So.. my car has been running like **** lately. Honestly, I haven't really driven it in the past 5 months.

The transmission is completely f'ed up (don't expect anyone to know about autos) and the engine is leaking oil and running a little weird. I don't expect anyone to know what my oil leak is either, because after 5 mo and $1,000 I can't figure it out.

ANYWAY.. so the engine is running rough, shaking a little, and idles funny. I know I could play with my IACV and all that, but that's not a real fix. It's just a cover up. So I was wondering, what can I do to improve this? After 120,000 hard miles, it's just a bad engine. I checked vac lines, all that, nothing is wrong. Emissions are perfect. So what do you think? Will engine restore work? Or should I use Sea foam or something like that?

I did some research on H-T, didn't really find the right answer. If some of you could throw in some advice it would be much appreciated. I'm gonna go outside and play around with it a little.

PS- I just added in some kind of stop leak, hopefully that will work something for me.


Modified by Attaus at 9:50 PM 4/25/2007

 

Just get a new engine, thats what im doing 550 bucks for one with 25,000 on it, and I used to have a Toyota celica and I used engine resorte every oil change never noticed a difference thats just my experience.

 

I'm guessing you've done the basic things like replacing basic ignition parts, etc? If yes, then try taking it to a dealer that does 3 step induction services. They'll run you a fair amount, but there's a good chance it'll take care of your problem

 

i work for a major auto repair center the largest in the nation and the 3 step fuel induction service wont work its mainly preventative maintenance any service engine lights on?

 

Well, I've seen it clean up some pretty bad idle and misfire problems before, not to mention how well they work on a vehicle in good shape with nothing but high miles

 

true but the problem seems to be more than a simple cleaning i had the same problem and it was tappets stuck it might not be his problem but after so many months of not running its possible there getting stuck?

 

the money that you will spend trouble shooting you can go buy a decent used egine. get the h22 and drop that bitch in. its not bad at all...just my opinion. i put like 300 my h23 and there was so much wrong with it i would have come out cheaper buying a swap, which i ended up doing anyway because it had bad seals.

 

i got 146k on my h23 and put 500 into it and picked it up alot i travel 1.5 hours to work and then that back every day and im happy with it i dont haqve cash or the time to do it but running from the problem at hand wont make it any easier to fix things later i find the best way to learn is from just doing it? thats just my opinion

 

I work at a ford dealership in Georgia...we offer the BG three strep induction service...it takes away a lot of harsh idle problems, sticky TB's, and a lot of carbon build up in the engine...I do it to my cars and would rec to anyone with idle problems ... it'll run you probably 50 - 60 bucks...But if you're just going to rebuild...just buy a new engine...Sell you my h23 :D

 

price looking to build a h23 vtec?

 

Haha, I appreciate the enthusiastic "H22 swap" or rebuild comments, but I'm not really looking to do either. Money is tight, and I don't want to spend a lot more. The truth is, I want to sell it and not deal with this particular Lude. I would rather get one with a 5 spd. With the prices I would be paying for a 5spd conversion and rebuild/new motor, not to mention body work and all that, I could get a cherry Lude.

I just tried to check my CEL, but nothing's happening. It won't come on with just ignition, only when the car is started, and it won't give me the code. Either I'm doing it wrong or I have a bad ECU.



Disregard the blue and yellow wire. That's from some gay lights I removed and never took the wires out. That's the plug right?

 

took me wrong , how much for the h23?

 

Nah can't swap in a new H23 either.

 

similar thing going on with my car, it has a bunch of things wrong with it and if i was to get it all fixed it would cost more than a jdm motor would, but i dont want to spend any more money on it either. the oil leaks from multiple spots, the abs is faulty antena and radio dont even work. what im planing to do is just change the head gasket casue im thinking a major part of teh oil leak is comming from there. I wish i had the option to sell it, but the car is under my mom's name and she refuses to sign any bill of sale. i tried all those oil leak stopper products and all of them didnt work, so im gonna assume seafoam wont work either. imo selling it and getting a 5spd lude is prolly best, but with all the problems with your car the amount you might get for it might not be worth it. anyways, good luck with whatever you plan to do

 

dude your looking to patch **** up until in rolls back around the bight you in the ***...do it right the first time and you want have to worry about it. but these quick fixes arent fixing nothing. its just patching it up for a month or so..so do the swap and call it a day. its really not that much.

 

dupont makes a good restore chemical which is what I use and its great. I also use seafoam on every car I have and thats awesome. but I only use royal purple oil which makes a big difference on performance and idle.

 

for one of your leaks that can magically displace itself in many magical and different areas, try the oil cooler O-ring b4 you do headgasket. if leak occurs there it can hit your axle while dripping down and end up in different areas, it can drip onto your cross support and travel ontop of that, or it can drip down beside and down right under your tranny, depending on what angle you park on. so it can end up looking like its leaking in 519034803284 spots but really only be comming from one or two spots. head gasket if you see coolent in your engine oil, or do a leak down test/compression tests to see if air is escaping between cylinders.

 

The o-ring right behind the oil filter was replaced already.. :/

I probably won't do the HG if that's what it is.

Today when I started the car after some driving, it idled really low and almost died. It dropped to like <500 RPM. Could this be due to the heavier oil weight? (10w30) The only other thing I've changed in the past month or two is back to older plugs, but those were fine for 10k miles.