Loss of compression in cylinder 1

[Sorcereryk]

I was driving my 00 Civic SI from florida a couple of days ago, and all of a sudden I had a loss of power, had a mechanic look at it and he says cylinder 1 has no compression, the other 3 are fine. he says something about the valves. as far as the valve seals i know there may have been a leak because when i get down on it or sometimes take off, it threw a little smoke out, and got worst over this past year. i know the valve seals have nothing to do with the compression, from what im told, so what am i looking at as far as the problem? and what kinda cost in parts and labor to get fixed? please give some advise...

 

[joecivic]

maybe the headgasket?? that will cause smoke but not sure I dont think that will cause for loss of compression,or maybe the piston rings are burnt up in that clylinder I mean your gonna have to tear the motor apart or at least take the head off to see whats up,so its not gonna be cheap unless you DIY.I would have another compression test done or do one yourself to make sure.Anywhere from like $600 and up depending what the problem is and how much diag time they(insert random car shop name here) have to put in to figure it out. anybody else have any suggestions?

 

[ejclide]

I'm going to guess HG from what you said too. was the power loss really sudden, or kind of gradual? I can't picture a piston ring going out just like that (audible snap). maybe i'm wrong. If you have to pull the head, you should probably invest in replacing the valve seals just in case. I had the joy of rebuilding a motor to find out 500 miles later that i needed to pull the head and change the seals.

 

[Sorcereryk]

yea i planned on replacing the seals for sure... the car was smoking a little for the last year and gotten worst when i got down on it, i assumed it was the seals. it was a bluish, whitish smoke, little grey, never really dark black. and the power loss was instant, not gradual. just was driving home about 450 miles and somewhere in the middle just lost alot of power to the motor... someone else told me it may be a spring bent and replacing the springs may do the trick. Either way I need to replace probably the springs, retainers, valve seals, and gaskets...

My buddy said me and him can take the head off and do the work. What im wondering is while I have the head off, should I get a new Head and what kinda head would give me better performance and speed? any suggestions?

 

[phyregod]

There are only so many places it can go.

Valves: Sticky valve, bent valve, damaged valve seat.
Head Gasket: Usually shows other symptoms, but not always.
Cylinder wall: Cracked = bad news.
Piston: Ring worn or damaged, hole in the piston (usually from sucking a valve.. but you'd know for sure if that happened)

Any noise? Clatter? Grinding? How does the spark plug look?

 

[Sorcereryk]

thanks for the info... the spark plugs, wires and cap was replaced. thats what they thought the problem was at first when it said cylinder 1 and 3 misfired and there was a "randon misfire" error. We replaced those parts, now only cylinder 1 is misfiring. They swapped the fuel injectors around cause they thought maybe it was bad, that wasnt it. Then they ran a compression device on cyl 1 and it came up with no compression at all.

Motor cranked up, really no other noises. I mean you can hear and see the motor vibrating more because its struggling to stay idle with only 3 cylinders working, but no grinding or noticable noises. When driving it to the house to park it, it sounds like small backfires when shifting gears(sometimes) and i have to push the gas alot more than normal to get it to go, and when accelerating from being stopped, it doesnt have much power at all till it gets going...

I hope this info gives you details and might get a more narrowed answer of the problem. Im about to spend $100-$130 bucks from Honda to have them do a full test on it and maybe narrow the problem there. I sure aint letting them fix it. They charge $1000 just to do head work.

 

[ejclide]

Yeah, i wanted honda to check my car once, but when i had to lean over and throw up when they said 165 to LOOK at it, i left.

If you just want to fix your head (which, if you have the B16 i think you have) then that would be smart. just send it to a *GOOD* machine shop to be reconditioned. check how well they resurface it. i've had some come back flat, and some come back mirror smooth. yes, there is a difference!

otherwise, the compression in that cylinder could still be a lot of things. I think your best bet is to tear off the head yourself, then figure it out from there. look for scarring in the cylinder wall, cracks in the head, anything abnormal. If you can, take pictures and maybe we can help.

 

[99sidude]

I'm gonna go with the headgasket, or a stuck valve. My b7 literally drank oil when i got it, i pulled it apart after the swap to find that one of the piston rings on #3 was gone in places, and part of the ringland had cracked off. Even with this, the car still ran fine/smooth and didn't misfire at all. It just used like a quart every 50 miles.

 

[Sorcereryk]

99sidude - Did it smoke when you got down on it? because mine is burning alot of oil and has been for a while and lately its thrown out more smoke, but it isnt really dark black smoke, more like a light grey or whitish color.

 

[99sidude]

no, mine smoked at start up, but didnt while idling or normal driving (aleast from what i could see), when I got on it though, it left huge clouds of blue smoke, to the point where it would almost obscure the view through the rearview mirror!

 

[99sidude]

that sucks to hear your car is acting up... how many miles are on it?

 

[Sorcereryk]

yea, mine never really through smoke out when i cranked it up, if it did it was so little i couldnt see it. but when i got down on it, it would throw alot of smoke out... i wonder if my problem with the smoke is related to the piston ring and ringland u mentioned? how much in parts did that have to cost u to get those fixed if i may ask?

the car has 120k miles..

 

[99sidude]

i bought the car to swap it. i drove the car for a few weeks before i installed my gsr motor. i just gave the motor to a junk yard for a few bucks

 

[killercannible]

Rings is my guesse, stuck valve you would hear, sucked valve would be very obvious, headgasket would most likely piss coolant and blow white smoke out the exhaust. bad rings it will smoke black and loose power.

 

[93civicracer]

Trust me on this one...stay AWAY from pep boys. They ripped me for almost $500 a few weeks back when I lost a cylinder and couldn't even tell me what was wrong with out having to charge another couple hundred to rip apart the block and then on top of that possibly another $1700 to replace my garbage d15b7. hahaha i was like nah man I'll take it back . I think I have the same problem you do, cuz my car drives OK but like yours, acceleration is garbage from still but drives just fine at higher speeds. Does it sound like a lawnmower at WOT?

I'm pretty sure my problem stemmed from a bad timing belt you might want to replace that before anything especially since mine only has 60k miles on it and yours has like double that. That, or you could just ditch it for a swap. If I don't find a d16z6 before I have enough money for a b16a sir 2 swap then I'm getting that.

 

[Sorcereryk]

Ok, after the results from Honda's testing, they said the valve on cylinder 1 is either fried or messed up somehow, or the head is either cracked. Either way im taking the head off in a week. Any ideas what I need to replace while the head is off, 120k miles on it. I know valve seals, valves themselves, and what else? and if its the head thats cracked, well im prob just going to have to replace it all together.

Any recommended head to replace it with if i have to replace the head?

 

[93civicracer]

I wouldn't know about the head, but if you had a misfire problem, I think you should install a new timing belt. That's what pep boys told me is the same thing, my valve is fucked and they replaced my timing belt and waterpump and now I can drive it on 3 cylinders so you might want to replace those 2 things. That and I had a new crankshaft seal installed. D15b7 garbage..lol I think I messed it up by over revving...at the time I had JUST learned how to drive a standard and my car doesn't have a tachometer in it so I was still learning to feel for the shifts.