My Second Honda in less than a month!

[87ccord]

So, I got my first engine swap out of the way, got everything tuned up, and all issues with the car resolved. My Dad works for the local PUD and so he gets to see all kinds of backyards and alleyways and back roads. He told me he saw a tan honda 4 door with pop up headlights just like mine sitting in an alley about 5 blocks from my house. I tried several times knocking on the door of the house and never got ahold of the owner. Until my luck broke two weekends ago. The man answered the door and after I asked him if he'd like to sell it, he quickly and eagerly responded with a yes! I looked the car over. 1988 Honda Accord, 4 door, tan, red interior, automatic, LX-i, 167,XXX miles, mint interior, exterior was dirty, but no major blemishes, I asked him what he thought was fair. Anyyywayysss, long story short, an hour, and $250 later, I was the proud new owner of a lightly used LX-i in great shape. Only thing I was a little dissapointed in was it has a branded title. But I still, to this day, cannot see what might've happened to have earned the car that brand.


An hour and a half with 6 friends standing around admiring my new prize, I resolved the issue that the owner could only sum up with "It does not get gas to the engine amigo", and it ran beautifully =)

The transmission makes a slight noise when I shift from reverse to drive or park, and the service manual suggests worn shift forks, worn 4th gear, or a worn reverse gear.
And a week ago, the car would not start the next day after I had driven it around for the better part of 3 hours, and parked it for the night. It starts and runs with ether, and the fuel pump is working if I jump the pins which leads me to believe the culprit is the main relay.
However, if I'm to understand correctly, with the pins jumpered, and the fuel pump working, it should run without the relay in place correct?

I was also getting odd readings from the ecu mentioning the crank angle sensor. I disassembled the distributor, cleaned the sensor pickups up with a rag, and put it back together and the code went away. Though, judging by the bearing drag, noise, and shaft play, I know I'll need to track down a good one from a wrecking yard soon.

Currently, I cannot get the car to fire without starting fluid, and I'm waiting for the money to replace the relay. I've also read that soldering it would've fixed it, had I not thrown it away. =/ But aren't relays a consumable item to begin with? Eventually the relay contacts just get burnt and the relay ceases to function properly is the way I understood it. The inside of the casing smelled like burnt computer components (funny story about burnt computer components... XD )

For now, my trusty carburetted little dx gets me around just fine and I'm happy to report mileage of 26mpg finally, but eventually, I wanna sell the dx, and make the plush cushy and LXurious-i my daily driver.

As always, any and all input or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
-Derek

[dacantu]

Hmm I wish I could help with the problem. You seem to be on the right track with the main relay. If I were you I would go to the junkyard and pick up a couple main relays and swap them out and see if thats your problem. or use the one from your running accord (because you know that it still works) and that way you can either confirm that it is or isnt the main relay.

great find on the accord by the way.

[87ccord]

Hmm I wish I could help with the problem. You seem to be on the right track with the main relay. If I were you I would go to the junkyard and pick up a couple main relays and swap them out and see if thats your problem. or use the one from your running accord (because you know that it still works) and that way you can either confirm that it is or isnt the main relay.

great find on the accord by the way.

We have one junkyard here in town and alllllllllll 5 of the fuel injected accords in there have had the main relays scavenged. Common problem with these things I guess. I don't think the carburetted accords have the same relay setup at the fuel injected ones do though do they?

[dacantu]

Im not sure to be honest but im going to guess no they dont.

You can try though?

[beran24]

We have one junkyard here in town and alllllllllll 5 of the fuel injected accords in there have had the main relays scavenged. Common problem with these things I guess. I don't think the carburetted accords have the same relay setup at the fuel injected ones do though do they?

no they do not

[87ccord]

Got it running, dug the relay out of the garbage, did the relay tests as described in the factory manual, plugged it back in, fired right up!
She still runs kinda funny, I think the timing is still off. But I'm in business again, and it didn't cost me a penny =P Fan timer is dead/dying because it'll stay on after I turn the car off until the battery dies.

[Oldblueaccord]

if the battery voltage is real low the fan will stick on. Atleast in my car they will.

Last time my battery went dead once I got a decent charge on it the fans came on and the car was dead cold. I boosted the battery a little and the shut off with in 30 seconds.

wp

[1987AccordLx-i]

Got it running, dug the relay out of the garbage, did the relay tests as described in the factory manual, plugged it back in, fired right up!
She still runs kinda funny, I think the timing is still off. But I'm in business again, and it didn't cost me a penny =P Fan timer is dead/dying because it'll stay on after I turn the car off until the battery dies.

i just got rid of that little dang fan haha i took out the a/c condensor so i had no reason to keep it..

and i did the re-solder thing on mine and she runs like a purring kitten

[87ccord]

Okay, so I've gone through this honda up and down, and even after I soldered the relay, it didn't seem right, so I replaced it. Now, initially, I had a huge "hunting" problem. I took the distributor apart, TONS of shaft play, everything was corroded, including the cyl/tdc, so I took a rag and the rust pretty much wiped off both of them, I cleaned everything up as much as I could, and sprayed the inside with wd40 liberally. Put it back together, and I never had the problem again.


Now, sometimes the car will crank, at LIGHT SPEED, it won't start though, and after long enough, the cranking will slow and the tach will begin to jump. It's not the battery draining. But it seems like suddenly a greater load is placed on the starter motor, and the tach begins to bounce wildly around 3k-4k.

I'm afraid I'm dealing with two intermittent problems at once. The Tw sensor may be failing, but I don't know how to determine a failing sensor or a bad connection, because if I disconnect it and try starting it,(and it's not already flooded) the CEL turns off and it will start/run fine.

But from time to time, it has the previously mentioned problem of not starting/cranking over at higher than normal speed/suddenly cranking slower+Tach bouncing all over

It likes to throw a code 6 and I never get any other codes, but I'm guessing I just need to fork over the $21 and get a new tw sensor. Then maybe the other issue will be easier to diagnose and address.

Also, my fan had quit running when I would shut the car off, but is now doing it on a consistent basis, pretty annoying to have to pop the hood and unhook the battery whenever I go somewhere, I recently replaced the fan temp sensor and performed a coolant flush, and that's when it started to run until the battery dies again.

Any thoughts?

-Derek

[1987AccordLx-i]

Okay, so I've gone through this honda up and down, and even after I soldered the relay, it didn't seem right, so I replaced it. Now, initially, I had a huge "hunting" problem. I took the distributor apart, TONS of shaft play, everything was corroded, including the cyl/tdc, so I took a rag and the rust pretty much wiped off both of them, I cleaned everything up as much as I could, and sprayed the inside with wd40 liberally. Put it back together, and I never had the problem again.


Now, sometimes the car will crank, at LIGHT SPEED, it won't start though, and after long enough, the cranking will slow and the tach will begin to jump. It's not the battery draining. But it seems like suddenly a greater load is placed on the starter motor, and the tach begins to bounce wildly around 3k-4k.

I'm afraid I'm dealing with two intermittent problems at once. The Tw sensor may be failing, but I don't know how to determine a failing sensor or a bad connection, because if I disconnect it and try starting it,(and it's not already flooded) the CEL turns off and it will start/run fine.

But from time to time, it has the previously mentioned problem of not starting/cranking over at higher than normal speed/suddenly cranking slower+Tach bouncing all over

It likes to throw a code 6 and I never get any other codes, but I'm guessing I just need to fork over the $21 and get a new tw sensor. Then maybe the other issue will be easier to diagnose and address.

Also, my fan had quit running when I would shut the car off, but is now doing it on a consistent basis, pretty annoying to have to pop the hood and unhook the battery whenever I go somewhere, I recently replaced the fan temp sensor and performed a coolant flush, and that's when it started to run until the battery dies again.

Any thoughts?

-Derek

that problem you have with the tach jumping to 4k... i have the same problem but it seems that its igniting on the compression stroke and it wants to kick backwards... are you experiencing that? i wanna know what causes that... im thinking the coils going out

[87ccord]

that problem you have with the tach jumping to 4k... i have the same problem but it seems that its igniting on the compression stroke and it wants to kick backwards... are you experiencing that? i wanna know what causes that... im thinking the coils going out

Exactly my problem. When I hook up a jumper battery or a charger switched to the high amp start circuit it turns over just fine and doesn't kick back. My distributor is shot but the shaft play doesn't seem like it would affect the timing so dramatically. Why do you suspect the coil?

I recently blew a head gasket. Worse gasket I've ever seen. 3 of the cylinders were either blown or about to blow, and cylinder #1's steel ring was crimped and coated with carbon. I'll post pics later.
I broke the plastic tubing that feeds my pcv valve, it was all hard and brittle. I'm not sure what the best fix for this would be, any ideas would definitely be appreciated. The tubing looks specialized, and the barbed/press/slip sorta fitting they use doesn't seem easy to adapt to.

I'll be posting more tomorrow including pics of the head gasket
-Derek

[87ccord]

Beautiful Gasket if I ever saw one
I don't even know how the car ran. Or how it ran so well, I parked it, left it there for 6 hours, when I started it back up, it was only running on 3 cylinders. Up to that point it showed no symptoms. No smoke or condensation in the exhaust, No bubbles in the Radiator, Ran perfect. It was literally shooting coolant out from between the head and block. =S It looks like cylinder #1 got the worst of it, but cylinder #2 and #3 weren't too far behind, they had some warpage to their steel rings as well.
-Derek

[1987AccordLx-i]

Exactly my problem. When I hook up a jumper battery or a charger switched to the high amp start circuit it turns over just fine and doesn't kick back. My distributor is shot but the shaft play doesn't seem like it would affect the timing so dramatically. Why do you suspect the coil?

I recently blew a head gasket. Worse gasket I've ever seen. 3 of the cylinders were either blown or about to blow, and cylinder #1's steel ring was crimped and coated with carbon. I'll post pics later.
I broke the plastic tubing that feeds my pcv valve, it was all hard and brittle. I'm not sure what the best fix for this would be, any ideas would definitely be appreciated. The tubing looks specialized, and the barbed/press/slip sorta fitting they use doesn't seem easy to adapt to.

I'll be posting more tomorrow including pics of the head gasket
-Derek

i did more research and talked to my instructor at auto tech and he said that advanced timing will do that... i guess if you have your car more then 15 degrees then it will do it