88 Civic

Hello,

I have just pulled the exhaust manifold off my 88 Civic, 1.5 litre, dual
point injection. I had a look inside the exhaust chambers and noticed
something strange, the exhaust valves on #2 and 3 were normal looking, dark
black with a bit of carbon build up. The exhaust valves on #1 and 4 are as
white as snow!!!! I thought maybe injector trouble, burning to lean, but
this would affect all cylinders equally. I tested the resistance on both
injectors and they are within the limits specified by Honda. Any
suggestions of what else might be causing this??

Thanks
Patrick

 

One of the things that comes to mind is that it could possibly be
antifreeze. I head gasket problem doesn't seem to likely since one would
expect that to show up on paired cylinders, e.g., 1 & 2, not 1 & 4.
However, it could be that there's another source for antifreeze getting into
the engine such as a pinhole leak in the water jacket of the intake
manifold. I had this happen to me on an older Honda. Inspection of the
intake manifold revealed a streak of dried white antifreeze running down the
inside of one of the intake runners. Pressure testing it showed that there
were air bubbles coming out. I had good luck with a used manifold from a
wrecking yard but your mileage may vary.

Eric