Help me out guys, I feel sick to my stomach :( HELP

[TheLocust]

Hey guys whats up.. I just sold my beloved S13 that was completed for another project car/cash torwards school.. This car has an SR20det Redtop in it, mods are as followed, 3" downpipe, apexi n1, test pipe. K&N filter, MBC, SAFC then the neccesary gauges. The car is running rich, I haven't gotten the AF gauge hooked up yet but I can tell its running rich. It smokes a bit and it is hard to start. you have to give it gas while its cranking an order for it to start. I called a local tuning shop and I think the dumb *** that answers the phone was talking to me. And im an SR newb so he got to me alot. I explained my problem to him and he did the whole 5 minute over drama "hmmmm ah hmmmmm well...hmmmm" and said that he'd do a compression test and a leak down test immediately. I did the compression test. I got 120,120,118,120. Right now the car is running on 3 cylinders because the #1 cylinder spark plug wire boot bolt(the 10mm bolt that holds it down) broke off inside so its loose on there and it bounces up and down when driving so yeah. Im taking it to a SE-R guru tomorrow. I dont know how similar FWD and RWD Sentra's are but I called him tonight and he said the compression sounded a tad low but atleast it was consistent. He also reccomended putting a tea spoon of oil down it to soak into the piston rings and that could raise the compression a bit. Well I think plenty of oil got in cuz when I pulled the plugs to do a compressino check I noticed the valve cover gasket is junk(reminds me, anyone know where to order one at?) because the little gaskets where your spark plug goes is letting oil all in there, to the point where it fouled the plugs out. I tried to drive it and the ***** was shooting fire and misfiring, back firing, and bogging down like a *****. So I went out and got new plugs. Put them in and the car is like it was before. The car drives but everyonce and awhile it bogs down. The car idles at like 1100-1200, my tach is broken but thats what it says on the SAFC. The car seems to pull and spool hard. I just want to know if when I lean the car out tomorrow these problems are gonna be fixed. Cuz it really is hard as hell to start. I gotta crank it for a few seconds then give it some gas for it to fire. And like I said the car idles rough. Please someone tell me whats up. Im hoping my rings aren't fried cuz I just bought the car. Im starting to think I got taken. Somone please tell me some good news. What do you guys reccomend I do? ALL help will be GREATLY appreciated

[TheLocust]

also im not sure if I did the compression test correctly. I just drove up to autozone(like 5 minutes) then to a buddies house(like a nother 5 minutes) and thats where I did the test at. I took a test drive before we did it but ust around the block to **** with the SAFC. I come back, and like 15 minutes later we did the test. In that 15 minutes we drove my buddies civic around the street and back. Then we did the test and I got the above numbers. All I did was pop the hood, pull the plug screw the gauge on and cranked the car. We went over to my friends civic(boosted D series) and his got consistent 180,180,180,179. I dont know if this means anything, im just trying to let everyone know all the variables.

[cheez80]

my homeboy broke his 10mm bolt, also. quick solution: grab a shop towel, or issue of penthouse, or whatever you have lying around, fold it up, and stick it on top of the coil pack. then, bolt the coil pack cover on. it'll hold it in place.

[llamabeta]

Make sure you pull the fuel pump fuse and your are suppose to hold the gas pedal down to keep the throttle open. It's easier with all plugs out as well. Make sure you give a good 2 or 3 cranks. Good luck.

[TheLocust]

do you guys think me not doing that would result in a false reading? Cuz we did my buddies turbo'd civic 5 minutes later the same way and his numbers seemed like there were 20-30 to high and my numbers seemed 20-30 to low.

[TheLocust]

okay, im not getting any help anywhere. i've tried searching and i've even done such dratic things as go to Zilvia and ask those guys. But no luck so eh **** it im just gonna try things myself. First thing im gonna do it tap that broken bolt out. I wanna order a new valve cover gasket and I need it QUICK, anyone know where to order from one that is affordable and has quick shipping? Next im gonna take out all the coil pack boot things that are soaked with oil and spray some good ol starter fluid to clean things up a bit. I also have to find a coil pack cover somewhere. Then im gonna retard the timing a bit more, and lean the car out with the SAFC. I got the car to start easier already my own way. So I guess im just gonna use the general car knowledge I have and go by their instead of having a lot of SR knowledge. Does what im about to do sound right? I just want the car to run right and I can't get a straight answer on any board.

[Jesse SR20]

Ok. First things first.

Compression test.Remove all your sparkplugs. Remove your fuel pump fuse. Screw the test gauge in, and crank the engine. Stop cranking when the needle jumps 4 times. Don't just keep cranking.

Leak down test.If you've got low compression readings, you can narrow down the problem by putting a bit of oil into each cylinder and re-checking the compression. If the numbers get higher after the oil, then your piston rings may be the problem. Putting oil in your cylinders doesn't fix anything. It's just a method of finding a problem.

Air fuel ratio.With out access to a wide band o2 sensor, your SAFC is a waste of time. Stop fooling around with it. Better yet, take it out. I'll bet your car doesn't run rich afterwards. And no, an autometer a/f gauge won't help you, nor will any other narrow band a/f gauge.

Valve cover gasket.Heavy Throttle http://www.heavythrottle.com//, Phase 2 Motortrend http://www.store.yahoo.com/pha....html. There are more, just search.

Timing.Set your timing to 15 BTDC. You can use a timing light, I have, and so have many others.

Broken bolt.Get it out. Fix the problem. Don't drive on 3 cylinders.

[TheLocust]

Idont think it is the rings cuz the valve cover gasket is letting uber amounts of oil into the spark plug well. So im sure plenty of oil got down there, actually too much.It fouled my plugs out. The SAFC isn't even hooked up anymore. I bought the car with it in. it reads the RPMS but my friend was screwing with the fuel and gave it all the fuel, and no fuel and the car never died. So im assuming that its either A. Not hooked up right or B. Not hooked up at all. For the timing light, how do I use it on the SR, i've searched but came out lost. I never worked on a car like this before that didn't have plug wires so I dunno where to hook the timing light too. When I have my dad hold the coil pack down and since we screwed with the CAS the car starts easier now but still makes a loud noise before starting. I just set hte CAS to the mid range of its adjustibility because I have been told by numberous people that at 15 BTDC is a llittle bit clockwise of center. So I did that. car still bogs down a bit, idles at like 1200 and very rough. and sputters everyonce inawhile. I have a SOHC KA MAFS sitting around do you suggest throwing that on it to see if the MAFS ont he SR now is bad? I just dont know what to do and need to get this beast running normal ASAP. JESSE SR20 thanks for the help man.. My dad seems to think all the oil in the wells is causing it to run like it is. So before I go through the trouble of wiring the SAFC up im gonna do this. Tap the bolt out, order a new valve cover gasket and get a new 10mm bolt for coil pack. change all that at once, so the wells and coil pack boots aren't soaked with oil. anymore. After that do you think the car will start to run a little better? No one around where I live seems to know whats up so im kinda relying on you. Thanks for all the future help man!! -Chad

[TheLocust]

okay, I just ordered a Valve Cover Gasket and 4 spark plug well gaskets from http://www.CourtesyParts.com (BY FAR the cheapest on the net) Still need an OEM or CF coilpack cover. My dad also suggested about the high idle just turning it down using the idle set screw thingy. Could the answer be this simple?

[Luke]

Dude get your timing fixed and you'll be straight!

http://www.store.yahoo.com/pha....htmlorHere's how you can use your light to adjust the timing.zerothread?id=59684

[TheLocust]

are you sure thats the only problem?

[TheLocust]

why would the compression be reading 120 all the way accross if it was just the timing being off

[Silvia007]

One reason you may have gotten 120 all the way across could be a number of reasons.

1. Throttle wasn't open all the way.2. Weak battery didn't crank engine to 300 rpms.3. Other spark plugs were not out.4. Engine cooled too much in the 15 min depending on the temperature outside at the time of testing.

Then again, we may never know because you didn't describe how you did the test.

The B-series engines have higher compression then our engines so even if you did the test the same way, it'll show higher numbers.

Your problem sounds like multiple problems, not just one thing will fix it. It could be anythign from a leaky atmosphereic blov to something like piston rings.

Not sure if you bought the car with these problems but a few of my buddies bought 240's equipped with SR's and they all run similar to your setup. One was able to fix his problems, after spending money to replace just about everything.

Well good luck with trying to fix your engine.

[Luke]

are you sure thats the only problem?

Nope not sure it's the only problem, but i am sure that timing isn't something you can just guess AND win with.

[TheLocust]

I plan on timing it with a light thursday, just had to finally figure out which wire to put it on. Explain to me how you think the rings can be causing it to act like it is? That just doesn't make sense. It does about the compression but still its only -8 off factory min spec. And if you read up there I said how I did the test, and it wasn't like you described, I also said I did it wrong and needed to re-do it. Also the motor in the civic is a D15b not a B series. also guess and win timing was better then leaving it where it was(all the way advanced by the way) if I didn't retard it a little im sure it would have soon melted a piston(extreme case) I read a post on "timing with out a timing light" like someone earlier suggested and it said that the CAS should be a little clockwise of center. So I put it theres so now its just a few degrees off then being fully advanced. Once again I do not think the car has a boost leak anywhere. If anything it might have a bad MAFS, which reminds me im putting a SOHC KA MAF on thursday to see if that helps at all.. Also the BOV is recirculated(stock). What NISTECH said in another thread made perfect sense I just didn't think it'd be causing it to run this bad, like I said earlier there is oil leaking into the spark plug wells which could cause it to arch up.

[Silvia007]

I've seen oil in spark plug holes and it doesn't seem to cause that much of a problem. My buddy and I were doing his valve cover and forgot to put the seals around the spark plugs on. After about 150 miles of driving, we pulled off the coil packs and everythign was just drenched in oil. Didn't seem to hurt much of anything... but not sure about prolonged exposure.

Sorry bout not catching some of the info, it was late, I was tired, it was a long thread, and thinking about what could be wrong must of got me a bit lost there.