Ok so my prelude shut off on me the other day as i was cruising at 2k rpm and wouldnt start up, i noticed that the cams were 180 degrees off when i removed the valve cover and the crank would turn over but the camshafts werent.(stripped timing belt). I removed the head and this is what i find. All the cylinder walls look ok except one which has some minor scoring. Im wondering if that cylinder needs to be honed? and i was expecting many bent valves but i dont see any indication of that. There is also a wierd splatter pattern on piston 3 that i cant explain.. that cylinder is the one with massive oil on the valves. The engine has 133k on it. It had some ignition problems at high rpm for the last 500 miles and besides that burned 1 quart of oil a week. Although it had oil leak on the vtec solenoid... There is a lot of what i assume to be carbon buildup on the valves and the pistons. perhaps my ignition was very weak and i wasnt getting a proper combustion in the chamber? perhaps the oil in cylinder 3 is from bad valve seats? I had a slight ticking for about 3k before this happened. Please give me any advise you can!! I need my baby back on the road!!!

Cylinder 1,2,3 all look fresh!!






Cylinder 4 has some scoring.. how bad do you think it is?








Now Cylinder 3 has these splatter patterns





this same cylinder has this awfull looking topend. there looks like the spark plug has a growth on it!!! wierd!!!



uburnt carbon buildup?






THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP AND ADVISE GUYS!!

 

That scored cylinder is probably where your oil is going, and that would explain the deposits in that combustion chamber. Stuff going the other way past the rings gets sucked up by the PCV and gets burned in the other cylinders. How nasty does the intake manifold look? Are the scores in that cylinder deep enough to catch a fingernail on? Since you have it this far apart already, I'd vote for a mild rebuild. 133k isn't that much mileage for a honda, so it shouldn't take too much to get things back in order. Clean everything up, inspect parts, replace some seals, get a fresh hone and drop in a set of 0.25mm oversize type S pistons.

A cheaper option would be to lightly hone that one cylinder in place with a fine grit, check the lands on that piston and put in a fresh set of rings for that cylinder.

 

yeah, looks like it would clean up with some oversized pistons. but your head makes me want to take mine off

 

Those pictures reminds me to Seafoam my engine soon.

 

the "splatter marks" on the one cylinder just look like layers of carbon that flacked off, then started to get covered with carbon again. that cylinder probably did it because the carbon got oil soaked and softed up.

seafoam FTW

 

Kind of looks likeyour inginition timing was way off, especially if it was making noise, but I could be wrong. I'd go ahead and hone the whole thing and then start with some OS pistons and start on fresh metal.

 

wow i think you would have noticed something the last time you changed your spark plugs those in the picture look really bad, unless this was all recent....

 

Or if the spark plugs hadn't been changed in a very long time, if at all.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Finest &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Those pictures reminds me to Seafoam my engine soon.

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My car probably has mass carbon build-up. My engine almost has 170k miles on it. I've heard some people with bad experiences with sea foam, and I'm kinda nervous to try it. Tell me how it works out for you if you try it.

 

looks like someone dropped a load on the plugs.

 

Please, people, keep these kinds of things up. This is how I get good shells with blown motors for cheap :D

 

if you can catch your nail on those score marks, they are way too deep. that cylinder looks like ****...and #3 is burning tons of oil...

who's he talking too? \/\/\/


Modified by tsiah at 2:40 AM 8/16/2007

 

^^^ Edit your post quick. Lots of shops can do FRM hones, bores, and sleeving. It does take a different stone but there are other shops then porsche shops that do FRM work.