Ok well I’m having some issues with my car.it’s a 90 integra. When I go to start it has a hard time turning over, and when it does it idles bad and kinda cuts out for sometimes only 10 seconds and sometimes up to two minutes. After it clears out what it needs to I guess it idles fine and drives fine. But when I get to where I’m going(turn off car) and let sit for like ten minutes it’s back to where I started when I start again. I took out spark plugs and oil on threads only of 2 and 3 plug. Also took off pcv valve and full of gunky cream colored stuff as well as charcoal canister. I cleaned out canister and got new pcv valve and started fine one day but today back to normal. Also white smoke when first start car and after warms up it’s fine. No oil leaking or antifreeze that I can see. oil dip stick is only oil. Not sure exactly what problem is. Heard head gasket, piston rings etc. is it more likely one or all? Also doesn’t overheat so far. Please help!!!
it sounds like you have a severe blow by issue combined with a blown head-gasket which would explain the gunk on your pcv valve and inside you charcoal canister this would be caused by combustion gases seeping past the piston rings into the crank case. there are a few test that can be done to determine the root of these problems one is a dry and wet compression test which will pretty much only tell you if you have bad rings or not, a leak down test which will be able to tell you if its a bad head gasket, leaky valves, leaky valve stem seals, worn piston rings.and so on. Another way to test for a blown head-gasket is have a cooling system pressure test this will only confirm if you have a blown head-gasket or not. Honestly without performing these test there is no way to accurately identify the root cause of the issue. I hope i could help a little. keep us posted on the teggys condition
Thanx for response. I will test all in morning. Will post results then.
it’s possible you may just be leaking oil past the grommets in the valve cover. you sure the smoke is white on start up? not blue?
when you pulled the spark plug boot, was there oil inside the boots socket? oil leaking past the plug threads could cause the problem you’d described. once it burns off, it idles fine. the pcv could have just been old. same with the canister. these are 20+yr old cars.
just a possibility. always look at the simple things first
you dont have a BHG, like Welfare said, check the simple stuff.
Problem: PCV covered in milky substance
Solution: replace valve cover gasket, spark plug tube grommets, and pcv valve(your getting a bit of moisture in the valvetrain)
Problem: Spark Plugs coated in oil
Solution: Replace spark plug tube grommets(if they havent been installed properly then they will leak, same if they are old)
Problem: rough start up and “white” smoke
Solution: clean out your FITV and adjust if necessary. Also the "white smoke will just be condensation in the exhaust pipes(All cars have the condensation in the exhaust problem)
If your not loosing coolant or large amounts of oil, your rings and Headgasket are fine.
^^^^^i like this person… simple… not like everyone assuming things and going way ahead of themselves smh
Thanks man, i know my shit. I am trying to get my bearings back into the Integra community.
alright well I tested some stuff today here are results…
Cylinder one- dry compression 190/ wet 200
Cylinder two- dry compression 163/ wet 185
Cylinder three- dry compression 165/ wet 184
Cylinder four- dry compression 175/ wet 187
Also I did leak down test but my air comp. Was leaking air at hose attachment so might be off.
Cylinder one- 15% also radiator fluid rose and bubbled slightly
cylinder two- 27% only air felt and sounded like came from this spark plug slot
Cylinder three- 25% only air felt and sounded like came from this spark plug slot
Cylinder four- 12% only air felt and sounded like came from this spark plug slot
And there is no oil on top of plugs or wires but I changed anyways after doing leak down test today.
Here’s a photo of what my valve cover underneath looked like. Same white build up that was in canister and pcv valve
I was not trying to jump to conclusions i was honestly trying to help out the guy i simply made suggestions based on the symptoms he described. He also said that he had replaced the PCV valve and cleaned out the charcoal canister and it was fine for a day and then the next day he had the issues again. He also said there was oil on the threads not on top or around the porcelain the only reason i thought he could have a blown head-gasket is because of the milky residue, and i do realize that this could also be moisture. I came to this conclusion based on other things he was describing also you can have a blown head-gasket and not loose coolant or oil. Piston rings can also be worn and still not burn large amounts of oil. I apologize for trying to help out. Now Othree your compression test doesn’t seem that bad for a higher mileage engine the rings are slightly worn in 2 and 3 but it doesn’t really seem bad enough to be only you piston rings but they could be contributing to you excessive blow-by. On the leak-down test the fact that the when you tested the #1 cylinder you noticed slight bubbles in the coolant and the coolant level rose slightly has me leaning towards a blown head gasket. The amount of white sludge seems to great to just be a head gasket mainly because you said you haven’t noticed any coolant loss though. It still seems like there is an underlying pcv/blowby issue The leaking from the spark plug slots could have just been a bad seal on the leak-down tester hose where it screws into the spark plug hole. please share if anyone else has any ideas,
^^sorry, bud. wasn’t trying to question your ability by any means. just didn’t want anything slight overlooked.
now that tests have been performed, things are more clear.
IMO, there’s likely multiple problems here.
as stated, the raise in coolant level/bubbling when performing the leakdown on #1 definitely indicates a breached headgasket/cracked head. that would also account for the smoke. odd though that the leakdown and compression numbers are good for that cylinder. i can’t explain that.
as for the oil on the plugs of 2 and 3, you sure that isn’t fuel? the o rings could be leaking causing fowling of the plugs on start up. that could also cause low compression numbers of those cylinders as the fuel would wash the rings. that may be why your wet test recorded significantly higher numbers.
i dunno. it’s a possibility. either that or your guides/seals are leaking. but then blue colored smoke would be evident. i can’t see much other ways that you’d get any residue on the threaded area only. anything else would be burned up in the combustion chamber
Yeah there isn’t any blue smoke and it was definitely oil on spark plugs. I’m gonna re test the leak down probably monday seeing that I work 12 hour days till then. Hopefully get more percise numbers then. It is seeming to be multiple problems to me too. When I redo leak down test I will see how valve cover looks inside, seeing as I put whole new one with new gasket on when I did last time. This has been my daily driver so i might just pick up new motor and work on this motor on side. Still havnt decided yet on what I should do. Guess I can just get new head gasket and pull off head and see from there about getting new motor. I have four day s off coming up so that should be ideal time. If anyone has any ideas let me know if not I will keep everyone posted with progress.thanx again
Alright I had to drive last sunday and tuesday to work in my car and before I drove both times I checked coolant and it was low. So another indication of head gasket. So yesterday I pulled apart and put new one on. Started fine after that so hopefully that fixed main issue. I’m going to test drive little further today and check coolant level after. So as of right now that was one issue and hopefully only one. I will keep you guys updated. Thanx
did you have the head resurfaced and pressure tested?
No never did. Car was running then another issue came up or possibly part of samr problem but my car will start fine when cold and once it gets warmed up it dies… I did wrong thing by throwing a bunch of money at it and got new distributor. Cap.rotor. Plugs. Wires. Main relay. Fuel pump. changed out tps and map sensor. And ran straight header to see if cat was clogged but none that worked. I obviously did one at a time slowly working on it over last 2 weeks but nada nada. Any suggestions of what to check next. Also fpr getting fuel and double checked vacuum lines those are fine.
Just changing the head gasket isn’t a guaranteed fix… if the head/block are warped in the least bit, it will more than likely still leak with a new gasket installed. You should have both mating surfaces checked to be sure they’re flat.
Yes I know I needed probably get stuff resurfaced and checked out but this was/is my $150 motor from junk yard thats just temporary till I get my extra block and head built. It was my only vehicle so was in rush before but now have anther vehicle so have more time to do things the right way…
You need to put a fuel pressure gauge on it. When the car dies, watch the gauge to see if the fuel cuts before it dies. If it does, it’s fuel related. If not, it’s probably ignition related. This will at least give a direction to further diagnose
Thanx will try that…