Ok so I have definitely screwed something up here. D16Y8 with valve noise that I thought was a little too loud. Car was running perfectly. I pulled the LMA's to validate that they were smooth, I pulled them, wiped them down and verified that they moved smoothly without binding up. I put them back in with the pointy side down. I also checked them with a flathead when installed and they seemed to move smoothly. I moved on and adjusted the valves. There were maybe 3 valves that were above .011 but almost every other valve was under .007. I adjusted every intake valve to .007-.009. I set it so that .007 was able to move in and out and .009 would no longer fit. Again this was a bit looser than it was when I started. The exhaust I did in the same way but .009 fit and .011 would not. I checked every valve at least 3 times to be sure it as correct. I started the motor and listened and it was definitely quieter. I also did a compression test and the results were 175/170/170/165. Numbers were not perfect but I didn't see any concern. Most likely the noise was the few loose valves. I let it run for a good 30 minutes and it sounded fine. The next day I tried to go to the grocery store and as I was pulling out the car lost all power.

After investigation I found that the key had sheared off. So I just thought that I had damaged it when spinning the motor backwards doing the adjustment. I replaced it on Sat and drove the car and it ran perfect. Drove it around town and drove it hard a few times just to feel it out. The next day I was heading out to the beach with my wife and I made it about 15 miles going up a hill and boom, lost all power again. I pulled the valve cover and timing cover and I can see that the key is sheared off again. Now I am a bit frustrated. I also noticed that there was a little bit of coolant on plug 3 and I checked with a light and could see a few droplets of green coolant on the piston for 3-4.. So I guess the head gasket is toast. Most likely it was close to going out anyway with those numbers. I think I will go ahead and order a new gasket today and pull the head in the next few days.

Any ideas on why I am having this issue? With the head off I can inspect the valves to see if I have any issues there and grab a new head if need be.

 

Show pictures of the cam's, outside of the engine.

 

Remove distributor and confirm it turns freely. You will notice a "cogging" effect from the magnetic sensors, but you should be able to turn the drive dog by hand without tools.

Make sure there is no oil on the mating surfaces on end of the cam and the gear, and the bolt is properly torqued. The key isn't intended to handle the full operating torque. It depends on metal to metal friction as well.

If this happened consistently right as you hit VTEC rpm, you have probably put something in the valvetrain together wrong.

 

I don't plan to pull the Cam unless there is no other way. The engine runs fine except for the key shearing off. lol
The only change was the Valves were adjusted and LMA's cleaned. The Distributor has less then 200 miles on it.

Ill have to double check the torque specs on the cam gear bolt, I basically just made it very tight. Maybe I didn't torque it enough, I pull out the torque wrench this time around. The cam and gear were clean, no oil.

I'm pulling the head most likely today or tomorrow and I can check things out better then. Ill definitely try spinning the cam from the rotor side and see how it feels.

 

You may need a cam pulley holder tool.

 

I'd pull a cam retainer and check the machined surface between the cam and the respective cam retainer they don't have bearings and are known to go bad and score up the cam causing extra friction...especially on the timing belt side... sucks tho cause if it's too bad you might need a head

 

I grabbed 2 new cam gears at pick your part today, just in case we still have an issue. lol.
I got the car in the garage and most likely ill pull the head tomorrow and will inspect it once its off. I'm still waiting for my new intake manifold gasket to come in since I'm sure ill end up needing it.

Needing a new head isn't the end of the world, I wish I had kept the other 2 D-series motors I had. I gave the one my wife blew up away and sold the other one for like $100, of course now I need one. Ohh well I guess. I keep thinking.... B20 swap. lol my wifes b20 is great. I want this engine to run again if possible, even if I end up pulling it and setting it aside so I can legally smog both cars later. lol

Quick question, will the older style cam gears work? The teeth and key seem to line up. I pulled one of the older style ones and ended up buying it as a backup.

 

Ok bro...

 

Yea I think I found the issue. I'm dumb. Once I pulled the cam out it was pretty obvious. When I pulled the LMA to inspect it I re-installed it and did not torque it properly. Very dumb mistake on my part. I didn't really think about it when I pulled it but those are also the bolts for the cam caps. For some reason i thought they just bolted on to the top of the caps. One of the caps and one on the head side was ground pretty badly. The others looked good still but I also pretty much welded the cam gear to the cam in the process. It took a ball joint tool and my impact to get it off.

Lesson learned. Now I need to find a new head.

Tony, was your comment about me not wanting to pull the Cam or something else. The attitude for that, yea I agree, you were right on that one. If it was something else I said, then let me know where I was wrong.

 

Well its back up and running as of yesterday. The old head was trashed.
I picked up a rebuilt ""performance"" head, 3 angle valve job and such. I wasn't looking for performance but for the price and availability this was pretty much it.

I put everything back together, the vtec cly screen was beyond clogged so I replaced that as well. New Head Gasket, thermal intake gasket(just because I like them better than the others)
Torqued everything by the book. Tried to start the engine and it wouldn't fire. Then I realized that I didn't check the valve lash on the new head, the shop said it was done but when I checked them almost all them were super tight, extremely tight. Put everything in spec and tried to start it again and it fired right away. I ended up driving around for a few hours and had no issues.

Anything I should look out for? Is there a break in period for a new head/gasket?

 

Break in period for a new head gasket is start up. But that's the drag racer in me

 

Did you check valve lash when the engine was cold or when after you warmed it up?

 

It didn't fire and then valve lash was done......

Couldn't warm up the engine if it wouldn't run after assembly.

It's my understanding, you let an MLS gasket sit at least 45 minutes after torquing the head down before you start it.

After that, it's "broken in" by the time the engine reaches operating temperature as everything has expanded to it's maximum and everything is set by then. Rip her on the open road and enjoy.

 

Valve Adjustment when cold, well I'm in Southern California so its never really cold but you get the idea. I know I have read some conflicting information on this but valves should be adjusted then cold right? I still have some tick even with the new head, I think I'm ready to write it off as the normal Honda tick.

Update, car is still running great, I can feel it a bit more at idle than before, I think I may need some new plugs or maybe I'm just being more sensitive. This performance head really wakes up this motor, lol no not really, I feel absolutely no difference, even the new filter on the vtec cly did nothing, I figured vtec would kick a little harder since that screen was completely caked. But no matter, I really don't care, I'm not looking for power or to improve the engine, I just want it to run and run smoothly.

I eventually want to run another compression check but honestly... maybe I don't want to know. lol.

Lesson learned, actually... a whole list of lessons have been learned on this car, my profit for selling the car has gone down but my confidence has gone up. Most of the time when I have engine issues its always the bottom end and I just swap the engine and make no attempt to repair. In the past maybe 12 years ago I had done rod/main bearings on F22 and H22 and both ended up grenading quickly afterwards. To be fair on those 2 engines that already had a knock so most likely just a bearing change wouldn't have lasted anyway. So anything bottom end I wont touch.