I find it hard to believe a search for "water in cylinders" yielded no results, even though I selected "topic names only".

Either way, I have another thread with a problem I thought I had, but bottom line is that I have water in cylinders 1 & 2, or is it 3 & 4? from the dist. side, the first two cylinders have water in them.

Did the typical test to see if there is fluid; remove single plug, remove all plug cables, crank, see the water shoot. Did this for all four cylinders and the first two from the dist. side had water shooting out with every crank.

So, besides a head gasket, what else would cause this? Don't the cylinder sleeves crack from time to time? Just curious because I've never had a cracked sleeve before.

 

First, #1 cylinder is always closest to the timing belt (or chain). That's the "front" side of the motor. So your problem is with #3 and #4.

Aside from the sleeve area and head gasket, the head itself can leak coolant. Just think about it for a minute and picture all the areas around the combustion chamber that have coolant around it. Come to think of it, on your manifold there's a coolant inlet/outlet right next to the #3 and #4 intake runner. It could be leaking from the intake manifold gasket itself and into the intake ports closest to it without having an external leak.

 

Hmm, yea I know what you're talking about on the IM, i need a refresher as to where that particular spot is...Is it the 1" bend "nipple" about a 1/4" wide? I'll have to check it out.

I also have no external leaking around the headgasket in any area of the motor. There is old dried up leakage that was never cleaned under the dist. but that's about it.

When i fill the rad with water, and then go crank for about 5 seconds straight, when i stop, I hear a weird suction noise...obviously water getting pulled into some place it shouldnt be.

Also, after a week of sitting in the shade, when i put the key into ACC position, the temp gauge goes up about 3/4 of the way. This is with a NEW coolant temp sensor (two prong under dist) and topped off with water. The only thing I can think of is external temperature is getting into the motor and its reading hot.

 

Have you reattached the intake manifold for any reason recently? Apart from the things that have already been mentioned, i've seen people hook up the IACV coolant lines to the vac lines on the back of the intake manifold which causes coolant to pump into the motor.

 

No, I haven't done anything like that. I can't work on the car until tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to start tearing it down for a headgastet replacement, unless I see something obvious.

 

The ambient air temperature won't cause it to read hot, unless it's like 170 F outside

My bet is on the head gasket

 

So what would cause the temp gauge to go up that high when in the ACC position after sitting for a week, then with a brand new CTS, and also a temp gauge sensor that actually works. All that along with an ECU reset and battery disconnect.

 

A poor connection. Ambient temperature would never get hot enough to show a reading on the gauge.

 

honestly man if i were you i'd pull the harness out, test all the connections look for any damaged/frayed wires since it seems like you're having electrical issues. do a leak down test to confirm the leak, unless you look down the tubes and can see the coolant in the cylinders

 

Do you think the CTS could have a bad connection or the temp gauge sensor? Both right next to each other I know, there is a chance that the temp gauge sensor itself is faulty....I had a bouncing temp gauge about a month ago and i noticed the wire for that sensor was crimped together for some reason so i re-did the connection...maybe it came apart, i have to look.
I'll really get into the wiring today a little bit later on. But i do know for a fact that I have water in cylinders 3 and 4. It squirted out of each spark plug hole while cranking with no plugs in those cylinders.

 

So, this is my plan for later on:

-Felpro head gasket, I don't want the MLS simply because I want the compressed cardboard to help fill in the little nicks and grooves. I will not be getting the head resurfaced or anything like that.

-Cleaning of the TB and IACV, the TB has had the adjuster screw turned quite a bit to try and maintain a level idle, but I feel that I may have jacked it up. Is there anyway to know where the stock position of the adjusting screw is supposed to be? I'm talking about the brass colored screw that faces the opening on the TB.

-Replacing spark plugs, iridium or copper? NGK or something else? I don't want something that will burn too hot, I want to save gas as much as I can.

 

I can pretty much guarantee everyone on here will say go for NGK. I have always used NGK plugs on all of my Hondas. I use the Iridium, but I don't notice any difference when I switch to cheaper plugs (but I'm no expert).

I'm trying to find the stock idle screw setting right now, I can't remember off the top of my head

Edit - looks like its roughly two turns out from all the way in, then fine tune from there. Hope that helps

 

yea thanks man. $14 for a set of NGK iridium is a good price. pretty much all i've used also, just wanted another opinion.

I'll check the adj screw.

 

Yeah, I agree. I bitched about it before, then helped my buddy do a tune up on his hemi dodge ram.....hahahah......those bastards have two plugs per cylinder: 2x8 = 16 plugs! I took back all the complaints I had about forking out 20 bucks or so on 4 spark plugs

Did you already pull the head?

 

Naa not yet. I'm at work, I wont be into the **** until like 6 tonight. Removal and clean up today, installation tomorrow morning.

I've done this before but its been a while on an EF, what would be the FASTEST, but safest way to remove the head? For some reason I thought i had to redo the timing, but I don't.

 

Nah, you got it, dude. Should be fairly simple, especially since its a sohc. Do you have a manual? Just be sure to set it at TDC, and follow the torque specs carefully when putting it back on. Not to sound like a nag or anything, but head gaskets are prone to blow when the head is not true, so it is recommended to have the head resurfaced or at least have it checked to see if it is within tolerances and also use new head bolts. But ****, I've done both and had no problems with either. I would just suggest having the head resurfaced if the problem arises again.

Good luck man, you gotdatsheeyitt ha

Edit - dang forgot to say to take the time while the head is off and look very close for any cracks or imperfections that would allow water intrusion into the cylinders. You can also use a right angle straight edge and feeler gauges to check for warping on the block, but not required, ya know?

 

Yea I have manual and all that good stuff, this will be my 3rd or 4th time doing this type of thing on an EF alone. The last time I've done it, my 1/2 torque wrench DID NOT click when i hit the certain lbs and i stripped the threading in the block for the head bolt. So i'm a little leery of doing this again.

I don't have neither the time or extra cash right now to get the head resurfaced or any of that stuff so i'll have to just take my chances.

 

24TEN IS A ******* PRO...OTHERS HERE ONLY TALK ABOUT HOSE /RAD LEAK AND OUT SUBJECT THING AND DONT SEEM TO DO REAL HONDA MECHANICS...

24TEN SAID:
It could be leaking from the intake manifold gasket itself and into the intake ports closest to it without having an external leak...

MY 2001 GSR 60K miles was burning ignition coil every days..soon has I was reving 8000RPM TO BREAK IN MY PISTON RINGS my catch tank was boiling and shooting air and boiling prestone every where inside my engine bay...
The car was shooting lots of water from tail pipe if like it was broken head gasket or a block/head leak...

IT WAS THE ******* INTAKE MANIFOLD WAS CRACKED AND LEAKING PRESTONE FROM INSIDE TO THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER FROM INTAKE VALVE ..INVISIBLE TOO SEE...
the fuckign air was suck into the coolant passage making impossible for me to bleed the coolant systeme...THE IGNITION COIL KEEP BURNING AND GOING OUT OF SPEC cuz of water on spark plug that keep raizing the ampere...speacialy when reving red line !!!!

INTAKE MANIFOLD SOMETIME HAVE INVISIBLE LEAK FROM INSIDE AND IF YOU DONT REV TOO HIGH THE CAR DONt OVER HEAT!!!! WHEN YOU REV HIGH RPM THA CAR CAN OVERHEAT AND START BURNING LOTS WATER from tail pipe and kill lots of ign coils....


24TEN you are a pro you should have post 1 month ago in the forum why honda vtec ign coils burn a lots!!!! You would had save me l;ots of time/coils and a blocked cat!!!

~sp33~ is a god too... To many people are shooting prestone into the iacv to the motor after they changed the head gasket or manifold and pluged back all wrong!!!