Sign In
Create Account
1
Hi all. I've been doing a lot of searching and reading and tinkering with my car for several months now and still cannot figure this out, any help is appreciated. I have been finding lots of little issues and have been sorting them out with no real change to the symptoms the car is having. I will try not to make this post too huge, and try to make everything pretty clear. This has been a long ordeal, so lots of info, please bear with me 
----87 CRX dx - d15a2 - stock aside from a gutted cat (dumb idea, don't recommend it). Consumes a decent amount of oil due to a poor break-in after a re-ring job. Full head rebuild at the same time.
-Problem started while trying to pass up a hill, WOT in 3rd at 50-60 and the power fell off real bad and stopped gaining speed, barely made it around the car I was passing. Car never had any acceleration problems prior to this.
-Very rough idle after this happened, found one spark plug in real bad shape, the outer electrode was eaten away very badly, about half gone. I think it was the #3 plug. Other plugs looked real good, maybe a touch dark from oil, but dry and brown.
-New plugs sorted the rough idle and I thought the problem was fixed until I tried WOT up a hill again, same problem but more power loss. Two melted plugs, #1 and #4
-Found a bad ignition advance diaphragm, and replaced that. Car ran better still, but again lost power under hard acceleration. More new spark plugs needed, and found out that autozone was selling me plugs that were not even close to correct. Correct NGK's held up about a week before #2 and #3 fouling up with oil, wet fouling now. Also replaced cap, rotor, wires and o2 sensor. Tested coil and igniter, seemed okay.
-Drove it for a while replacing plugs as needed. Compression was a bit low on #2 and #3. So I replaced head gasket next, which looked to be leaking a little between #2 and #3 also found/fixed a couple vacuum leaks. Compression now pretty even across all cylinders around 180psi (warm engine, throttle open, six compression cycles). Original problem remains, and still black/wet #2 and #3 plugs.
-Then the car quit dropping down from 3000rpm idle, eventually found a ton of vacuum leaks and a bad choke opener. Fixed those as well as resealing my carb and intake manifold with rtv. Using rtv on the intake manifold was probably overkill, but I was getting tired of leaks and wanted to be done with it. Now for the first time in my 8-9 years of driving the car, it starts cold and just runs without dying at all. Misfire/stutter continues. #1 and #4 plugs are white now (lean mix?)
-Found out Haynes manual tells how to set ignition timing wrong, with the vacuum unhooked. Set that properly and the problem got a bit better, can stay WOT for longer before loss of all power, but problem not fixed.
-Igniter died next after tinkering around. Car runs better with a new one, but still dies at WOT. Coil tested again, still seems okay. Oil fouling getting worse, #2 and #3 wet after a day driving to work and back with brand new plugs... Compression still the same, discovered exhaust valve stem seals not seated (error from the shop that rebuilt the head?), pushed those into place and the problem got better again, but still not gone.
That is where I stand now, hope you are still sticking around, almost done... Couple things I have noticed recently:
1)car stutters noticeably while cruising at a certain throttle position, goes away with any throttle change.
2)misfire happens at higher speeds and in the higher rpms.
-ie- going up a particular hill, moderate to hard throttle in 3rd or 4th at 70-75 produces the problem before I'm up the hill completely.... Same hill, same speed, but 5th gear WOT, make it all the way up without any problems.
-it will misfire in 5th at WOT, but not until I get close to 4000rpm.
Somewhere along the line I have checked the pcv valve also, not stuck or gummed up. Alternator a couple years old. I have NOT adjusted the fuel mixture ever. Have NOT replaced fuel filters for several years now. Oh, and not sure if this factors in, engine runs quite cold, maybe 1/8 up on the temp gauge, need a new thermostat I think.
I hope I did not forget anything. I feel like the next step is tearing down the block to see what is going on, and doing a rebuild or having a shop do it.... But wanted to ask if anyone has some insight before I resort to that, cause it is very cold and dark after work this time of year, a shop rebuild would cost a lot of $$ and I need to get my other car working a bit better so I can still get to work during the week.
Thank you very much for reading, and thank you for any help. sorry for the enormous post. Take care. 
-Davin
Edited by wrench rocket, 21 November 2013 - 11:38 PM.
Back to top
View Garage
