95 accord lx. 4 cylinder. vtec i believe. Just picked it up off craiglists. 64k miles supposedly, and the guy was very eager to sell for a friend..... I think i know why...

I am not a mechanic. Car is rough. When we first test drove it sometimes would not start. We attributed to sitting over winter/ yucky gas. We bought it. Drove it to near town, put fresh gas in her. We actually pushed it to the pump.

Car made it about 30 miles (i was not driving) began to overheat. Pulled into Autozone. Got some fresh coolant. It drank a bunch. Also bought a new radiator cap. original was junk. It was spewing into overflow and out cap.

Let it cool down. Would not restart. it was late, drove good car home.
Went back next day...would not start. Took off air filter apparatus to spray starting fluid. did not work. Have spark and 12v at coil (distributor???). Also have spark at spark plug.

Decided to pull plugs. Here is the kicker.... You guys know these engines. The plugs are like in a rubber boot, tucked in the valve cover???? Anyway, These boots were COVERED in OIL. More so passenger side plug, than the driver side plug.

What did I get myself into??????

thank you very much.... Appreciate any input.

 

Sparkplug tube seals are part of the valvecover gasket "set". That can be an easy fix. A "non-mechanic" should be able to do this.

The rest of the story, is there's another set of seals down lower in the sparkplug tubes. Those have O-rings and they require you remove the valvegear & camshaft bearing caps. It's a bigger job, but OK for experienced DIY-er. You say you're not a mechanic, so maybe this one's for a shop to do.

 

Tell me this... I drive a rover.... If it starts to overheat. You pull over, Period.

What kind of "abuse" do these engines take? Do they blow headgaskets easily.
Since i was not driving, I am really not sure how long the car was hot in those 30 miles. You know, hopefully for like only five minutes. But it could have been longer.

I gave 700 bucks for it. He started at 2k. Another reason i think maybe they knew something was wrong.

At this point... cause i know very little about these cars; Is should i sink more money into it, or try to sell it. It has some minor body damage.

Is there a market for these cars as junkers. I dont mind losing a couple of hundred bucks and lesson learned.

 

Between parting it out and selling the body for scrap, you could probably make most of your money back.

I guess I would try replacing the spark plug seals and see what that does, if not I'd consider getting rid of it.

 

Sorry that you seem to have bought yourself a lemon

 

Ok..we got this puppy home finally. I spent some of the day reading up in one of the "stickys" above. I found the column on the oily spark plug boots.

good info there.

This car was advertised as a vtec. How can I know for sure? From pics i've seen of other engines, it is clearly on the valve cover (???).

I just popped the hood, and this just has "16 Valve Honda" on the valve cover. I have also read that a 95 were about a 50/50 shot of vtec or not.


The reason i ask is for getting parts, valve cover gasket, possibly head gasket, etc.

Thanks, JHK

 

PS.. This car is a 5 speed. I assume 5 speed, i have not drove it. It is a manual transmission.

Safe to assume a F22B2 engine?

Thank you. JHK

 

The LX and DX had F22B2 engines (non-vtec). Only the EX had the vtec F22B1 engine.

You have a non-vtec engine.

 

Look for a flat machined spot on the engine block, alongside the exhaust manifold, right alongside the split-line between engine & transmission. Engine type is stamped there, with the block serial # on the 2nd line.

 

UPDATE...

Found engine model # on flat spot... thanks.

The good news... Had fuel to rail. changed wires and plugs.
Started and purred just long enoungh for the bad news...

Head gasket leak at head where exhauast manifold takes off.
We are going to tackle ourselves.

Tips...links...or pics....would be helpful. Yes I have searched, but it never hurts to ask the gurus that have been there done that.

Thanks. JHK