Ochdx

Ok, so let me try and make a long story short. Last week I've noticed that my 1995 Civic DX is overheating, and it turned out that it was low on antifreeze because the water pump was leaking. So, now that it has 145k miles, and last time I did the timing belt was at 80k, I decided to replace everything.

So I bought the following - water pump, timing belt, tensioner, cam seal and valve cover gasket. Brought all of that to a repair shop next door from where I work and let them do the repair. So the next morning the owner of the shops calls me, and tells me that he did the repair, started the car, let it warm up and it started blowing white smoke out of the exaust and that the head gasket is screwed.

So now I have my doubts whether the headgasket coincidentally blew on his own, or he did something wrong while doing the repair, but whatever, I can't prove anything, so I tell him to replace it. He quoted me $550 (on top of timing belt/water pump replacement), and he would replace the head gasket, have the head shaved, replace spark plugs, thermostat, oil and whatever else that's involved. So I let him do it, and he calls me today, tells me the car runs great, etc. The only thing he says it was pinging, so he said they adjusted it so that it wouldn't ping but he recommends using premium fuel.

So I didn't pay much attention to that because I've always ran on regular fuel without any problems, and I figure he just simply retarded the timing so it wouldnt ping. But now when I got on my way home, the car was pinging like mad. His shop was already closed, so I wont be able to get the car back to him until tomorrow, but this is bugging me now. The car wouldn't ping in neutral no matter what the RPMs are, but put it in gear and it pings at the slightest tap of gas at low RPMs. I don't know if it would ping at higher RPMs because I'm afraid to let it rev, but it seems like it pings harder the higher the RPMs are.

So I have 1/4 tank of regular 87 octane fuel in the, and so I stopped by a Sunoco and filled it up with 94 octane fuel, and after it was still pinging just as much. I've only drove about 20 miles after the fill up, so I'm wondering maybe the engine is still running on old fuel inside the fuel rail.

Other than the pinging, the engine seems to run well, it starts up great, theres no shaking, no hesitation, no smoke, although it might be running a little reach because I smell gasoline in the exaust fumes. Also, when I popped the hood, I felt like the engine is generating unusually large amount of heat - it's not overheating, but dissipating a lot of heat, which is often caused by detonation. I wonder what the hell can be causing it - so much stuff has been done to the engine that it's going to be tough to detect what's causing the problem.

The first thing I'm gonna have him do is retard the timing as much as he can and see if it still pings, but I doubt it will be that simple. First of all if it was just the timing the problem would most likely go away or reduce when I put higher octane fuel in, and also the engine would ping in neutral. He probably missed up something within the head, and if he did, I'm going to try and hold him responsible. In the meantime, I would appreciate any feedback from you guys.

F22B Prelude

I would suggest that the timing is off

Wharbone

def. check the timing and also see if the new belt jumped a tooth.

Ochdx

Well, I have no way of checking the timing belt or timing, but I looked at the position of the distributor, and its turned all the way clockwise, so the timing is fully retarded and it still pings. I'm kind of freaking out right now, tomorrow I'm going to go postal on that mechanic if he doesn't fix it.

dE.fUsEd

what kind of plugs were put in?

Wharbone

I bet the timing belt jumped a tooth. Have the dude who install it re-check it.

Ochdx

Ok, so I brought it back to him and so far he's unable to detect the problem. Right now the timing is fully retarded, if we try and advance it one bit it starts pinging more. It doesnt ping in neutral, and it doesn't ping at high rpms, it only pings at low rpms. The freaking guy is trying to tell me that this is normal, that I shouldn't worry about it, but I told him FU, and I told him to fix it. I'm furious right now.

Wharbone

Did he re-check the timing belt and teeth?

Ochdx

Not yet, he tried adjusting distributor, but I'm going to make him check anything and everything. Honestly I doubt the belt jumped, because it idles smooth and there's no pinging at high rpms, only at low rpms. Maybe he didnt assemble the components in the head correctly, or maybe theres an exaust leak. I don't know. I'm just very frustrated and he's not very cooperative.