Hey guys, 98 SH lude.. for the last 1,000 or so miles my car had this issue where it would run roughly right after (cold) starting. (struggles to stay running, noticeable power loss) Never longer then 30 or so seconds, then would run fine.

I pretty much atributed this to a sticky valve that was just stayen down, or otherwise wasn't going with the flow of the others. It started getting worse and worse (took longer to start, ran rough for longer periods of time). Now i wake up, and she won't start at all, aside from a couple of sputers while turning over, which was usually when it would catch and fire up).

Just wondering if you guys had any other insights, thoughts or other wise.. one that keeps coming to my mind is that this is an interferance engine, and if the valve was truly stuck down, it would be hit by the top of the piston while turning over, unless its only slightly stuck open, i dunno.. it shouldnt be keeping the engine from starting.

Thanks guys

 

Did you hear any metal to metal contact?

 

No, none at all.. pretty much the only thing leading me to believe stuck valve is the way the engine ran, and the power loss. (had a stuck valve issue on a celica i had awhile back, but there was a metal to metal sound on that)

 

If I were you I would check the regular stuff like the ignition coil, igniter, fuel pressure, etc. I have a feeling its not a valve, but I could be wrong. Hondas are notorious for the electronics in the distributor going bad.

 

yeah, sounds more like eletrical to me. check your

cap/rotor
plugs
plug wires
coil
ICM (ignition control module aka igniter)
do a valve adjust, change the oil with synthetic and a honda oil filter, run some fuel cleaner through, and hell, change the tranny fluid just for good measure (yeah i know, unrelated, but needs to be done anyway). this way all your bases are covered.