my girl has a 89 civic LX..first ill list what is not wrong..

Tbelt good,timing dead on,dizzy (firing),main realy working,getting fuel,

this thing has no compresion, dead on all 4 cyl. it ran fine the night before...i know you cant drop vavles or 4 pistons rings..sitting in the driveway

if the cam or cam bearing went out the distributor would not fire..correct?
WTF could be the problem...even if i blew a head gasket on start up (highly unlikely) it wouldnt be dead on all 4. the only thing i can think of is the cam has somhow got out of wack and is holding the vavles open and therfore no compresion.. anybody????

 

umm rotor screw backed out maybe?

 

check the timming and post the compression #s.

Blaze

 

is the dizzy actually spinning?meaning are you sure the camshaft is moving?

 

the timming is dead on..i dont know if the dizzy is spinning..but if the dizzy is firing (i do have spark) then the cam should be spinning right? not for sure?....compresion numbers..llike 20lbs on all 4

 

does it still start and run or not?

not to be rude....but are you sure you did the compression test correctly? cause those are some looooooowwww numbers!

rings, head gasket, valves not seating(even from carbon buildup) are cause for low compression #'s. but none of them happen instantly. ???

 

try this-pull off your dizzy look into the hole-remeber which way the slot is.try to start car-remove dizzy again-check that the shaft actually moved

 

ill try that ...if the cam is broken i just hope that it didnt chew the head up ..are hondas bad about that?..ive never had it happen.

 

it happened to one of my freinds-it baffled us as to why his car woudnt start-we had all the obvios stuff looked at and nothing-we pop the valve cover and there it was sitting in two pieces

 

check the rotor screw.....u can still have spark but it just wont be firing in time with the cam.......it takes 2 mins to take the cap off

 

try a different compression tester. maybe that one has a leak at the release valve or something. if it's firing consistant, like no eratic jumps, then i would thing the rotor/distributor is ok. 20 across the board is kinda hard to believe.

 

i'll say it's the head gasket, let me know! this happened to a friend of mine, his head got warped and there was no compression on all 4 cylinders!

 

Is it flooded?

 

What does a dizzy have to with compression??? NOTHING.

I know if its flooded it will wash the oil down the cylinder walls and will cause lack of compression.

Start by pulling the valve cover.... Its only 4 10 mm nuts....


[Modified by mr. skelly, 9:41 AM 2/16/2003]

 

 

Check the dipstick, does it look nasty sludgy? It is possible to have a head gasket go out like that if you were on a long drive the night before and it overheated. And I mean if that needle ever even got close to halfway, being an aluminum block it is very easy to warp the head/block with an extra 20-40 degrees. If it's higher milage and never been done before this would be an even more likely scenario. I have worked on one that was driven for two hours the day before and showed 40lbs on the compression test across the board. To properly do a compression test unplug the injectors and hold the throttle body open and remove all of the plug wires and turn the motor over with the starter about 4-5 times, basically until the number planes out. If you do have to replace the head gasket, I would recommend getting one for a 95 civic Si, it's a three layer metal gasket and seals better than the composite gasket used on the 88-91's

 

Sounds interesting....

I would be taking a look at that compression gauge, maybe try it on another car.

Still leaves you with a car that doesn't run

I would put the crankshaft at TDC on the lower crank pulley, then look at the camshaft pulley to make sure cam timing is ok, belt hasn't jumped etc........

next check for spark at the plug wires good and strong
You said it was a LX so its Dual point injection ? 1.5L
Verify that the injector is firing, pull off the cover on the throttle body.
Push open the first flap and look down at the primary injector , crank car and see if it is spraying fuel.
-You said you have fuel, I assume at the fuel filter

Check codes

Very rare but camshafts do break

Distributors are know weak area's

Never hurts to remove distributor check cap, rotor make sure the shaft spins nicley
Cap isn't cracked or rotor

Good luck
happy testing
cam

 

definitely sounds dist. related to me---it is hard to believe something went wrong internally overnight---unless it was seriously beaten the night before which I doubt-it's a LX.

 

yeah check that