Problem found?

[accord newbie]

:mad: Ok here we go. I'm still battling the no start problem, ive replaced the main relay, distrubitor, temp sensor, injector resistor,ecm,had the fuel pressure and injectors checked.Everything is great, so we just put up with it. :pc:
This past Saturday night, it went from bad to worse. Luckily i was driving, as we approached an intersection with a red light, the light dropped green, so i tried to speed up. The car sputterd, popped and quit :barf: after pushing the car out of the way, my first thought was the timng belt broke, a quick inspection killed that idea.
The car had a strong spark at each plug wire. Moving very quickly i gave it a breath of ether, no response.
After 20 minutes of pulling my hair out it just fired up and ran great :uh:
we went about 5 miles and spit, pop, it died again. i'm kinda P.o.ed at this point( 11:30 at night in a rough neighborhood) i hopp out and check for spark again, nice fat blue spark. i hit the key and it fires right up. This time it chuggs real bad on accelleration, absolutly no power. i finally get it home.
The next morning i go out to start it , and fires up and runs great, i run it about 2 minutes, shut it down, it wont restart. start tracking down what is going on, in 10 minutes it fires up runs great again, but again it wont restart. Becoming increasing frustrated :mad: i went back to basic engine principles,... again. I go the check compression, i get the following

#1 165 lbs
#2 170 lbs
#3 72 lbs
#4 70 lbs

This tells me i had a blown head gasket or a crack in the head, i pull it down and sure enough th gasket between 3 and 4 is scorched.

My big question here is : Could this be what was happening, because the problem became more frequent. Or am i still missing something. i checked this about 4 months ago and the reading were pretty even. I got the head worked at the machine shop and it was in good shape except for the exhaust valve guideswere wore out

when i last checked the compression i did not perform a " leakdown " test so and after this last test i could not get it started again the check it warm, so maybe this was the prblem i dont know yet....... any ideas cause ive never had i car act like this

[Autowiz]

you need to take a straightedge or level and feeler guage to the machined surface of your block before you re mate the head to it. make sure the block didn't warp. also, did you overheat when you kept stalling? a blown head gasket will make a car overheat, and as it builds temp. metals expand, and a small hole becomes larger, and more pronounced. if your car was overheating and then stalling, then the head gasket was probably the cause of your stalling.

[smufguy]

its defenitely a blown gasket bwt cyl 3 and 4. u prolly were getting coolant into your combustion chamber and thats what made u sputter and backfire. Did u check the tips of your spark plugs and also the clearance volume area (the dome of the head) ?

autowiz: our blocks are cast iron, if anything is gonna warp its the head. our blocks dont warp.

[shepherd79]

hmm, what kind head gasket were you using?

[accord newbie]

it was the factory head gasket with 200k on it, so i guess it was about time
I got the head back from the machine shop friday, got it back together this past weekend, so far it runs great, and starts every time.

my compression reading are now:

#1 180
#2 182
#3 185
#4 185

The car runs strong, plenty of power and smooth as glass, almost :banghead:
now the only problem is the on cold start, the car sputters and threatens to stall for 2 or 3 minutes, then i hear i loud click inside the "black box" and the car idles perfectly.
I checked for vaccum leaks and found none, any ideas here? :help:

well at least it is runnig again, now it's time to relax a while :beer: :cheers:

[shepherd79]

go to junkyard and get another black box. it will fix the problem

[88lxcarbed]

if you keep smashing on a blown head gasket and get that engine hot enough, the block can and will warp...mine was warped when i bought it with a blown head gasket...the guy that had it before me kept doing the head gasket ghetto and then when it blew the last time he was outside of work revving to about 6g...lol so i offered to buy it from him for 300$...anyways they took .016 off the head to get it back to good...the block wasnt warped much...but enough that i had to flat sand it....

[AccordEpicenter]

cast iron warps too, but the last time i had an accord with a blown hg it was warped in the head straight up between 2-3 .11" (HOLY SHIT) and it still ran, even though 3 wouldnt run evenly until all the antifreeze burned out of it. Do yourself a favor and make sure it doesnt overheat or anything.

[Autowiz]

most times the head warps first, yes, cast iron is a much denser metal than a soft, pourus aluminum head. but, there are cases. and for the 2 seconds the test would take, well, it just should be done. if you can't get a feeler guage under the straightedge, or hold up a flashlight to it and see if any light passes under the straightedge. if the deck is flat, then mate your freshly machined head to it. but, in the offbeat chance the high mileage block warped slightly over the years, it'd be a real waste of time and money to have to do the job over again.