Hi everyone, just joined up to see if anyone can shoot some insight my way.

I have a 1996 Civic DX with a D16Y7 automatic tran.

A few weeks ago I got a check engine light

I was throwing up three misfire codes and one multiple misfire.

I replaced plug wires and plugs and I was good for about a week, then the light came back on, I checked my plugs and noticed that only after a week all of the gaps were off and the plugs were charred.

I took it to my uncle who does a lot of honda work (runs a 1999 Civic bought brand new, now on his fourth upgrade to a H23A) He ran a compression check that showed that I was running maybe one cylinder that was dead on, while the other three were borderline failing the test (not matching up to what they should be ( i believe they were in the 135 area and a little lower.

I was wondering what things (short of an engine swap) could be done to solve this problem.

A few other things that my uncle noted
-My gas smells wierd (I have only been filling up at Rutter's that use no ethanol and have been putting regular unleaded in it. The last time I ran High octane booster was over a month ago)

-I am leaking oil from somewhere other than the oil pan (there were no distinct signs of where it was coming from.

-I am still burning oil slightly

Any ideas?

If you'd like pictures of anything let me know, I'd be happy to oblige.

 

so your losing oil?
what about coolent?
do you have smoke out the tailpipe?

you should have all 4 cylnders within 5-10 of each other on a compression test

if its coolant your loosing change the headgasket.
if your loosing oil....change the piston rings and headgasket.

its easy and it only takes a few hours.
get a new dizzy cap they are $15. at least take yours off and scratch the electrodes on the inside.

take off the plugs.
valvecover.
drain coolant and oil
unbolt intake mani
and exhaust mani and slide them out
head studs
pull the head off

 

I actually just noticed today that my oil problem is coming from my valve cover, I need a new gasket in there. I have Replaced my Distributor cap and I also sanded some corrosion off the contacts from the old Cap that remained on the distributor. I cleaned everything and put a cold air intake on it while I was at it.

The car seems to be running a lot better now and to answer your questions, I'm not losing any coolant, and there hasn't been any smoke out the pipe since summer weather has been around. I am losing oil but I want to change the valve cover gasket first and see if that changes anything in my oil. It seems to be a minor leak so I'm not sure if that will account for all of the oil loss, but one can hope.

I also plan on running another compression test and making sure my plug gaps are correct within the next week when I can get it to a garage.

Thank you for the help and I will definately post back with more information when I have it.

5/10/11
-Changed Valve Cover Gasket and oil loss dropped, I think I still might be burning a little. Last computer check only ahowed a 4th cylinder misfire. and since I have reset the computer after changing the dist. cap and everything the light hasn't came back. I need to get my spark plugs regapped and my valves as well. After all that is said and done she should be right back on track.
Thanks!