HELP!!! Prelude engine badness, need advice

Hi,

I purchased a 2001 honda prelude a while back for cheap, was told it
just needed an engine rebuilt. The car was smoking from the tail pipe
whitesh/gray smoke. I thought i'd be smart and rebuild the engine and
get my self a great car for the cheap.

But it hasn't worked out all that well. After the first rebuild, not
soon after the car started smoking again, and the engine was rough. I
talked to the rebuilder. He told me he screwed up and would have to
install "sleeves" this time around. He would do the work for me for
free except he had to charge me for the "sleeves". I said fine, just
get it working.

After a few months, same problem, even worse. Engine is smoking white
smoke from the back, its burning oil about 1 quart every 200 miles,
and it makes a rattle sound at certain rpms.

My question is this. What if he did do a good job on the engine, but
something else is causing the engine to go bad. CAN something else
cause the problem? I dont want to get it fixed a third time, and have
the problem come back. I did some research and I talked with the
honda dealer that serviced the car before I puchased it, and they told
me a cylinder was mis-firing. I dont know what that means exactly.
Can that also cause the problems I'm seeing?

I took it to my family mechanic, and he told me to buy a new car :
( Maybe he's right? Is it worth the effort to fix it again? I'd
hate to loose all that money I invested and buy a new car. Not to
mention payments!

Thanks.

 

afaik, you can't sleeve that engine since they're cast in place. if you
took it to someone that charged you for that kind of work, you got hosed.

your priorities are:
1. find an honest honda specialist that /actually/ knows what they're
doing - not someone that merely /tells/ you they know.
2. have them fit a replacement low mileage jdm engine.
3. enjoy a fast, reliable car.

 

Hrm, its an h22a4. I think i see references to it being sleeved
online but I'm not sure.

 

there's things like this:
http://jgenginedynamics.com/2%2021%2007/JGE_MAG_H22A4.gif

but that's not "replacing the honda sleeves" in a way that replicates
factory. factory casts slim iron sleeves into the aluminum of the
cylinder walls. these sleeves cannot be replaced in the conventional
sense. the "re-sleeve" operation shown above, and what you probably had
done, is in fact machining out a major structural component of the
motor, the cast in place cylinder walls, and replacing the whole shebang
with a replica cast iron block.

i'd not use that solution because:
1. it's not cast in, so is free to move slightly within the block.
that'll cause premature gasket failures.
2. it'll require some fancy sealing of the new sleeves to the aluminum
block, which i expect would be unreliable and probably compromise
thermal conductivity.
3. the new sleeves themselves will be poor thermally. cast iron is a
good conductor, but it's nowhere near as good as aluminum. the factory
thin iron sleeves cast into thick aluminum liners is a slick solution to
the need for wear resistance and the need to get rid of heat from a high
performance engine. a hunking great iron block "re-sleeve" just isn't
going to be as good.

but why bother with this debate at all? your original problem was
almost certainly misdiagnosed, the problem was compounded by the motor
not being adequately tested for irreparable flaws before work was done,
then this work was done. and it failed.

sorry buddy, but you got hosed. but that's not the car's fault. just
replace the motor with jdm that's never been opened and f'ed with, then
be done with it. never ever return to that shop again, and make sure no
one you know ever goes there either.