need urgent aid.

[DDRaptor]

as some of may know i lost my timing belt a few months ago and the car has not been the same since so my father says she might of broken a piston ring, because power went downhill, i can barely merge without having to floor the pedal. as well gas mileage going to shit, from 280m per tank to about 210. so anywyas i don't have a second person to have move the starter while i do a compression test.

so i ask anyone in the northeast for some assistance cause he just says it going to keep getting worse until the day the she no longer useful and then i will have to get another car and just don't want another car.

So i'm assuming the easiset way to get at a piston (without removing the engine) is from the bottom removeing the oil pan, then the removing the main bearings ,crankshaft, then pulling the pistons from the bottom of the block, and make sure to buy a piston ring compressor.

SOrry for the rant but i trying to find someone that can help re ring my pistons, before she gives up on me, and i don't want to give her up.

[Oldblueaccord]

You can get a remote starter. its just a push button that you hook to the starter terminals to bump it over when your under the hood. You may even be able to rent one at an auto parts place


http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/lis20750.html

I'd do the compression test first and see whats up.

Are you sure sure sure that your cam timing is right? That would make low compression on all cylinders. Also if the valve hits the pistons usually its the valve that bends. It just puts dents in the piston since there Aluminium.

wp

[2oodoor]

I cant come there but , hey, if you just cut you a piece of wire about two foot long and put a female blade terminal on it, you can unplug the small wire on the starter and plug your homemade wire in. Then just touch the other end of the homemade wire to the positive post on the batt. Make sure the ign key switch is off.
You can also turn the motor over by hand if you take all the plugs out, to check valve timing.
Also if you do not have any strange noises, try advancing the distributor some, just like it is. Every time you change timing belt you need to recheck the ign timing, something a lot of shops just wont do for you esp on an old car. They would rather charge you for each individual service.

[88Accord-DX]

You can do a compression test by yourself, the tester is going to hold the highest compression untill the pressure releif valve is pressed in. Remove the fuel pump relay, pull the sparks plug out, disable the coil.
The highest & lowest reading shouldn't vary more than 20%, for balance reasons. Even though it might sound easy removing the piston from the bottom, it's not going to be. First, you won't have enough room for a piston ring compressor with the crankshaft in the way & the fact that the bottom of the block is not flat on the cylinder bores for it to work.

[DDRaptor]

is that around they would easily charge $500 plus just do something like i'm not saying it's easy to do but, it should'nt be so much. plus the fact that i don't have an engine hoist or stand to which do the work not to mention i have some skills and i'm prepping to take the ase certitfication myself but i don't have hands on practice with something that deep i just know a parts breakdown not the exact breakdown, i'm figuring if it's done from the bottom i thought it would be easier since you could pull the crank out as well so the 4 pistons could all be re-ringed, but i guess that was wishful thinking.

[Oldblueaccord]

Have you tried Ray Canner's in like Davenport NY he handles junk cars I think.



wp

[DDRaptor]

I never heard of it. but i did a comp test and according to what i saw i did all cylinders at least 3 times to make sure i did it right. all four cylinders compress all the way to 200psi (kinda high that's why i tested so many times.) remember the fact that i did not floor the throttle according to how the manual you have to do this.

now i guess i need to actually get a timing light to set the cam/dizzy timing i guess and hopefully that solves the problem. if' it's not that some is going to have to lossen the t belt and move it over i guess, if i had the money i would get a ajustable cam gear and i would be able to do this alone without tearing things down.

and then my last option is that someone messed with the carb mixture and i don't know how to do that i just know how to adjust idle and remove vac lines. so as it stands right now all my piston rings are in great condition (by the engine only reach 89k+ now.)

so thanks alot for the help.

[2oodoor]

from what you have written here, you may want to hold off on ase tests a little while longer. It is a lot of money.
You have to pull the head off to take out pistons for re-ring, they come out the bottom but you have to be able to get to the top too. You can rebuild these engines in the car for the most part, unless your having line boring done , not too common on these babes.
You can also slide the t belt one tooth with out taking anything off !!!, there is a bolt that sticks out thru the timing cover that loosens the tensioner, you can then slide off the belt from the cam. Get it all to TDC first, especially do not let the crank move after that, be very carelfull not to disturb the belt anymore than you have to so that it does not come off any other pulleys inside the cover. You do have to remove the top piece of the t cover though, which is simple.
I still think you can get your power back by turning the distributor some, set ign timing.

[DDRaptor]

i've moved the ign timing from the top to the bottom it does'nt make any difference.

[2oodoor]

i've moved the ign timing from the top to the bottom it does'nt make any difference.

hold up, are you carbed or FI? did you drive it after moving it each time?
if what you say is the case you may need to try the timing belt, but you started out the thread with some strange sounding solutions to a common problem that normally would not call for those solutions.

[bushbean]

I cant come there but , hey, if you just cut you a piece of wire about two foot long and put a female blade terminal on it, you can unplug the small wire on the starter and plug your homemade wire in. Then just touch the other end of the homemade wire to the positive post on the batt. Make sure the ign key switch is off. ...

What would happen if the ign key switch is ON?

[DDRaptor]

yeah sorry i was really truely ranting cause i saw the end of the time with the car.

but as it stands right now i have checked the comp and that turned out to be fine, so all i have left is to get a timing light to iron eveything out myself.

my question is how do i know what the timing is set to while using the light i found the spot where you shine the light in but i need more information as to how to figure out the exact degree

[88Accord-DX]

If your pedal is to the floor & getting no results by adjusting the distributor any. My bet is your timing belt has jumped a few teeth. So setting the timing isn't going to do much good untill you make sure your crankshaft & camshaft is lined up to TDC on cylinder #1 compression stroke. Need to look through the inspection hole on the transmission bellhousing for the "T" mark & look at the camshaft sprocket for lines parallel with the top of the head.

[DDRaptor]

yeah waiting to buy a light so i can look inside there and try to check tdc on #1