My Si started dropping its idle on last thursday at a stop light. I didnt have time to mess with it at first so i continued to drive it then on saturday after leaving a friends house all of the sudden I had no power and was actually worried that i wasnt going to make it home. Well I made it home and started checking what it could have been. I checked the plug wires with an multi meter they all came out good then i pulled the spark plugs and the second one from the distributor was fouled pretty good and still wet. Then I checked inside the cap on the distributor and found that the screw that holds the rotor on the post had backed out and scared up the shroud inside the distributor. I put that back on and didnt notice any other damage inside the dizzy. I then took the car to the parts store and ran the CEl it came up with
P303 and P1399. P303 is a mis fire on Cylinder 3 and i dont know what P1399 is. Well when I got home I changed the spark plug and there was no difference. So once again the symptoms are low crappy idle and when pressing gas the car sounds like a Subaru sti. At higher RPMs there is plenty of power and no prob only at idle and accelerating is there a problem. All the engine is stock and hasnt given me much of a problem until now. Please any help you can give me will be much appreciated. Thank You Very Much.
P.S. How do you check the timing on a B16A2 engine?

 

bump

 

I would start by replacing the wires, cap, and rotor.

 

I'd start with a compression test. See if the numbers are even and go from there.

 

I havent tried that stuff yet but i did replace the plugs capa and rotor less than six months ago. Also when I pulled the #3 plug out it was wet like it hadn't been firing.

 

put a new cap on

 

bump

 

I have checked the following so far timing distributor injectors spark plugs and wires any other ideas

 

The distributor damage caused by the rotor coming loose deserves more attention. Have you replaced the cap and rotor? Have you compression tested the cylinders?

 

ive got an MSD pro billet dizzy and that **** blew up on me too. rotor came loose and destroyed the distributor, it also seized my cam and put it 90+ degrees out of timing, MSD replaced everything. you should start with a new cap, just because it has a new one doesnt mean it cant be bad. like ron said, that deserves more attention the distributor may be fine but without looking into it you will never see internal damage. just my .02

 

id kill myself for buyin an em1\

just kidding

 

LMAO. Its definitely got its moments! Sometimes i just want to push mine into the creek, or off a cliff, or just use it as the bonfire at a field party.

 

Ok so i went out and got a compression tester and i have 0 yep thats right zero compression in the number 3 cylinder now what?

 

Determine where compression is lost by doing a cylinder leakdown test.

 

Kinda figured. I'd start by checking the valve clearance. More than likely, it's fine. However, it may be too tight and holding the valves open (but your miss would have started right after a Tbelt change or valve lash). Could be the rings were stuck but you usually see around 90 psi if that's the fact. could be the you have a broken valve spring and a valve is hanging open. I'm thinking you will end up finding that you have a valve that is bent or, worst case, a hole in the piston. If you want to find the leak the easy way, leave your compression tester hose in there and put the cylinder at TDC for that cylinder. Now, set your air pressure at around 20 psi and hook up the air to it. Listen for the leak. If you hear it out the intake, it is intake valves. Out the exhaust, it's exhaust valves. If you take off the fill cap and it's coming out there, you are blowing past the rings or have a hole in the piston.

 

My life sucks. Honda said i would cost around 2500.00 to replace a burnt valve. I am screwed. I havent gotten this deep in an engine since high school. wish me luck!!!!!!

 

Honda is just trying to take you for a ride. You can get a good used head for 400-600 and gaskets for another 100 or so. I'd just pull the head off you have and take it to the machine shop and have them fix it as it will probably be less than half of what a good used head will cost. If you can do the work yourself, you can do it pretty reasonable.

 

If you're thinking TIMING, you could be going in the right direction. You could have a worn out timing belt or just some slack in it that only needs to be readjusted. You see, there is a sensor at the bottom of the crankshaft pulley that is called a CRANKSHAFT FLUCTUATION SENSOR. Now, follow me here, if you have ever needed to rotate the engine manually for any reason, I hope you rotated it COUNTERCLOCKWISE! Rotating the crankshaft CLOCKWISE can cause the timing belt to become out of adjustment. And, if it is, the slackness of the belt being out of adjustment will cause an ever-so-slight, and random, RPM difference between the crank and the cam, which the CPU will display, for some odd reason, as a specific, or random, cylinder misfire. If your belt is really bad, you will get random misfires on all 4 cylinders. There is a way to check this without tearing out the timing belt cover, which is a bear to do. Take off the valve cover and the top timing belt cover. Should be held on with 2-10mm bolts. Remove your spark plugs. Now, while looking down into the lower timing belt cover, have someone turn over the motor. While watching the belt go 'round and 'round, see if there is any "fluctuation" in the belt. There should be none. If there is, that could be your problem. Now, I'm not telling you that this is the problem but it's easier to check for this rather than pulling the top of the engine off without knowing what the actually problem is. Good Luck

 

Yes, great information. However, he only has one cylinder that is low on compression. If the timing had moved, all of the cylinders would be down the same amount...

 

pretty much try to narrow down the possibilites that will affect just one cylinder. for instance. bent valve in that cylinder. blow rings? bad ring land?

next step is do a wet compression. add a little oil into sparkplug number 3 before you do the compression test and read bad the results. if you get somewhat of a reading, than you know you hav blown rings..

 

Yeah, I missed the comment about no compression on #3, but unless one of the valves on #3 is really toast, it should read something. Maybe a very tight valve?

 

Well I think I found the problem check out the pic of the number three cylinders exhaust valve. The only question I have now is how does a burnt valve happen the only thing I have been doing different is i started using fred myer gas. Also before I was going through a quart of oil every 1000 miles or so but the car doesnt smoke or leak were could it be going? Well anyway check out the pic...

 

same **** happened to my friends accord exact same symptoms too. his exhaust valve looked like yours but his had about half of the valve missing. looked like somone bit it off like a cookie. cost him about 700 to reseat all the valves and replace two and he had it done at a shop in town.

 

any other ideas?

 

im having the same problem right now in my em1 throwing random missfire on cylinder one and i replaced the plugs cap and rotor and it went away for about three months now its back and i hope i dont have a burnt valve that would suck really bad