So the wife's Honda del Sol chucked a timing belt last week. It was at highway speeds. I got the car home slapped on a new timing belt, and wow it ran. Only with a bit of a miss on the number two hole. The miss was at an idle, and at higher RPMs, 2500 and above seems to go away. I threw on new plugs, wires, cap, rotor, etc. and a new O2 sensor cuz the other one was throwing the CEL. It sounds like one of the rocker arms is out of adjustment, but its ever so light. Not like an old V8 engine w/ a rocker arm loose. I ran a compression test and got 150lbs on that hole, 170, 180, and 200 in the others. When driving on the road it seems that its a bit under powered, but I drive an XT, and the del Sol is a bit slow even new. It has a cold air intake and the intake sounds smooth. The engine is a 1.6L SOHC VTEC. Im figuring that we may have bent a valve just lightly enough to affect it at idle. Any ideas on this one? I appreciate any help anyone can give.
My first car was a 93 bugar green del-sol. Loved it it was a fun car. I hope it works out for you and your wife..
hmm its hard to say what that might be. sounds like if it slipped at a high rpm it may have tweaked something in the head. i thought something like that would defintely cause to piston to valve action. i would either check on honda-tech or importatlanta for more advice. goodl uck!
Yea, its a del Sol Si. I'd been told years ago when she got it that it was an interference engine. I just didnt expect it to fire right up again. Thanks for having a look. I'll check out those other sites too. Im really NOT excited about putting a head on the thing. Poor little car had 227k on the ticker and still needs some other repairs, but hey, its paid for.
I would pull the head and check the valves. It shouldn't be hard to bend a valve if the timing belt breaks.
It also shouldn't be hard to pull the head. Sounds to me like a bent valve. No biggie. Valves are about $1.50 each... You may even be able to tell something once the valve cover is off, but I've never seen inside a VTEC head.
Well let me tell ya, its madness in there. I should just get off my lazy a_s and do the fix. I know I could have the head off in a few hours, then some creative working yank out the old valve(s), lap in the new ones and slam it all back together. I just lazy, and have other things I'd rather be doing. Worst thing is: the wife got a recommendation about a shop near her work, Atlanta Autopro, supposedly did great work, etc. She calls em up and tells they guy everything that happened, and what work ive done. he tells her the car needs a new engine. :eek4: I flipped out. She says that this guy told her that that many miles... breaking a timing belt, blah, blah, blah. I told her to go back to who ever gave her that recommendation and tell them NEVER to EVER take their car back there. the guy could have had a good bit of work from us. Now i can wait to tell everyone I meet that they should never take their cars there cuz they try to to take advantage of women. :grr: Not to mention my wife, long before she was my wife, used to help me work on my race car. We used to hang out in the shop I worked in. She's no fool.
The Toy Shop on Jamerson Rd! It's over here in Marietta, but they're honest. My old roomies Prelude broke a belt on the HWY and bent all the valves. They did the rebuild, belt, valves, and some other stuff for $1,150 IIRC. My parents have been taking their Toyotas there for years.