so I've finely found out why my 90 civic isn't running right ever since I got it 2 weeks ago... Did all maintenance on it spent lots of $ to find out today all the cylinders were 180 psi except cylinder #2 which was 10 psi... I did a leakdown test but to no avail, the cylinder stayed at 10 psi, so I'm guessing this is because of a broken or burnt valve? If so, how hard is this to replace, I got my teg I'm using for daily driving so time isn't an issue... But can I replace the valve by myself with basic hand tools or do I need a machine shop to do it, and if so, how much? Thanks!

 

Why did you say the leakdown failed?

It's a test, it can't really fail. Do you know how to do a leakdown test? If you don't have compression, a leakdown test will tell you where you're losing compression.

 

I didn't say it failed, just said to no avail, it didn't raise compression so as far as I know that means the valves are the culprit correct? Plz correct me if i'm wrong. Bump.

 

A leakdown test doesn't raise the compression.

Let's say that you do a compression test and one cylinder is down. (Like your scenario.) That sucks, but you have no idea where the engine has gone bad. A leakdown will pinpoint it for you. You zero the dial, fill the cylinder with air, and the guage will read a percentage of leakdown.

Ex. - You have 100 psi and 90% leakdown. That means that the leakdown tester filled the cylinder with 100 psi of air, but 90 psi is escaping somewhere. Then, you listen to the throttle body, radiator cap, crankcase, exhaust tip, etc. to hear where it's coming from.

 

Ah ok that makes a lot more sense than how I've had that explained to me... Thanks, guess I'll do more diagnosing in the morning. So when I did the leakdown test the compression didn't go up at all, still at about 10 psi... What sound am I looking for when I'm suppose to be listening to the places u mentioned above? Thanks.

 

http://www.geocities.com/dsmgr...HowTo

and a more honda specific one: https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1863822