So Just registered to this forum hopefully i can get some good advice and suggestions here

Ok so i recently bought a 1994 accord dx sedan MT, I love it. But it wont pass smog, i did a diagnostic and it appears that oil is leaking into the spark plug holes. The guy told me that he can fix it and replace the catalytic converter for a total of $860.00 Is that a fair price because ive been doing some research and i cant by the rubber seals online for like $30??? and a cat will cost I would say a little over a $100 or so. What do you guys suggest?

 

If you can change your own valvecover gasket, go for it. It's easy. But it's also easy to overtighten & break the valvecover hold-down bolts. So take it easy on those.

The V-C gasket set will include 4 thin O-rings & you'll wonder where they belong. If you remove the rockers and camshaft bearing caps, those rings go way down there. For now, just keep them because there's a fair chance that changing the upper seals will fix it. And you don't want to pull the cam bearing caps without a proper procedure & torque specs.

I would be suspicious of a $100 cat. Some of them are little more then test-pipes. But you might not REALLY need it anyway. How about an oxygen sensor? They can get old & sluggish but not so bad they set any error codes (check-engine light).

If you DO need a new cat, you can do that yourself too. But working on 18-year-old exhaust systems can be a big can of worms. Ugly dirty work. Your money, your decision. I'm inclined to repair my own, but when I figure out how much I save vs. how many hours I spend, well lets just say I don't tell my wife what that works out in $$ per hour.

 

1994-2002 Honda Accord Valve Cover Gasket - Replacement REPH312907 - OE replacement
thats what i found and i also found an article online that explains the problem and step by step instrustions on how to fix it.
If it will only cost roughly $18 then id rather di it myself or have a friend do it.
He had also mentioned the Oxygen sensor but he said he'd rather change the Catalytic Converter first because the diagnosis says that the O2 sensor is okay.
But he said somethig about the EGR sensor too im not familiar with that part of the car.

 

Oh and in the link what are those other 5 circular objects in the picture?

 

Being an LX I think that is the wrong one....look at the 312901. It has the upper and lower tube seals (8 rings) and the 5 bolt grommets. Might as well replace the spark plugs while going this gasket. Also, add a small dab of silicone to the "humps" on both ends....those sharp turns/corners will leak without a bit of help.

What were the readings on the smog test? You brought up the "egr"....on these there is an EGR Chamber that if one or more of the ports get clogged can cause issues with passing smog.

 

the only thing that actually passed was the 2500 rpm test everything else failed. the major one was the idle i guess the max its allowed to be at is 150 and its at 1523 lol thats pretty bad.

 

Post the actual test results, like:

Idle, CO Limit: 158 ppm, CO Actual: 1523 ppm, FAIL

Etc. List HC & NOx too for all RPMs. Percentage or PPM, whatever your state uses.