ok, here's the story
I've had my car since september'01. About 2 weeks ago I ran out of gas, at least I thought I did. The car just turned off, when I tried turning it on it would crank but wouldnt start. I parked it and put some gas into it, it still didnt start. I called BCAA, guy came, banged on the tank and the car started. He said sometimes the fuel pump gets jammed. Sounded good to me... About a week ago the car stalled again, and wouldnt start, so I banged on the tank and got it started again. Car ran flawlessly until it died on me again. Did the same thing, car started again, took it to the dealer, they couldnt find any problems. next morning same thing, car died about 30 seconds after I started it and I couldnt start it again. I got it towed to the dealer hoping for them to find the problem this time.

When I came to the dealer in the evening they told me the problem was my aftermarket alarm which I got installed by a professional 2 weeks after I bought the car. They charged me $170CAD, after 40 minutes of arguing I couldnt convince the manager that it's not the problem. On my way home the car stalled twice. The next morning I brought it in, and in the afternoon they said that they could reproduce the problem. They said it seems to be the main relay. Btw, i installed indiglo gauges, so they started saying that the failure was probably cuz of indiglo gauges short circuit and they may charge me for this.

Today they told me that the car is still not running right, it keeps on stalling and running rough. When I brought it in it was not running rough, it was just stalling. They said that they did compression test which was fine but the leakdown test failed terribly. They said it looks like a bent valve and that tomorow they need a authorization from honda-canada and me to take apart the engine and that if it's a bent valve it's gonna be around $2000 and I'll have to pay for it.

Do you guys think it's a bent valve if the car was running fine when I brought it there except it kept on stalling? I never mis-shifted, the only thing I remember that could possibly do damage was 2nd day when I had my car I started from first on pretty high revs and dropped the clutch too much and the car jerked quite a bit. But I never had a problem until now.

I really need your guys' opinions, espiecially the tech. guys who know prelude inside out. Tomorow they're going to ask me if I want them to take apart the engine, I'm thinking of telling them to put it back together and I wanna take it somewhere else cuz I dont think that's very good service. Would it be worth it to take it to performance place and get them to put in some performance parts while they're at it? I dont know too much about it though.

PLEASE give me some advice

sincerelly, tomas