Okay here we go. I'm trying to get my car to pass Safety and Emission, but is had a CEL come on. I brought it in to Tunex in Orem and had them do a diagnostics on it. The main and only problem as far as passing goes, was low compression, causing the engine to misfire.

Compression status:
- 1: 158
- 2: 140
- 3: 130
- 4: Almost 130.

So yeah, that needs to get fixed. As far as what could be causing this goes and prices to go along with getting it fixed:
- Distributor cap and rotors are burnt. ($100-120)
- Fuel injectors are lean and need to be flushed. ($130)
- The valves are out of adjustment. ($150)
(Timing belt is getting old too. $400 range to get fixed)

Here come the questions:
- What are the odds of having those fixes actually resolve the problem? And raise the compression high enough to pass?
- Are those prices reasonable?
- Are any of those things that would be reasonably easy to DIY?
- Any suggestions to simply getting it to pass emissions?

What are you thoughts?

 

Nothing?

 

None of those "fixes" will affect cylinder compression, unless the valve lash is set so tightly that the valves don't close all the way when the engine is at operating temperature. If that's the case then you may have some burned exhaust valves.

Low cylinder compression can be attributed to several things: blown head gasket, shot piston rings, bent valves, among other things. A leakdown test will help pinpoint the problem. Also any kind of smoke coming out of the tail pipe would indicate either coolant or oil getting into the combustion chamber.

Either way, the engine head is going to have to come off, which is pretty damn expensive with labor if you have it done somewhere.

As for those prices, a distributor cap and rotor shouldn't cost more than about $30 with OEM Honda parts and take about 10 minutes to change. Even if that price is with labor it's still outrageous. Flushing fuel injectors? Not real familiar with that. Valve lash adjustment requires no parts, so that price is strictly labor. Anyone who is familiar with B-series engines should be able to do a valve lash adjustment in about an hour or less. Are they charging $150/hr for labor??

 

Hmm, sounds like I'm about to get ripped off here. I haven't noticed any smoke coming out of my tail pipe, but I'll check that along with seeing if there is any oil in the coolant. I've heard that if you have a bad/blown head gasket you will get some coolant spilling, would that coolant be spilling on the radiator or where?

So those fixes are not really relevant to getting the compression up huh? And taking off the head I'm assuming is something that someone with minimal experience doing engine work should do himself, am I right?

 

I could pull the head on my car, but then again I've been working on and around Hondas for nearly a decade. No I would NOT attempt it with only minimal mechanic experience. If you can change timing belts, pull intake manifolds, and pull entire engines, then yeah you can probably do it. Otherwise no unless you have a factory Helms manual and plenty of tools.

 

Helms manual - negative. I have an Integra Service manual thing though.
Tools - negative. I guess I'll have to see what the results from my leak-down test will be.