87 CRX runnin on 2 cylinders

[reikoshea]

Alrighty, todays my day off and im workin on cars today.

We're working on a carbed 1987 CRX DX. Cylinders 3 and 4 are firing but we dont think 1 and 2 are firing. We can pull the spark plug wires for both cylinders at the same time and it doesnt change the way the engine fires. if we pull either the third or the fourth spark plug wires, the engine dies.

We did a compression test and it got 180 psi on all 4 cylinders.

We verified the spark plugs are sparking (btw dont try to pull a spark plug off the wire while the engine is running).

So weve verified the order is right, there is spark getting there, and there is compression. That makes me think that there is a problem with the carb or the intake. The reason i think this is you cannot smell fuel on the first 2 spark plugs and they are 100% clean. Look brand new.

Anyone have an idea on what would keep those two cylinders from firing, but allow the other two to continue working. Im stumped and so is my friend and his dad. Just throw some random ideas out there and ill convey the message.

I dont know enough about these carbed honda engine to have any idea whats going on. We are gonna check the valves today and just verify that the intake valves are opening properly. after that we are out of ideas.

 

[TurboMirage]

could there be something in the manifold or carb blocking the path?

thse USDM carb'd CRX's are a HUGE bitch. i HATED mine.

 

[reikoshea]

not really sure. we checked the timing just now and we verified that the valves are working for those two cylinders.

they are going to check for vacuum leaks and i think he said they are taking the carb off to see if there is anything funky with it. I almost think its the intake now, but im still confused by this damn car.

 

[Celerity]

my god Chris is right. the Carb setup is like an HR Giger nightmare.

Have you inspected under the valve cover yet ? I wonder if the springs are moving / moving well. Or the valves are so coked up with something.. god, no real way to tell that. Did these cylinders all drop at the same time, or was this an over-time process ?

-> Steve

 

[reikoshea]

yes we did pull off the valve cover and 1 & 2's springs are working just like 3 & 4. We dont really know when they dropped. Ill say this. We changed the spark plugs last weekend and all 4 of the old ones showed wear on them. When we pulled the new plugs 2 were completely clean. We put the old plugs and wires back on, but the engine still died when under load. when we pulled the wires for 1 & 2 (while the engine was running) there was no change in the idle. The wires arc to the cap, and we verified both the old and new plugs spark when grounded to the engine.

I havent gotten an update on this today (left my cell phone at home).

TIA for any other ideas.

 

[reikoshea]

well, we finally fixed the damn thing.

Some idiot (random mini trucker kid who we though couldnt screw up changing plug wires) apparently missed the memo on changing things one at a time. He finally fessed up to trying to start the engine once with the plugs as 2341 rather than 1342.

After that we figured there was some blow back and we found a TOASTED 9 way vacuum tree. Apparently honda doesnt make em any more, and we went to about 6 junk yards before finding it. After throwin that in there, the engine purred like a kitten.

Thanks to anyone that tried to help (Steve and Chris )

 

[TurboMirage]

yeah that vacuum tree is fucked huh?? hate that shit.