guitarswheelies

OK so I did a little tune up on my 95 GSR with high miles. I changed the plugs, cap, rotor and air cleaner, yadda yadda. I had a little trouble with the plug by the timing belt since this new Bosch plug had a nicked thread and it became really tough to turn on the way in. I spent some time threading in and out an old plug, backing it out and cleaning the threads each time. A new plug then was properly installed.

So the car fires right up and within about 3 seconds its HAMMERING! WTF? I'm not saying that the bearings were perfect but it was running good and wasn't hot or anything certainly not hammering. Its kind of a light hammering but more than a valve tick or tap.

If you are losing a connecting rod bearing could it fail this suddenly? Is it possible some crap fell into the plug hole or something fell into the intake when I changed the air cleaner?

I like this car and might drop the oil pan to see what is up with the con rod bearings. If one is running out I could buy some time by replacing the bearings.

guitarswheelies

OK so I messed with it today and it looks like the timing belt skipped a tooth. When you look at the cam sprockets from the left side of the car at TDC the upright arrows were about 11:30. Oh well.

I managed to get the crank and cams aligned again but it still clicks when I put it back together. The belt has 100k on it so go figure. It must have bent a valve.

When I changed the rotor I pushed the car in fourth gear to get the rotor to spin a bit. This might have tensioned the belt weird and when I started it it skipped. but who knows.,

v6_accord_jerz

what was the reason for having to move the rotor?

Tobra

probably so he could get at the little screw that holds the rotor on

You are pulling the head my friend

minimum new TB, will have to inspect the pistons and valves

guitarswheelies

re removing the head-yeah I figure as much.

I did it before because the belt broke and it wasn't developing full compression on one cyl after installing a new belt. This was without starting it. It had a bent valve.

This will give me something to do! I'd like to get it running again and cure its oil consumption problem. I dig the car, pretty much. They're great

Lynxs1981

Well since you have done it before, give it a compression test before you go pulling the head. Also, if your new spark plugs are a different brand than your old ones, compare the tip length of your new plugs to the old ones. I had some idiot at the local AP store give me the wrong plugs. I had a tapping going on inside as the pistons were hitting the plug electrodes. Oddly enough it still ran.

guitarswheelies

Thanks for the tip on the spark plug. I compared them to the ones that I replaced and they looked to be the same size. Its amazing how close the top of the piston is to the top of the head. One way to tell TDC is stick a metal shaft down into the p;lug hole and watch its height as you slowly rotate the crank pulley. When the piston is at TDC it is really close to the top of the plug hole.

I was messing with this car again the other day. I rechecked that the cam sprockets/timing belt/crank pulley were aligned correctly. The funny thing is is that when I started it the ticking sound started to reduce a little. So I drove the car for a few minutes and it went away!

I was gunning it an VTEC'ing so it looks like everything is back to normal. An old time mechanic friend said that the car could have ingested a piece of dirt or carbon through the plug hole when I was changing the plugs in the first place. It could cause a sound like this according to my friend.

Anyway I'm getting interested in this car again. Since I stuck my $110(delivered) cat-back exhaust on and replaced my right side tie rods I am totally digging this car. The bad news is that I think I want to rebuild the engine now and get it painted! I noticed on ebay there are GSR rebuild kits for like $320. Add in gaskets and a valve job and cylinder re-bore and it should be pretty reasonable. These are cars to drive and I think that the GSRs will go UP in desirability and price.