Is there a way to check for bent valves without having to pull the head? Maybe a leak down test or something. My car idles like ***, I know the IAC is f'ed up and I have solid mounts so the thing vibrates and idles rather poorly from the IAC being bad, but I have a gut feeling that I burned a valve or bent a couple of them during an over rev about a year ago. The sol, has about 165k miles on it...

 

leak down

 

Yeah just do a leakdown and if it shows nothing then replace the iac. Or if you can pick one up pretty easily try the iac first and see if it fixes it. What does the idle do? is it jumpy or doesnt want to idle? ne more info would help thanks.

 

Yeah the idle jumps when its cold, but settles down after it warms up.. then its at about 500 - 600 rpm maybe a little low also has a miss and stumbles a little at times...Recent tune up... so that shouldnt be it. its also just really harsh all the time, even more so than it used to be it seems.

 

did you try readjusting the valves? over reving can cause loose valvetrain.

 

u dont have bent valves
if they were ur car would idle at 5-600 rpm

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SoloSol &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yeah the idle jumps when its cold, but settles down after it warms up.. then its at about 500 - 600 rpm maybe a little low also has a miss and stumbles a little at times...Recent tune up... so that shouldnt be it. its also just really harsh all the time, even more so than it used to be it seems.</TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 4cylinder &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">u dont have bent valves
if they were ur car would idle at 5-600 rpm
</TD></TR></TABLE>


If you check my post from last night I sais that it does.. So I got bent valves without a doubt? I also have a recent valve adjustment

 

if u have bent valves u would be leaking alot of compression and r car will run like ****!

why don t u start with a compression check?
i say this because i have never seen a car with bent valves idle
better yet do a power balance test

 

have u tried valve timing

 

Adjust your valves, turn on the engine, and recheck the clearances. You'll know they fuked if they clearances are way off. This is what happened with my car. The valves were bent very little, almost no power loss and it's even hard to see when holding them up...but the clearances went way off after a couple seconds of running.

 

perfect..ill try that, pretty easy and very clear results... thanks man.

 

Another way to test...

Start the car and one by one pull the spark plug wire off from the spark plug and if the car shuts off, that cyl. has bent valves

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AMS MIKE &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Another way to test...

Start the car and one by one pull the spark plug wire off from the spark plug and if the car shuts off, that cyl. has bent valves</TD></TR></TABLE>

that call a power balance test!
ur sappose to look 4 the cylinder that doesn t make a difference when ur pull the spark plug. thats the cylinder u have problems with