I have a 1999 accord VTEC ULEV with 220k miles. Timing belt/water pump/tensioners done at a shop a couple of years ago. Overheated a couple of times over the last two years while being driven by my kids. Started losing coolant over the past few months - block test was positive so I decided to use vacation time to replace the head gasket with my newly-licensed son, who is hoping to use the car. We pulled the head and took it to a local machine shop - it passed a pressure test but was warped. I paid them to machine the head and do a full valve job. We re-installed the head, set the timing and balancer belts, new gaskets on the manifolds, etc. Got the video camera out to record what i hoped would be a triumphant father-son moment and...nothing, it wouldn't start. The starter engages but it just turns over, never catches. Starting fluid had no effect.

I lurked quite a bit on this and other forums looking for answers. I have two accords (99, 00), an '05 odyssey, and a '12 Pilot and I do most of the maintenance and repairs on them, but the last head job i did was 30-ish years ago on a small block chevy 307. This is the most involved repair I've done, fully aware that I may have messed something up, and happy to be told so.

Here's what I've done so far: I tested the distributor (all seems fine), fuel rail/injectors ok, I have spark at the coil and plugs, rechecked all my connections (only thing I found was i mixed up the VTEC and coolant sensor plugs). I finally did a compression test on 1 and 2, which showed no compression whatsoever. I tried a wet compression test, no change. Tonight I did a makeshift leak down test with my compression tester -- i just blew air in to the cylinders at about 35 psi but did not have a gauge to read the percent leakage) but I could clearly hear air coming from my intake manifold and from the exhaust pipe; but no bubbles in the coolant and no leakage from the dipstick. I did this on cylinders 1 & 4 at TDC with same result. I did not test 2 & 3 yet. FWIW, I did a compression test a few months ago and all cylinders were at about 180 without meaningful change between wet and dry test; cooling system test showed very slow, very slight leakage (about 1 atm drop over about 10-15 mins, which i assume was due to the warped head).

So, I've concluded that:
1) we probably did an okay job on the head gasket, since there's no apparent leakage into the cooling system or crankcase.
2) the valves aren't seating/sealing correctly - if they were, there shouldn't be audible leakage at the manifolds at TDC, right?

I could use help on what to do next -- is this likely some sort of mistake on my part while installing the head? Or, is this more likely a problem with the machine shop's work? Can it be fixed by adjusting the valves with the head still on? I'm considering towing the car to the machine shop (they also do repairs), but wondering if i can/should fix this myself? I'm at the limits of my knowledge - thanks in advance for the help.

edit: it may be relevant - i set the timing belt twice. the first time i tried to start it and got nothing, i re-checked the timing belt and it was off by a single tooth at the crank, cam was aligned at top and block edges. i don't think this would be enough to cause bent valves, but I'm not certain.

 

when the head was machined, the rocker assembly was off. was it kept all together as one unit or disassembled? it can be easy to make mistakes reassembling the rocker assembly that can cause a no-start condition.

when you are doing the make-shift leak-down are you lifting the rocker assembly off to close all of the valves? I've always done it this way so I'm not concerned with which cylinder is at TDC on compression stroke.

 

Thank you for the response. I'm not sure if the machine shop kept the rocker assembly together or not -- I took it in to the shop with it still on, and they mentioned they would need to take it off to do the machining. When I did the makeshift leakdown, I did not lift the rocker assembly off. But if I'm following the logic, lifting it off would allow all valves to fully seat and allow me to rule out whether I have a sealing problem/bent valve or if it's something with the rocker assembly, right? If it's a problem with the way the rocker assembly was put back together, would you recommend taking it off an re-assembling? I have the FSM and have studied the diagrams, and although I have never attempted this, I'd love to do what i can before giving up and towing it to the shop. Thanks again!

 

with the FSM and careful attention to detail you should be able to tear it down and make sure it goes back together properly. Not sure if the FSM specifies, but clean each piece when it's apart and lightly coat with fresh oil before you reassemble.

that's right. you're not so concerned with how much leakage you have, but where and if it's leaking. with the rocker assembly up (or out completely since it sounds like you'll be reassembling yours) and all of the valves closed, when you put compressed air to each cylinder listen to the intake (have the inlet tube off and open the throttle by hand to help hear the air flow), the exhaust (you can hear and feel from the tail pipe if you don't have any huge rust holes in your exhaust anywhere), and the crankcase (if you hear a strong leak but nothing comes from intake or exhaust.)

 

would leaky valves cause a no start vs just poor performance? When I did my wifes car it still started and ran (like ****) with the leaky valves.

 

Yeah, I would normally expect it to just run like garbage, but it's possible it wouldn't with the right set of other unknown factors contributing.

 

Thanks Hondamark35 - I'm going to start this in the morning and will report back (hopefully success!) over the weekend.

 

Update: tonight I took the valve cover off in preparation for removing the rocker arm assembly. I decided to do a quick check of the valve clearances. I set the engine at TDC (and, with the valve cover off, confirmed that the crank and cam timing still appear to be dead on) and then tested the intake and exhaust valve clearance on cylinder 1 only. The spec for my '99 is: intake: 0.26mm exhaust: 0.30. When I tried my feeler gauges, on the intake side I noticed that both of the intake valves were very tight -- i couldn't even get a 0.13mm feeler gauge into the valve-rocker arm gap. Also, the two intake valves for cylinder were different from each other, the one closer to the cam pulley looser than the other one. Same on the exhaust side -- the two valve clearances were noticeably different from each other, and appear to have way less clearance than spec. Doesn't this suggest that the valves are probably not seating correctly (as noted in the failed leak down test) because the clearance is off, which would push them down out their seats enough to leak? Could this alone explain the no start?

Tomorrow I'll tackle checking the rocker arm assembly - but this seemed like an important finding before going further. Thanks again for all the help.

 

the valves may not have gone back in where they came out. for due diligence sake i would adjust the valves (get the lash all back in spec) and see what you get. if no, or little improvement, carry on with the investigation.

 

I just finished measuring the current valve lash as set by the machine shop. On the intake side, I could NOT fit my 0.0015" feeler gauge (the smallest i have) on any intake valve except the right-most cylinder #1 valve, which measured 0.005" (so all are way out of spec). On the exhaust side, i could not get my 0.0015" in any valve on either #2 or #3 valve, #1 left valve, or #4 right valve. #4 (left) was 0.003 and #1 (right) was 0.004. So I'm about to start adjusting valve lash and I decide to do a leak down test on cylinder #2. I had air coming from the intake manifold and the intake and exhaust pipe, but oddly, I also felt it from the spark plug tubes for cylinders #3 and #4, from which I had already removed the spark plugs. I'm spooked thinking that my head gasket didn't seal between the cylinders, or else why would air be coming from the spark plug tube? Or, is it possible (I'm hoping so!!) that because none of the valves appear to be seating correctly that the gasket can be okay and the air leak from the plug tubes is from open valves all along the head? ugh.

 

could be coming through the valves. check again after correct adjustment.

 

It started!! Turns out the machine shop either did not do a valve adjustment at all (and just bolted the rocker assembly back on), or they did the world's worst job ever. I adjusted all the valves to spec and it started right up and is running well. hondamark35 - thank you for taking the time to respond and help me walk through the logic of figuring out what was wrong.