Hello, I'm working on a 1995 Accord V6 2.7. The head gasket went out, and I have just completed the majority of the work to replace it. I have done several head jobs before, but this one is giving me trouble, and I was wondering if someone who has more experience with this engine could lend some advice.

After starting it up, I found the car was relatively hard to start, and when it did start, the idle would bounce between 12 and 1600 rpms rather violently, and make a distinct banging sound from the front, which I assume to be backfiring. There was whitish thick smoke coming from the exhaust randomly, but not the kind I usually see from burning coolant.

I'm thinking something is up with either the firing order or the timing, but I got the marks pretty darn close... Any thoughts or things to check?

 

Check if you connected all your sensors such as the coolant temp sensor, that can cause the issues you're having... i don't know about the smoke tho (maybe just condensation).

Check all your electrical connections for sure, including the firing order.

 

Sounds good, when I get a chance to get back to it, I'll report back. Do you think if the timing was off, it would cause a bang like that? seems like it would effect everything uniformly and just run sluggish.

 

I don't know double check timing as well...see if its throwing codes too or if any are stored.

No need to over complicate things Honda's are not hard to work on once you know all the right methods. Worst case is you bent the valves by installing the belt wrong.

 

make sure plug wires are in correct location at distributor.

 

I dont think I bent a valve. I guess the bolt holes for the exhaust manifold shields feed into the manifold, so I guess my backfire was just an exhaust leak, fixed that, then found I forgot to connect the brake booster vacuum line and reconnect the IAC connector. So now it runs pretty darn close to excellent, but there are a couple of issues.

First one is on startup and shutdown. The back head sounds like it back fires through the exhaust a tad (flapping exhaust kind of sound). I know the back cam was a little less than half a tooth off, and I hadn't realized it until it was all back together, but can this really make that big of a deal? How exact to the marks need to line up?

The other thing I noticed is the exhaust seems to be putting off white/gray smoke, but it is not coolant. It does not smell sweet, (instead burnt), and is more opaque. It's improved since the engine's been running but is still present. I was wondering if maybe this is incomplete combustion from the cam being off? The only other thing I can think of is the side covers need new gaskets and maybe some of the oil was seeping down into the manifold.

 

If anyone ever encounters something like this, there is no room for error on the timing for these. Teeth need to be lined up perfectly. Everything runs great now.

 

good work with solution