'll are willing to guide me.

ok so now that ya got the breakdown lets get this show on the road...


"On measuring the voltage and resistance of your plugs.....did you have the car on or someone crank it while it was tested??"

I was trying to check the resistance of my plug WIRES.. the car was off, plug wires removed.. stuck one point end of the ohm meter into one end of the wire, stuck the other pointy end of the ohm meter into the other end of the wire while the ohm meter setting was at the check resistance location, No read.
no continuity.. no nothin. Visbily, the wires look good... I'm pretty sure my plugs themselves spark fine. never had a problem in that area.. mainly drivetrain problems and irritant noises with my car..


"Alot of what your describing sounds like your engine wasnt taken care of, if its that bad at 60k, guessing thats how many are on it. Why Did you get this engine if it was that bad?"

Aint that the truth.... Ive visited way too many auto-shops in the past to do my work for me, and bought a chiltons way too late.. not to mention discovered this board WAY, too late. That's engine abuse in itself. I swear this engine was flawless while under my ownership at one point in time! I just find myself on a neverending quest to restoration perfection! i know how she once was, and she is definately NOT the way she once was, currently.. Driving me crazy..


thx again for the replies, appreciate it.

-d16zNewb

 

Don't buy that MSD ****- go get cap-rotor-plugs from your honda dealer. If the wires are the original Honda ones (sumitomo) they are probably fine. All these aftermarket tune parts are crap (including bosch). I can't tell you how many poor running Hondas I work on that are fixed by replacing junk *** parts. If you need wires get some Hondas or at least some NGK wires. Stay away from the bullshit parts stores- it is all garbage.

 

sorry if I flamed you, but its alot easier to help with a problem if you know more of its history.

As for shops, I havent met one that did a decent job w/o the parts they fixed ****** up in less than month, sometimes a week. pisses me off.

 

Thanks for the guidance - fixhondas..

Instinct was telling me to avoid MSD from the get-go.. I ended up at manhonda.com (a link in someones sig for genuine honda parts), and am gonna get a genuine dist. cap for 13 bux, a genuine rotor for 11 bux, and most've the other **** i need for alot cheaper than these local "bullshit parts stores" :D minus the remanufactured power steering pump which is 120 dollars more than the local bullshit parts store's pump..
You know where I can find some NGK wires for a good price? will they mate nice with stock dist. and some denso plugs? Ill check if my factory wires are sumitomo, in which case i'll hang onto them if i have a problem with the ngk wire upgrade.. thanks again. finally getting this ignition thang unda contro'! ya'll are the best.


Any ideas on a winding/burnt bearing noise coming from the timing belt/camgear area? are there any bearings in there? camshaft connects directly to camgear doesnt it? guess i could check the chiltons.. bah.

Any ideas why my idle is fine at startup - 1500 til she opens up, steady at 650-750 when open, looking good... when i move her around and get her all hot n juicy and stop at say - a stop light - she dips down to 300 and stays there until i rev or drive somewhere else, in which case it most often goes back to 650 and pretends like nothing's changed.. ? ? ?

And finally .. advice on my trannie... thinkin i should take the car after i finish all this maitenance/replacement part crap directly to the recyclers i got the trannie from and have them listen to it to determine if my lifetime warranty warrants me a new one? any better suggestions/ideas?


other than that she seems to be under control mechanically.. ripped off my stock wing today.. didn't need a wing that does nothing back there, except add an extra brake light, and make my already disproportioned car look even more out of proportion...hah. any suggestions for plugging the holes remaining in my trunklid? some bondo/touchup paint?


thanks

 

if your tranny shifts funny, sticks in gears, or anything wierd take back to the place that did the job ASAP, I took mine back 3 times.

 

appreciate you takin' the time to put in a word, samdawg.. keepin' me alive here :D

i'll go ahead and go back when im done with these gasket replacements.... got in good with one of the recyclers when i was there, switched the 3 month warranty to a lifetime over the course of a b16 conversation for me.. hope they honor it.