O.K. here is the deal..... Morning when its cold it has some piston tap because I guess with old Hondas the cylinder walls wear or something... but this is really bugging me. Any fixes?

Secondly when I take it up to the higher rpms or almost redline or downshift it seems to like to smoke/burnoil on me. Why? Piston rings? Valve seals? Head gasket?

Finally leaves a lot of residue on the rear bumper (black) I am guessing the oil or running rich and it is losing oil (guessing from burning it out) because the oil is low after a while, especially if driven kinda hard. What can solve this or what is the causes?

I do know it has a small oil leak behind the timing belt cover but that will get fixed when timing belt is changed and its only a small drip every once in a while

What is the compression on our engines? What is perfect compression across all 4 cylinders?

FACTS:
1990 EX
F22a4
134,000 miles
Oil changed before 3k/3months
Babied and driven hard when needed

Please help me out if you can and I know I am probably needing to save my pennies for the swap or new car!! Help a fellow member out....Thanks in advance

 

Can anyone answer any of my questions? I would really appreciate any help!!!

 

FWIW, I recently I solved a similar cold morning noise problem with my '88 Accord hatchback (4 cyl, carb, vacuum controlled everything). After reducing valve lash to spec and shimming the reed valve body in the air injector (it had become loose) my noise problem went away. Which fix did the trick I do not know but one of them helped.

Marc

 

what color is the smoke?

 

For the tapping, you may just need to do a valve lash adjustment (not hard at all--part of a tune up). For the running rich, it could be an oxygen sensor, bad TPS, bad fuel injector, possibly a PCV valve...or something else that I don't know about. Is it throwing any codes?

134k is pretty low mileage, so it "shouldn't" (but still can be) rings, valve seals, or headgasket. A compression test can tell all

 

Honestly not sure what color the smoke is because I don't notice during the day.....I only have noticed at night when friends or cars are behind me and I see the smoke in the headlights of their cars...but the bumper is really black and suitty (SP?). Guess I will have to do a compression test! Anyone know what the compression is on the F22a4 90 Accord EX?? THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP SO FAR

 

Modified by CardDealer at 4:18 PM 11/17/2006