No Compression in 3 cylinders Why?????

[alexfleury]

Head back on, engine has 120lbs compression on all cylinders.

BUT the distributor is locked up. Will get a distributor and try to get it started and see what happens.

Could the dizzy have gnoe out and 3 cylinders got washed down with gas?

Still puzzled !!

 

[awptickes]

BUT the distributor is locked up. Will get a distributor and try to get it started and see what happens.

Could the dizzy have gnoe out and 3 cylinders got washed down with gas?

Think about what you just said.....


Allow me to explain how a functioning engine works.:

Engine gets gas and air. Intake valves close. Engine compresses said gas and air. Distributor fires spark. Explosion blows piston down. Exhaust valves open. Piston pushes exhaust out. Exhaust valves close. Intake valves open. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Here's how yours (doesn't) work:

Engine gets gas and air. Intake valves close. Engine compresses said gas and air. Distributor doesn't fire spark. Explosion doesn't blow piston down, other functioning cylinder(s) force piston down. Exhaust valves open. Piston pushes no exhaust out, the motion of the cylinder compressing, and then decompressing forces gasoline vapor out of the air, and air is forced out of cylinder leaving gasoline in the cylinder, probably with a little bit of gas. Exhaust valves close. Intake valves open. Lather, rinse, repeat. Gasoline sitting in the bottom of the cylinder now washes up and down the cylinder walls, scrubbing the oil off the walls, causing nasty metal-on-metal contact.

I hope I didn't mean to come off as an asshole, but now you've got a better understanding of what's going on in your engine. Hope I helped.

 

[alexfleury]

Yeah, that 's the whole mystery of what happened to this engine. Why did THREE cylinders looked washed out and have low compression, and one still have good compression and look pretty normal?

I'm still hoping that with a new head gasket and now a new distributor that the engine will run again.

I'll let y'all know.

 

[OKCZombie]

most likely it was cylinders 2, 3, 4 that were looking washed out? #1 closest to cam gear looked normal?

 

[BrokenRex]

Putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound isn't going to remove the slug or stop the internal bleeding, that person will still die if the proper steps aren't taken. Your engine is the exact same at this point.

brilliance. i wish i had come up with that analogy.

 

[alexfleury]

Well It Does Run

Mechanic got the engine back together and it does run. I'm hoping Blanco hasn't jinxed me and I will get a few more miles out of it

My best guess on what happened to this motor was that when the distributor locked up it still fired the number 3 cylinder some of the time, enough to burn some of the gas coming into the cylinder.

The other three cylinders got enough fule to give them the "washed out" appearance and filled with enough gas to blow the head gasket.

With a new head gasket on and a new distributor, it does seem to run OK. I will let y'all know if I make it past the 2K mark on the motor.

If I do need a motor soon, I'll be here asking advice on either a mini-me or a ZC swap!!

Thank y'all again for the advice. This is a great site!!!

Alex

 

[alexfleury]

Disease

I'm hoping the "disease" was the distributor locking up. Would seem unlikely that it would have an engine problem and the distributor lock up at the same time.

But I guess I won't know for a few thousand miles.

I'll keep hoping and let ya know when I hit 2k

alex

 

[BrokenRex]

did you just say that was your best guess? you practically copied/pasted that from awptickes post... all except for that part about fuel blowing your head gasket. with "washed out" cylinders, your rings aren't going to seal, that's why you're getting low compression in all cylinders (yes, 120psi IS low.) sure it runs, but i'd be willing to bet that it's burning oil as we speak. and contaminating the oil with fuel, reducing it's ability to lubricate. you really should take blancos advice and have the thing either looked into by a competent shop, or start looking for another engine.

 

[90DATeggy]

yea u should see if the dizzy

 

[alexfleury]

A few people were following this post, so I should give a wrap-up. The shop got the engine back together and the engine would sometimes run OK sometimes not.

After driving the car for a few miles, the mechanic had the car back on the lift and tried to rev it. Heard a strange rattle and he realized the car had a clogged catalytic converter. After having the local muffler shop install a "test pipe" (hey it's rural Tennessee) the car runs fine.

Aparently the engine ran hot enough from the converter problem to cause the distributor failure and then it all went downhill from there.

Now it runs fine, 120 lbs of compression isn't too bad for an engine with 260K miles and I have my little 40mpg car on the road again.

Of course I'm out about $1000 bucks (a bunch of other small reapirs were done too) and have been without my car for awhile, but another Honda lives

 

[LS_VTEC]

My two cents .... Judging by what you have been stating, low compression readings, especially in two adjacent cylinders reading low indicate a head gasket failure. Maybe you warped the head, who knows. But, another explanation for some of your symptom's would lead to cracked sleeves. But in your case, I think you just did some damage to the engine when it was running so hot. Either way. it runs now. Get it home safely and go from there.

 

[alexfleury]

A few people had followed this post, so I'll give a final. The engine is back together. Car has run fine for over a year and a few thousand miles. Does burn a slight amount of oil but it does have 260K miles.

I just had the head gasket replaced and the distributor. And the engine has run fine.

I wonder if it a good idea to repace the distributor in high mileage motor. The distributor failure seems to have caused the rest of the problems. I think that if I buy another car with over 200K I'll consider repacing it just to be safe.