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I have a D16Y8 Civic American model with a M/T. Car ran decent until about 10 minutes into driving during daytime hours it would have a serious drop in power. Night time was better by far. Long story short with decreasing MPG and valves tapping I proceeded to adjust them via the service manual directions and checked the ignition timing. Ignition timing was retarded almost at the TDC mark so I advanced it (all done while blue connector bypassed) it to middle white line. Car ran horribly when ignition timing was corrected. Found out mechanical timing was off a tooth and corrected it followed by ignition timing. Idles rough and low, car will bog down horribly in neutral and i have to feather and baby the throttle to get the car up to 30 MPH. I am in need of some serious expert advice as the next step is burning it to the ground.
I have:
Checked and adjusted TPS
Cleaned IACV and of course the screwdriver handle test
Completely removed intake and cleaned all carbon
Replaced all vacuum and coolant lines (purged appropriately)
Cleaned injectors (the carb cleaner battery way) they were in good shape to begin with
Checked several times for vacuum leaks
Fuel filter looks good with good pressure
Cant remember what else
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have you tried to replace spark plugs and wires. you may have bad plugs or wires or both. I have a truck that was ready to go to the junk yard do to running issues. I used seafoam in the truck and this made my truck run so much better. You can youtube seafoam this will give you a video on how to put it in you engine. I put half in engine and half in the gas tank. If you do put it in your engine make sure you suck in a little bit at a time like sips or you could damage you engine. I have done this on 5 cars. They all responded well to this. I put this in my truck went from 8mpg to 18mpg. Is the check engine light on by chance if so you could have a OBD code reader check it may help you with pointing you in the right direction. You may have an oxygen sensor issue as well. I had bogging in my chevy car and the end result was 2 oxygen sensors that was going bad. I did not know this was the issue till they went out and cause a check engine light to come on. This gave me a problem for about 8 months before it went out on me to the point it caused a check engine light to come on. This also made the engine have a slight knocking sound that caused me to think the engine had a bad valve. I am just trying to help you with ideas in the end non of this could be the issue but you have to narrow down one thing at a time. Best of luck either way hope this may help you
One of the first things I would do is check engine compression since there is a history of having a bad timing belt placement. It is possible there is a bent valve.
Thanks for the input I really appreciate it!!!
Plugs are pretty new so I cleaned and reinstalled, sea foamed it a few months back, code reader says knock sensor circuit not sure about the O2 sensors though… can i unplug them and have the car run on better?I did a quick compression test dry of course and I got a solid 150 across the board so honestly I didn’t think twice about it being that they were all the same. By quick I mean 3 to 4 revolutions per cylinder.
*After I adjusted the ignition timing the first time it ran horrible so i put it back to where it was back near TDC and it ran fine again (better than before because of the valve adjustment). But I just couldn’t stand the fact that something was wrong with the timing and was being fudged to produce the wanted results. That is when I found it off a tooth and it went down from there. I feel (although haven’t tried) that if I were to place the mechanical timing back and retard the timing it would run fine again…. But why has been my question and what has gotten me into this situation.
Ok, thank for the additional information. That helps. The base timing should be set at 12 degrees. It is important that manually adjusting the timing be done when the 2-pin service connector under the glove box is jumpered. This disables computer control of the timing while you make the adjustment, or you will be fighting the computer (I know you did this, I just put it here for completeness).
The crankshaft pulley has several marks on it. There is a mark for TDC, which is white, and there are other marks, such as the 12 degree mark which is red. You may need to clean the crank pulley so you can see these marks and their colors clearly. There are also sight marks above the crank pulley. You use these marks like you would the sights on a firearm. Aim the timing light so that these sight marks line up with the red mark on the crank pulley and you are now in time and can un-jumper the service connector.
If the engine is not running properly with the timing set this way, I would re-check the placement of the timing belt and look for other performance related issues.
My marks on crank pulley were all gone so I painted TDC red (the stand alone mark) and 10,12,14 advance marks white. Mechanical timing is dead on now for a fact because I have checked several times with a straight edge on each side of cam pulley against head cover surface. Ignition timing is set to middle mark 12 degrees. All done while service connector jumped and blinking light on the dash (knock sensor circuit) for comfort.
With that being said I have recently noticed that with service connector jumped and timing set with distributor clamped down the timing will fluctuate 4 degrees give or take in the retarded direction. All while my timing light says 14 degrees advancement. Could the crank or cam position sensor be at fault?
With the service connection jumped there is no engine management control of the timing. It should be fairly steady and not fluctuating hardly at all. If you see fluctuation while in service mode (it shouldn’t) then here are some ideas. If your rotor is secured with a screw, make sure the screw is tight so that there isn’t any play in the rotor. If the rotor is ok, then the ignitor is possibly failing, or there is a problem with the distributor itself. One thing to check is to pull the distributor out and look at the key on the end of the shaft to see if it is damaged or has a broken blade.
OK I’ll give that a shot and let you know what I find out.
As a side note while having this problem I was fed up and shotgunned some parts at it one of which was an aftermarket distributor (I know how much Eric loves aftermarket parts for Civics). It did not change a single thing as far as the issue goes including the fluctuation. But I will double check my work to ensure I did not induce this problem.
OK everything is tight and what not so I pulled the aftermarket distributor and placed the old one back in and made sure everything was tight. Set base timing with service connector jumped and this is what I got. It may be hard to see cause video is kind of rough. If you watch the timing marks on the pulley they advance and retard with rpm fluctuation.
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