problems at 175k, kinduh lost - Honda Forum / Acura Forum

quikflip27 · 02-10-2006, 10:17 PM

hey guys, ive been workin on the car, namely the head lights. i have a pair of black halos. any way, i was looking around the engine bay since in depth for the first time and i noticed some oily residue in the excess radiator fluid resivoir. it is black, has a viscosity somewhat thicker than water, and is only at the bottom of the resivoir (there is no other fluid in there). upon opening the radiator cap, i noticed like a dark orange grease stuff around the inside of the hole. any ideas on what this stuff is? i was thinking that it might be a really bad head to block gasket, after all the engine has slightly over 175k miles on it. there is also a huge wetmark on the valve cover and there is the black dirt stuff all over the block. this would be a leaky valve cover gasket? i need to start preppin for boost, so im going to do a leak down test soon, and i got a cel, so i gotta check up on that. i think its time for a rebuild, any other things i should check of do?
thx, quikflip
p.s. about the lights, does anyone know how hid's perform in these projectors? the light is absolutle horrid with just some silverstars in there, where as my bro has the same bulbs in his oem and they are pretty bright. if they are going to suck, where can i get some audi of s2k projectors (thats gunna put a hole in my wallet).

quikflip27 · 02-11-2006, 10:32 PM

ok, i was juss going through the engine, i randomly decided to take a look at the spark plugs...i didnt take any out, i juss pulled off the wire to look inside. i started from the driver side piston (1?) and worked to the passenger side (4?). 1 was normal, 2 was normal, 3 had a little residue on it, not sure of what it was.....and four...the entire cylindrical part was flooded with oil. -_-' where is this coming from?
i did a little test with my micrometer and figured that oil does not conduct electricity, therefore i dont think that piston is getting any spark. how do i fix this problem, cuz if i take out that sparkplug, all the oil is gunna go into the cylinder. should i still use the car while its like this?
any help is greatly appreciated

johnlude85 · 02-11-2006, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by quikflip27

ok, i was juss going through the engine, i randomly decided to take a look at the spark plugs...i didnt take any out, i juss pulled off the wire to look inside. i started from the driver side piston (1?) and worked to the passenger side (4?). 1 was normal, 2 was normal, 3 had a little residue on it, not sure of what it was.....and four...the entire cylindrical part was flooded with oil. -_-' where is this coming from?
i did a little test with my micrometer and figured that oil does not conduct electricity, therefore i dont think that piston is getting any spark. how do i fix this problem, cuz if i take out that sparkplug, all the oil is gunna go into the cylinder. should i still use the car while its like this?
any help is greatly appreciated

ok bare with me on this one. you may have a bad head gasket from what you said about the oil in the antifreeze. no, oil does not conduct electricity (not good enough to transfer automotive spark anyway). the oil is from inside the valve cover. there are spark plug seals underneath the valve cover, just get a head gasket set and a valve gover gasket set and youll be good. the wet wire is still fireing unless it is misfireing. you will not hurt anything by removing the plug and letting the oil go in the cylinder, itll just burn out the exhaust any way.

now, a way to tell if your engine is misfireing is to either ground out a cylinder with a test light, or to remove a plug wire. both ways have to be done while the engine is running. if you go with the pulling the wire method, make sure to do it with a pliers or you get zapped. go from left to right and pull off (or ground out) each cylinder indivudally, then replace the wire (or remove the test light). you should hear a change in rpm when doing one of these 2 methods. that is a good thing. it means that the cylinder your testing is normally getting spark. if you dont hear a change in rpm (misfire) that means that there is a problem with that cylinder.

and what you used to test electrical conductivity with the oil was a multimeter not a micrometer.

hope that helped, let us know how ya make out.

quikflip27 · 02-11-2006, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnlude85

ok bare with me on this one. you may have a bad head gasket from what you said about the oil in the antifreeze. no, oil does not conduct electricity (not good enough to transfer automotive spark anyway). the oil is from inside the valve cover. there are spark plug seals underneath the valve cover, just get a head gasket set and a valve gover gasket set and youll be good. the wet wire is still fireing unless it is misfireing. you will not hurt anything by removing the plug and letting the oil go in the cylinder, itll just burn out the exhaust any way.

now, a way to tell if your engine is misfireing is to either ground out a cylinder with a test light, or to remove a plug wire. both ways have to be done while the engine is running. if you go with the pulling the wire method, make sure to do it with a pliers or you get zapped. go from left to right and pull off (or ground out) each cylinder indivudally, then replace the wire (or remove the test light). you should hear a change in rpm when doing one of these 2 methods. that is a good thing. it means that the cylinder your testing is normally getting spark. if you dont hear a change in rpm (misfire) that means that there is a problem with that cylinder.

and what you used to test electrical conductivity with the oil was a multimeter not a micrometer.

hope that helped, let us know how ya make out.

oh ya, multimeter...sorry, i got confused cuz i was using a micrometer for other stuff...thanks for the information, it is very informative, ill try that misfiring, so you just basically unplug one wire and see if the rpm changes at idle?
any ideas on why there would be oil in my radiator?

johnlude85 · 02-11-2006, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by quikflip27

oh ya, multimeter...sorry, i got confused cuz i was using a micrometer for other stuff...thanks for the information, it is very informative, ill try that misfiring, so you just basically unplug one wire and see if the rpm changes at idle?
any ideas on why there would be oil in my radiator?

if the head gasket is bad (which it sounds like it is) there will be oil in the cooling system. everything in the cooling system starts in the radiator and returns to the radiator. if there is oil in the rad (from the bad gasket), itll float up to the surface, to the cap, and seperate with the coolant.

just physics.

quikflip27 · 02-11-2006, 11:12 PM

jw, does oil from the pan get to the head through galleries in the block that go through the gasket, or does it get there with like a separate pipe/tube?

johnlude85 · 02-11-2006, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by quikflip27

jw, does oil from the pan get to the head through galleries in the block that go through the gasket, or does it get there with like a separate pipe/tube?

it travels from the pump to the head and get dispearsed into ports near the cams. there are ports all over the place. then on the crank there are ports and also in the crank bearings.