My prelude is running very rough. Its blowing quite a bit of black smoke so must be running very rich.
I replaced the valves, seals, piston rings, head gasket timing belt ect a few months ago and it ran alright when I started it but the head gasket was leaking so I replaced the head gasket with a better quality gasket and cleaned the surface better.
I started it today after getting everything back together and it sounds like a tractor and blows black smoke.

The distributor seems to be sparking fine and the spark plugs have only done about 1000km so they should be fine. I checked to make sure the timing belt didnt skip a tooth but everything was still lined fine.
I looked over all the wires and hoses, they all seem to be in the correct place.
My knock sensor is unplugged atm but that wouldn't cause it to run this bad, would it?

Any suggestions what it could be or where to go next?


Here's a video of it running:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23nQG...ature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKp7i...ature=youtu.be

 

Check n compare the spark plug why dont you.that's the easiest way to tell ur engine condition on all 4 cylinders.
Btw wat engine?ur video link don work man.

 

yeah ive checked them, all 4 look the same. I fixed the video links. Its a h22a

 

wow that sounds like ****.

have you checked your timing?

what about distibutor timing? does your dizzy have the adjustment notch in it to fine tune the ignition timing?

 

yeah its pretty bad. The cams and mark on flywheel line up. I tried adjusting dizzy forward and back a few degrees but it just made things worse.

 

Did you put a timign light on the the flywheel while its runnign to check to see if the ignitiont timing is correct?

You cant just turn the dizzy back and forth to see if it works, you need to use timing light and match it to the mark on flywheel.

 

No I dont have access to or have the money to buy a timming light atm but dont think its that because I think there would be a slight difference in how it runs if I try it at a few different positions but it does not get any better. I did a compression test and got 120-125 on all cylinders. The numbers are quite low but I was happy that they were at least the same across all 4 cylinders. I did the test while the engine was cold because it wouldn't run long enough to reach proper temperature and I also haven't driven it since I put the new rings in so I guess that if they aren't embedded properly it could also cause the compression to not be as high. so i think everything internally is good.

 

check cam timing with crank timing gear or crank pulley if you have the lower timing cover intact. Using the flywheel can be very deceiving without a timing light. You can also use a timing light on the cam gears.
any check engine lights?

 

I had a similar problem on my H23a1 and it ended up being that my timing belt placement was off by a couple of teeth on my crank....must have jumped even though the two cams we matched up correctly. Ran like crap and it huffed and puffed just like yours in the video.