vishnus11

Yeah, I know this is regarding problems for our 1st gens, but I've got a probem with my other car, a 95 Accord EX that I use as a beater, and since we've got plenty of Honda gurus on here, I thought I'd ask.

Driving on the hwy, and filled up when tank was empty. Probably drove about 5 - 10minutes before I could here this rattling/clattering noise from within the engine. I was starting to lose power, as the car was struggling to keep hwy speeds. I also detected some misfire. Within 10 minutes, the oil pressure warning light came on for half a second and then went off - I immediately shut down the car. Checked the oil, and it was low, and the upper radiator hose and collapsed on itself. Took 2 quarts of oil to bring her back up to the full mark and about a cup to bring the radiator back up. No fluids leaking from under the car at all. Started her up, and it was still clattering.

Long story short, had it towed. Unfortunately, due to extenuating circumstances I HAD to drive the car for approximately 20 minutes. I know, I shouldn't have but like I said, BAD circumstances. I was in Canada on vacation, needed to cross the border to the US, and a tow truck cannot cross the border. Shut it down as soon as I could. Still clattering like mad, oil pressure light now on, but still running. Had to keep my foot lightly on the gas pedal to keep her alive.

Now for the million dollar question. What happened?! The most likely thing I've heard from having talked briefly over the phone with my mechanic is that it's a loose rocker arm. ANY and ALL help would be greatly appreciated - I know I haven't given much info, but like I said, ANY advice would be appreciated.

P.S. Yes, I should have taken the Acura, but I took that on a 2000 mile trip for the long weekend, and didn't want to put another 1500 miles on it. And this is what I get for trying to cheap out!

TexasHonda

The clattering and oil light illumination suggests low oil pressure leading to valve noise.

Most likely thing to be damaged would be the valve train, particularly the camshaft which may have been rotating on and pushing the lifter rods w/o oil. No oil to the camshaft bearings, but they are very lightly loaded. Hopefully, you had oil to the crankshaft bearings and noise was not connecting rod knock.

I disagree w/ your mechanics assessment. The oil light would not come on due to a loose valve assembly, however low oil pressure would cause valve train noise.

You might have blockage on the oil pump inlet screen starving the engine for oil. This can happen due to sludge in the engine (poor maintennace?).

Low oil level suggests a pretty bad leak or burning oil somewhere. A really bad leak might lower oil pressure enough to cause the low oil pressure problem, but you shoudl see extensive oil on the bottom of the engine. Check oil filter and oil pressure sender for leaks.

Let board know what you find.

Good Luck

vishnus11

Texas: Your right - the first thing my mechanic asked me was "is the oil filter on tight" . I do my own oil changes and just did one a week and a half a go on it. Unless it was burning oil like mad, it should have been fine. Like I said, I did detect misfiring, and the engine temp obviously went up (or some such) because the upper radiator hose collapsed on itself. Was oil somehow getting into the combustion chamber causing it to run low, and also causing a spike in engine temps?

Also, I have another Accord engine lying around that came out of a non-VTEC, 94 LX accord. Could I just interchange valvetrain components between the two motors, or would you suggest switching out one motor for another. My mechanic said that putting the non VTEC motor in my EX VTEC car shouldn't be a problem. Like I said, this thing is a beater, and I'm looking to get it fixed for as little as possible. Porbably fix it and then sell it.

Btw, thanks for the advice texashonda.

TexasHonda

Find out what's wrong w/ this engine before startting an engine swap. You could have a head gasket problem, but usually there is significant loss of coolant. How hot did engine get, solid red for some time or just elevated temp? Collapsed hose could have been caused by cooling of gases injected into cooling system by engine. However, I would have expected to see perhaps pint to a qt of coolant lost. Bad gasket could concievably block oil flow to the cylinder head.

I would start by determining if any oil is getting to the valve train and whether oil pressure is continuously low. If yes, the oil pump screen is blocked, oil pump is bad, faulty oll filter, or other blockage.

good luck

optomos

The old honda's required that the valves be adjusted often and if they were not (which was usually the case) would lead to head damage, ie blow by and loss of power going uphill.

vishnus11

Its possible, that that much coolant was lost, because in retrospect I didn't take the time to properly fill the coolant (i.e. get rid of any bubbles in the system). The temp guage did NOT go to the red zone according to my memory, and I don't think it even went elevated. Just normal.

Yep, I'll definetely crack her open and take a looksee before starting any swaps. Would you happen to know what parts are not interchangeable between the VTEC and non VTEC motors. I'd imagine that the camshaft wouldn't be interchangeable because of the extra rocker arm required for VTEC, but what about stuff like the valvetrain.

optomos: Again, your spot on. I too was worried about that, but the valves were adjusted at 100k miles and the car has 140k on it. Is 40k enough for them to go out of whack?

Thanks for the responses.

TexasHonda

I have no idea about swapping parts between Vtec and non-Vtec.

Valves don't get out of what unless something wears and if lubrication is good, valve adjustment is almost never needed. I checked mine on a 90 Accord EX for several years till I sold it w/ 270K miles. I never saw more than 1-valve, off by perhaps 1 mil. Some valve train noise is normal, IMO, on a cold day until the engine warms.

My dad always told me that you never will burn a slightly loose valve, but you can burn a tight valve that doesn't close completely.

good luck

pi1996

texas, what do you mean by "burn"? burn oil?

i have a 2.5 and am thinking of adjusting the valves when i am replacing the cylinder cover gasket and the distributor gasket.

TexasHonda

A leaking valve will burn a larger hole due to hot gases eroding/overheating the valve. Valve must be replaced.

good luck

teekay3001

yeah i think i'm experiencing the same problem, I got the car and it seems the lot added some head gasket stop leak sealant on it but i never knew, all of a sudden 3weeks after buying it the car starts running hot and i mean HOT, I decide to keep the a/c on or just the regular fan while i'm driving to help out the radiator fan, all of a sudden about 2 months later my car starts jumping and shaking from side to side, so i ignore it and keep going about 9 days after that my car is noticably shaking so i get the spark plugs changed, put some fuel injection cleaner in and top it off with another quart of oil(bad idea because there was already enough oil in it) so my car is really acting up so i manage to drive my car to southpark to get it fixed at "TOYO CARS" and the dude worked on it for about 4-5 hours claiming to be changing the coils on it since they were misfiring, that cost me $283.00, for some damn coils? come on, and the coldest thing is that he only changed 1, so my car was still doing the three6mafia dance and i was getting broke, so the next day i went back to him because my cars temp was reading off the meter maybe because it thinks its so so cool now u know with the whole dancing thing that i was scared, well he told me to go to the bank to get more money and on my way there my radiator busted....damnnnnnn, man that just added another $300 to my bill, so i get depressed for 2 days and say fuck it i'ma take it to my mechanic who used to fix on my lexus and he detects a head gasket leak advised me to get some head gasket sealant since i'm now damn near broke and he changes my number 3 coil and does an oil change for me for $65, now my car never goes past the mark where its supposed to be and it actually goes down a lil bit which kinda urks me because its kinda crazy, oh well, so most problems from this car for me are due to the head gasket, just thought i should share that....1

TexasHonda

Occasionally, head gasket stop leak will work a miracle and permanently seal a coolant-cylinder head leak. They won't help an oil leak into the coolant. I recently had a 94 Accord EX w/ a small coolant leak into the cylinder head. It would lose coolant slowly and miss on startup (either cold or hot) and overheat, if you didn't top up the coolant occasionally. Head gasket stop leak helped but did not stop the leak entirely. I replaced the head gasket a couple of months back and engine runs fine now. It pays to take your time and be sure the head gasket is indeed leaking, since this is pretty expensive if you're not DIY, and labor-intensive if you are.

regards

teekay3001

labor on head gasket job is $500 flat,excluding parts and fluids, how much did u pay for yours?...the autoshop stated that it might cost me about $1200 if(IF) everything goes well....its crazy

TexasHonda

I did it myself. A $500 labor fee doesn't sound out of line to me. It took me probably 20 hrs but I'm not a professional.

good luck

vishnus11

My mechanic said that mine was making noise from the bottom end of the motor. I'm in the process of just swapping out the engine and tranny - I'm not even going to bother with cracking open the motor and seeing what's what.