Hi, I have a 1991 Honda civic 1.6L. I just had the water pump replaced by the auto class at school and immediatly afterward I noticed that the car has greatly reduced acceleration and that there is some oil in the spark plug wells. I'm guessing that the oil is causing a misfire and that's what's. Killing my acceleration, any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated.
-sean

 

The timing is probably set wrong. After timing belt replacement (you have to take the timing belt off to replace the water pump), they need to make sure the cam timing is right, and adjust the spark timing with a timing light.

Oil will fall down into the wells if the seals on the valve cover are not right (valve cover needs to be at least loosened to remove timing belt and water pump). This oil is on the outside of the spark plugs so it typically doesn't affect your performance.

If you have misfiring the engine will shake and not run evenly. If it is just timed wrong it will usually run smoothly, but with poor performance.

 

That definetly has to be the problem, because I had a ford contour (not by choice) that had a bad cyllonoid(sp?) and so it was missfiring (enging shaking and whatnot) and I noticed that although the acceleration is poor on my Honda there was no shaking so I didn't know what it was. Taking it to auto class again and getting it fixed.
Thanks a lot.