6 replies to this topic

[terrybuilt]

problems started with the over heat issue which resulted in head removal. had it resurfaced with all new valve guides and seats, then bench tested for leaks. results were solid. re assembled and came across my first issue which dealt with the intake gasket. everything i could see on the car's intake said 12 valve but my head is clearly a 16 valve....great, so which head is this? the machine shop was able to give me a different intake gasket that matched. the car is also running a weber 32/36 carb. got it back together and running but the biggest problems are......

 
#1
while driving the tach will randomly jump around. when it does that the car stalls out at the same time. this will usually result in the car dying. then it will randomly start and not have any problem for another couple tanks of gas. i have metered the coil (even grabbed another from a junk yard), tested continuity between all the related connections the manual talks about. the only part i cannot test is the radio condensor. it says to take to a tv repair shop. i can only imagine there is some form of an electrical issue because the bouncing tach and dying have been going hand in hand. right now the car will not start and left me stranded up the street. whatever intermittent problem i had is now permanent.

#2
other issue is i have never seen oil disappear so fast from an engine! no leaks or oil on the ground but i literally add 1qt every tank of gas (300 miles) or earlier. is this maybe due to a faulty PCV system with the whole devac? The haynes manual gives a generic picture of the system but it wasnt clear enough for me to decipher what was what.

In short i have exhausted myself in the haynes manual and trying to find info on the web/forums. Would just love to be able to have a reliable commuter. putting a 150 a day on it from SD to OC

Just trying to fix all of the crap the last owner created.

Any and all help would be spectacular. Thank you guys

 

[WhereIsMyWrench]

Hi! I have an 87' Wagon. It technically has 16 valves if we include the auxiliary valves. However, it's listed as a 12 valve head. 

This may be where you went wrong. If that intake gasket the shop gave you is blocking the CVCC ports... that could be causing all of your troubles.

This seems easy enough to check/remedy. 

I have had the problem with the bouncing tach and stalling in the past. However, my car had a headgasket leak and bent valves. Is it possible the timing wasn't set correctly and the pistons hit the valves? 

Regards,

 

Pat

[terrybuilt]

Hi! I have an 87' Wagon. It technically has 16 valves if we include the auxiliary valves. However, it's listed as a 12 valve head. 

This may be where you went wrong. If that intake gasket the shop gave you is blocking the CVCC ports... that could be causing all of your troubles.

This seems easy enough to check/remedy. 

I have had the problem with the bouncing tach and stalling in the past. However, my car had a headgasket leak and bent valves. Is it possible the timing wasn't set correctly and the pistons hit the valves? 

Regards,

 

Pat

 

the first intake gasket that i had was completely incorrect.  i exchanged for one that was a match, also had the timing belt incorrect the first time and had to make adjustment so it was correct (was looking at wrong mark)  on top of the fact that after the head rebuild i have over 1k in miles without problem.  

 

The more i read up on the PCV valve i think that i might be having some issue's with that cause i noticed that the hose was looking collapsed. from what i was reading it could cause loss of oil.  The honda sites, say that they no longer carry the PCV valve so i think i will have to see if napa has it maybe.

 

any thoughts on the tachometer/electrical and the car dying?

[WhereIsMyWrench]

You mentioned that at one point you had the timing belt on incorrectly. Was the engine run while the timing was wrong? If so, my guess is that some of the valves in the head are bent. 

You can check this by doing a compression test. I would do that for sure if the engine was run with the timing off. If you have bent valves, this can lead to an erratic idle, stalling, and oil loss. 

A faulty pcv system CAN lead to oil loss but in my experience 1 quart every 300 miles is pretty excessive to be a pcv problem. However, a pcv valve is cheap and something easy to replace so I would go for it. 

If you can't find a pcv valve locally, I'm sure RockAuto.com has some available. HarborFreight sells compression testers pretty cheap too if you want to do it yourself. It probably won't be exact as far as accuracy goes but you just need to look for consistency among the cylinders and find any major drops in pressure. This would indicate either a bad head gasket, bent valves, or both. Either way you will know if the head needs to come back off.

I'm not really sure in regards to the bouncing tach. As I mentioned before, I had a similar problem with the tach bouncing and stalling but mine was due to bent valves. The engine running so poorly causes problems with all sorts of stuff and the bent valves cause combustion problems which lead to the engine choking itself out. If you have mechanical problems eliminated from the equation, it's just checking electrical. Start with the plugs, wires, distributor cap/rotor, coil, ignition switch in that order. Cheapest stuff first. 

Another possibility could be the alternator. If it's gone bad your car will die out as the battery dies out. If you can get this off, you can have it tested at a local auto parts store for free. 

 

Post your location and maybe a knowledgeable local member of the forum would be super friendly and come lend a hand.... ?

Good luck with finding a solution. 

Regards,

 

Pat

[terrybuilt]

great info, thank you! looks like i got some work to do for the weekend

[terrybuilt]

2 problems for sure fixed....wait....maybe 1.5

#1 - the tach jumping around was the ignition module inside the distributor. Replaced with new from napa $109. problem fixed
#2 - the PCV was broken. replaced with new. i dont have a full report on the oil consumption yet. dont really think a small valve will fix that and i havent had the time to do the compression test

 

for now it is running and i just check the oil very often

[WhereIsMyWrench]

Hey! That's great to hear.

If that oil loss ends up being the PCV, I will be amazed. However, the fact that it was broken/inoperable surely says something about the theory.

Keep us posted about the oil loss, might be an interesting result.