ok thanks.

By Chaffneue (Chaffneue) (66.183.190.188) on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 12:39 am:

Depending on the service record of your car, you just may want to do them all.. plugs, wires, cap, rotor, points, coil.. it's not all that scary, just takes a bit of money and a few tools. You won't have to touch them for another 30 years :D To check the timing, you'll need a light and a Honda repair manual to step you through it. A compression test isn't a bad idea either. As long as all the cylinders are close and about 110 PSI minimum, the car should run. If one cylinder is high or low, there are larger problems at hand (valves, timing belt, head gasket or cylider cracks). Compression testers are cheap and vary wildly in readouts I find, so just make sure that the numbers are close to one another. Every time I've worked on a car that has shot fire out the carb it has been bad timing (set at the distributor).

-Richard

By DaRk (66.50.182.79) on Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - 09:03 pm:

Richard , So You're saying that my timing is off...and that's why it's backfiring through the carb., well...I guess I'll have to check that out. My uncle told me that I should also change the distributor and condenser...before I took the carb. to be redone I bought new sparks and cables, should I change those as well? Thanks

By Chaffneue (Chaffneue) (66.183.190.188) on Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - 05:21 pm:

Dark, Backfiring is almost always timing. if it's coming up through the carb, you've got a valve open when it shouldn't be. Check the timing belt, points gap and the timing setting. Also check your plug wires are sonnected to the proper cylinder.

-Richard

By go4mo (213.89.251.33) on Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - 07:20 am:

hey all ..

when i got my 76 a few months back, it had this goo as well ..

kept wiping it off, kept coming back .. took the valve cover off - inspected everywhere .. changed the oil a bunch -- it doesn't exsist anywhere except on the oil cap and in the breather box ..

must say, it is diminishing --

i thought it was due to the car sitting - or perhaps due to the cold climate here .. there is no sign of water or antifreeze in the oil at all -- i've drained it about 4 times over the past 3 months ..

curiously, i noticed less goo after i increased my glycol mixture in my coolant ..

By DaRk (66.50.181.155) on Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - 06:33 am:

Thanks all of You for the helpful info. Well Vulcan I haven't got the time to use it soooo much , cuz I just had the carb. redone/new kit but it still has the same symptoms(car backfires through the carb.) and yes the top half and everything else is still stock(xcept oil filter,fuel filter/lines,fuel pump)anymore helpful info?...and thanks once again to all

By Vulcan (81.131.8.19) on Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - 05:05 am:

Re white goo.

How often does your engine get used and how long for? If you only run it for a short while occasionally then you'll never be totally driving moisture etc out of the oil, hence the mayo on the filler cap.

Is the top end of your engine stock? If so ditch the snorkel breather setup coming out of the rocker cover, it's worse than useless. Get a K&N or similar crank filter and put that on the rocker cover instead. That stock setup will throw crud about like nobody's business.

By jms (143.79.13.130) on Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - 04:55 am:

dang mine has had thaqt crap in it for a long time, and its in the tube that runs from the aircleaner, but I only see white smoke on first start up for a few seconds then it runs fine until recently it started running bad, maybe I should do a headgasket

By H (24.70.95.204) on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 06:54 pm:

Check your spark plugs.They give great insight into the condition of an engine.Also,an easy check to see if you firing on all cylinders,start your engine,and remove and then replace one plug wire at a time and listen for a change in RPM(be sure to use a plastic wire removal tool or rubber glove or zap ouch!)If you remove a wire and don't get a drop in rpm then that cylinder is not doing its job.

By -Andrew Smit- (Cvcc_Wagon) (24.207.8.249) on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 05:46 pm:

i have had to do many head gaskets on my old EM1 (6 or 7, i can't even remember any more. warped head from a wrecker)it won't blow white smoke for a while. the first sign will be overheating at odd times, the coolant slowly leaks out while driving and it eventually gets low enough so that the pump wont prime. after a a few hundred miles like that it will run on 2 or 3 cylinders for the first mile after startup (warm or cold) and blow a little white smoke but not enough to really notice. then the gasket will just go, nothing but white and the car will hardly run. throught all this you'll have overheating issues, the gasses escaping create enough pressure to blow the coolant into the overflow tank and it constantly goes low, i had to refill every morning for a while. needless to say, i've gotten pretty good at replacing head gaskets. no more need to make a weekend project out of it for me, the last time i did it i started after work on a monday at about 5 PM and was finished by 10 or so. not i have a rebuilt EK so it's no longer an issue

By bruce (68.156.75.47) on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 04:38 am:

I would have to agree with chaff, check your oil for water, take your radiator cap off and let it warm up and see if you getting bubbles in the water in there, if your not it is ok, if you are then your getting air in there someplace hence a leaking head gasket. If your not blowing white smoke it should be ok.

By Justin (24.87.98.33) on Sunday, March 20, 2005 - 10:37 pm:

looks like a blown headgasket,do you have the tube running from the valve cover to the air cleaner still? If so check in the air cleaner valley for similar goo.. if so.. the head gasket will need replacing

By Chaffneue (Chaffneue) (66.183.190.188) on Sunday, March 20, 2005 - 06:50 pm:

Drain the oil and see if it has water in it.. if it does, it's head gasket time.. otherwise drive happy.. Like I said, check your dipstick, I've had a muddy layer of that stuff on mine I wiped it off and it hasn't happened since.. it seemed to happen during the cold snap and when i'd been doing short runs here and there.. it was also comin up into the evap line fromm the valve cover. I drained the oil and it was browny yellow with nothing floating on top.. nothing wierd going on, just some moisture in the engine from not letting the engine warm up fully... the valve cover didn't have any sign of that stuff except for the evaporation line and the cap. It probably happens more up in the cool, humid climates like western BC has.

-Richard

By DaRk (66.50.182.18) on Sunday, March 20, 2005 - 06:18 pm:

But is the engine ok?

By -Andrew Smit- (Cvcc_Wagon) (24.207.8.249) on Sunday, March 20, 2005 - 04:59 pm:

i agree, in my experience that much foam means that it won't be long till you'll have to do a head gasket

By Adrian (Evocivic) (203.42.97.141) on Sunday, March 20, 2005 - 02:36 pm:

That white goo under the oil cap is bad . You don't get that much from just a little condensation. That's water in the oil which probably means blown head gasket .

By Chaffneue (Chaffneue) (66.183.190.188) on Sunday, March 20, 2005 - 10:35 am:

I wouldn't worry about that white gunk on your oil cap, it's probably just evaporative condensation on the coolest part of the valve cover.. it's when that white gunk is on your dipstick is when you get worried. Also if you notice the coolant becoming contamined with oil, if the car visibly smokes white (water) for long periods of time or if the oil has antifreeze in it, you should make sure that your head is tight and that the head gasket is in good shape.

-Richard

By DaRk (66.50.181.122) on Sunday, March 20, 2005 - 10:26 am:

yea that's what they told me...

By greg tingler (Tropic81) (141.153.93.43) on Sunday, March 20, 2005 - 10:25 am:

The top pic shows where you attach the charcoal evaporation cannister for the fuel system. Don't know about the bottom pic, but there may be coolant in your oil.

By DaRk (66.50.181.122) on Sunday, March 20, 2005 - 10:04 am:

the top pic is something like on what You hang the coolant bottle on( it's on the firewall) and the bottom pic is some kind of white gunk that's on the Oil cap after I turned the civic on. Can any1 help me and tell me what that could be, and if its bad for my car/would it bring problems. Thanks

By DaRk (66.50.181.122) on Sunday, March 20, 2005 - 09:59 am: