Was driving car at hwy speeds up mountain grade when I noticed what I thought felt like a loss of power. I had the stereo on and didn't really notice any strange noise.
Pulled into service station noticed #4 oil fouled, cleaned it but had to continue. Heard sounds this time noticed blue smoke. Got to destination. Let engine cool started looking around.
Noticed #2 was slightly oil fouled, cleaned it, 1 and 3 normal, #4 LOT'S of oil. Replaced plugs. Still dead cylinder. Replaced wires. Still dead cylinder. #4 looks normal now, #2 still oil fouled still dead cylinder even after cleaning cylinder with gasoline and drying it out.
Any ideas why I'm still having a dead cylinder?

 

Your spark plug seals are probably leaking check and replace them cause they will continue to leak. Check the distributor rotor and confirm you have spark at the end of each plug. If you have spark check the injectors next maybe the injectors on those cylinders are dead.

 

 

Okay, I think I've figured it out and have the part coming tomorrow afternoon. I went to look at it today and working backwards ended up at the distributer cap. Removing it I noticed some black carbon on the contacts. Grabbed an energy board and the contact points just disintegrated as I was trying to clean them. This seems pretty obvious to me now that it was a lack of spark due to a work distributer cap.
I ordered a new one it will be here tomorrow. I'll let the forum know how it all turns out but I'm pretty confident at this point that's going to be the problem.

 

A worn cap like i mentioned would cause the no spark hopefully that does the trick!

 

Okay, replaced all 4 spark plugs with new ones, replaced plug wires with brand new NGK high performance wires, replaced distributor cap with brand new one, and replaced #2 (or 3) injector with new fuel injector. I still have the miss as though I have a dead cylinder.
Facing the car, from Left to Right, #1 plug is apparently firing (a little hot), #2 has a thin coating of what appears to be dried baked on oil (cleaned it and re-gapped it), #3 firing (a little hot), #4 firing (a little hot).
Start the car and it still sounds like its missing one cylinder. (Sounds like a Volkswagon)
I am totally stumped as to what could be the cause of this problem
PLEASE HELP ME! Lol
Thank you

 

If you have spark on all 4 plug wire ends, check the injectors to see which one isn't firing, You can try unplugging each injector clip and see which cylinder has no change in idle and go from there. Could be a short in the injector wiring/clips.

Double check the mechanical timing in case it slipped timing..

 

1: Do a compression test. If all cylinders are up and the deviation between them is less than 20, move on.
2: The number one cylinder is closest to the timing gears and the number four cylinder is closest to the distributor. Now you know how to number them and properly refer to each in your follow up postings here.
3: Once you have identified the dead cylinder (either by unplugging a fuel injector clip or removing a spark plug wire), lets diagnose why.
4: Move the fuel injector from the dead cylinder to an adjacent cylinder... if the problem moves to the new cylinder, you have a bad fuel injector. Replace it.
5: If the dead cylinder remains the same, verify that you have bright blue spark on that cylinder. Check the OHM resistance in the plug wires... if the offending wire has a significantly larger resistance, replace it.
6: Check to make sure you have 12v+ on the yellow/black wire in the dead cylinders fuel injector clip. If so, check continuity between the fuel injector clip and the appropriate location at the ECU plugs. If you have both, move on.
7: If the fuel injector, injector clip and plug wire tests good, you need to test the ECU. Plug a "KNOWN GOOD" ECU into the car and see if the problem goes away.
8: If all of the above fails to uncover the culprit, you did something wrong. Start at the top and test again.
9: If you re-test and you are confident all of the tests are accurate, and you still have no clue why the car has a dead cylinder, you will need to perform an Exorcism.

Good Luck.

 

Well, just did a compression check. No pressure.
120 on 1 nothing on 3

 

Replace it with a used block or rebuild it bigger and better!..

 

Is there a post here you're aware of that has a decent step by step set of instructions on how to do this with my B18 motor?
Thank you to all who have helped me.

 

Are you familiar with rebuilding engines?

Most everything can be done at home with the correct tools but if your not experienced or comfortable with it then i recommend leaving the rebuild to a shop or mechanic. If you are comfortable enough to assemble the head to the block that's definitely something a novice can start with, i would recommend sending the block and head to a reputable shop where they would properly disassemble the internals and clean everything in the hot tank and rebuild the bottom block and cylinder head and from there you can fallow a guide like this one below and assemble the head to the block! its really not that hard at all and will be a little fun for you as a first time rebuild. Although this thread is for a LSVtec it will be very similar to a stock rebuild.

How to build a "reliable" lsvtec/b20vtec - Honda-Tech - Honda Forum Discussion

All this info can also be obtained from a Haynes manual sold for under $20 at the auto stores, these books show step by step how to rebuild everything ! best $20 you will spend! you can also down load these online.

There are many books you can buy or rent from the library on how to build these Honda engines.

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to provide your answers they have been an enormous help to me.
from what I've seen so far, if there's a choice to be made as to what kind of a motor would be a good one for a beginner to try, these seem to be a fairly decent choice. Not a whole lot of electronics, hoses, wires, or other parts to make the whole thing seem too complicated.
So I'll probably give it a go and have a little fun with it. Unfortunately however, as much as I've loved this little car, I've got to have something reliable now to get me to those places I need to be. So it looks as though I'm going to be getting something different rather soon. Really sux because I had a blast with this little hot rod.
I am going to go ahead and try a little hail Mary first though and remove the valve cover tomorrow and see if there's anything I can poke around at in the valve train to possibly get this thing going again. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and tighten something or loosen something just right and it will magically fix everything! (One can hope!)
Again, thanks to all who have helped me out in this. I really do appreciate everyone's help.
Take care.

 

I would pull the VC off and rotate the engine by hand with the spark plugs removed and see if the cam gears line up at TDC to make sure your mechanical timing diddnt slip.

Another thing i would do is after that check the valve lash! if your valves are tight you can possibly have no compression in those cylinders easy to do and worth a shot!

 

Yeah, I was thinking along the sane lines so I did just that. I removed the valve cover and re-lashed the valves to factory spec. I think I made it just a touch worse though because now its running a bit rougher. (I know how to do it, I'm just not that experienced at it.) I'm probably going to try it again later today or tomorrow just to get it going a little better. Then it looks like I get it ready for a tear down and get the old gas guzzling Expedition fixed (brakes) so I can be back in business!
Thanks again.