hey guys, just bought a new ef yesterday! got problems already. it is swapped with the d16a6 motor. its manual 5 speed. in a 91 civic dx model.

guy I bought it from for whatever reason said he didn't have time to put the stock front motor mount on, so I drove it home that way with the mount in the trunk. went to a friends house just drove it lightly for an hour or so. got home that night and as I wait to pull into my garage cuz we had to move another car, smoke starts coming from under the hood.

its coolant. its dripping quite a bit everytime I start the car. it appears to be coming from a hose that goes from the head to the intake manifold, but im not so sure, its a good sized puddle after seconds of running.

im just trying to get this all figured out and get this car running good.

let me know what you guys think, im a little stumped.

 

... is the hose cut?? Does it have a hose clamp on each end?

 

it is clamped on each end, and the hose looks perfect. which is why I don't get it. here are some pictures


this is the house I see a little puddle of coolant from, at the base of the head where it connects.


different view.

after 5-7 seconds of running, than I shut it off, seems to be leaking quite a lot for that little hose. but I see no where else that looks like it could be coming from.

help greatly appreciated

 

figured it out, I had to remove the intake a clutch cable bracket to get a better look, it had a pin hole in it! now im working on getting the front mount in, any tricks you guys know?

this is my first ef. can I just remove the fan shroud and slide it in, or do I have to remove the whole radiator?

how do you guys do it?

 

i'd say remove the whole radiator and do a flush after the mount install.
i mean, since that hose was leaking you're probably going to do a radiator flush anyway.
and its pretty easy getting that radiator out.

just my .02

 

very true, while waiting for that response I was actually able to get the mount to slide in using wood and a jack and moving the motor up and down just slightly, however, the bolt wont line up for the life of me. like I said im new to efs, let me know what you think, do I have the right mount? its a d16a6 in a 91 civic dx

 

okay, just started the car to make sure the leak was all good, let it run for a few minutes, no leak, shut it off, theres the leak..there is no more hole in the hose. what could it be?

the guy said he recently changed the coolant, could it be he didn't bleed the system? could that cause it to somehow push out of the hose?

 

Bump! Anyone know if the system not being bled could be the problem? I'll probably bleed tomorrow anyways, just ran out of time tonight!

All help appreciated!

 

alright guys! so I was able to get the coolant leak fixed, as well as the front motor mount on, now I get another problem. slight oil leak.

it is dripping from below where the engine and transmission meet onto the floor after I shut the car down, it drips for a while and than as the motor cools down it stops. i was thinking it could possibly be the distributor o ring because there is some oil on my block, valve cover looks to clean to be coming from there but im not sure.

i have a picture of below my distributor and of the oil leak on the floor.





does it look like it may be from the o ring from the picture?
would that be too much oil for it to be from there?

this much was on the ground after about 7-8 hours of it sitting and being shut off.

let me know what you guys think or if anyone has had something like this!

 

pull the dizzy and check the oring. it's not uncommon for it to be brittle and cracked.

 

Distributor o-ring or valve cover gasket.

Also when you figure out a solution to your problem be sure to post what you did to fix it. This helps noobs with the same problems that are searching google/the forum.

 

Will do! Thanks. And well I went down to honda after work last night picked up just the o ring for now, went home cleaned the block and around where all the oil was so I could restart it and wait for a trail. Went to start it and NOTHING! Did some troubleshooting and I decided it was the battery, went down had it tested. It was shot. So I picked up a new battery but by this time it was too late.

So today I will be putting the battery on and continuing my search for the oil leak. Thanks for the replies guys. I will report back with what I find!

 

What were your troubleshooting steps?

 

First I listened to make sure when I turned the key that my fuel pumped primed and my main relay clicked, both did what they should. Than I checked to make sure all ground were tight and had a good connection, my last civic had a loose ground and did something very similar. But those were good as well.
Next I had someone try to turn it over while I listened near the engine bay.. I heard nothing but a slight hum. My dash lights and stereo were working, checked my headlights and when I turn both my corner and headlights on, only the corners worked. I than automatically started thinking weak battery or alternator was the problem.
Now I have been working on this car so all I've been doing is starting and shutting it off. And going for short drives. Probably not giving the battery anytime to get a good charge especially if it's old and in need of replacing anyways. Normally I would've pulled out a multimeter and checked voltage but I was in a hurry and just had a feeling it was the battery.
Thankfully it wasn't my alternator.
I'll have more detailed info on the oil leak posted up tonight.

 

okay, so i installed the new battery and now all is good again. so from there i went ahead and marked my distributor, removed it, replaced the old o ring. which was very hard and put everything back together. started it up let it run a little, moved through the rpms. shut it off. waited. no leak. moved the other car out of the driveway so i could back out. went for about a 10 minute drive. some cruising, some getting on it.

came back, and the leak is here again. it started much much slower. but not this morning seems have leaked about the same size puddle as before. but i can gurantee the o ring was part of the problem. i had oil all on my temp gauge and connections, as well as on the backing of the distrubtor, so at least that is now replaced.

what would be next. valve cover gasket? it really doesn't look like its leaking from there. i don't see any oil that high up, but i suppose its still possible.

on the passenger front left of the engine block. i see oil. headgasket, i now its not common but maybe?

let me know what you guys think.

 

Does the distributor shaft have any play to it? If it has play then it's possible that it has an internal problem and a new o-ring won't fix that leak. Is there any oil coming out from where the dizzy meets the head?

 

that may be the reason. play as in the shaft the goes into the camfshaft has some side to side movement? if so than yes, it did notice that. but wasn't sure if it was normal or not.

and there does look to be some more oil below the distributor again after driving it once or twice, but none near the valve cover or any below it.

just from dizzy down. so maybe that could be it. what would I do to check if I need a new dizzy or new internal parts?

and what are the chances of oil actually leaking out from the headgasket? im thinking its just oil coming down from wherever making it look like its from there. but im just not sure. I know normally coolant leaks from headgasket and not oil, but I don't know if the head has been removed before maybe causing it to leak some oil.

let me know what you guys think! wanna get this figured out so I can daily it!

 

i'd say oil pan gasket. mine was a PITA to get sealed, leaking under the rear hump from an over tightened gasket

 

A slight amount of play in the distributor shaft is pretty normal, but excessive play can lead to ignition timing being slightly off, back firing (in more sever cases), and allowing the rotor to hit on the inside of the cap. Is there any rusty-colored dust on the inside of the dizzy cap? Red/rusty-colored dust usually points to a shaft bearing that is about to go out and would need to be replaced.

You said in an earlier post that you removed the dizzy to replace the o-ring.. Did you happen to put any honda-bond/sealant between the dizzy and the head where their matting surface meet? It's possible that oil is leaking out between those two surfaces and a bead of honda-bond might fix it right up!

I believe that the head gasket would only leak coolant, but I could be wrong.

 

There was one section that had a tiny tiny amount of red colored dusty stuff. But I'm talking like tiny amount. As for the play in the shaft I don't believe it was to excessive.

And when I replaced the o ring I didn't apply any type of honda bond or sealant? Should I have? And if so where exactly?

As for leaking from the oil pan I suppose that could be the problem if it was over tightened. But how would it drip from where the tranny meets the block? Possible it's being forced out to the side? And besides the o ring and if so apply some sealant and still have a leak, what else could my problem be?

Anything else I should be looking into?

 

In some applications using honda bond will cure the leak, but, because of the red dust, it probably won't help. Ideally there shouldn't be any red dust, as this is a sign of either the shaft bearing or the rear bushing going out, which could be causing the seal to leak. When you replaced the external o-ring did you clean around the matting surface of the distributor as well as where the seal rides? Any gunk or debris could cause the seal to still be leaking.

 

I did, I wiped it down as best I could, and than installed the o ring. do you think its worth trying out some Honda bond? or will just some high temp rtv work? or should I look into a new distributor/replacing the internal seal? I will take some pictures of the red dust inside the cap now so you can see it and post the picture up.

I have to replace my radiator in the next couple days when I get time so hopefully I can fix the two together and get this thing back on the road!

 

there is a tiny amount on top of the silver shaft in this picture, kinda hard to see.



and there is also a tiny tiny bit on the crank rotor in this picture.

its barely visible. but those are the two spots where im seeing it.

 

Besides the strange color of the shaft that goes into the ignition coil, that all looks really good! So I don't believe you have a bearing problem!

Perhaps your purchased an o-ring for the wrong engine? I know the distributors on obd-0 b16's are a little tricky to buy parts for. What car did you use to purchase the o-ring for? I believe the correct parts for that dizzy would be from a 91 Integra.

And this is the red dust I was talking about. So glad yours doesn't look like that!

 

its actually a d16a6 in this. and I used a 90 civic dx. but I had him check if it was the same for a crx which is the car this motor comes in as far as I know. but he said they were the same part number.

and well glad to hear I don't get any red dust problems! haha.

it looked pretty much the same as the old o ring. just newer. so a little more round the old one was really hard an flat.

even with a new o ring, is there anything that can cause the dizzy to steal be leaking externally?