I will check it again tomorrow, but since I bled the system I don't hear any air in the lines anymore. It's actually been starting a lot smoother then it was. The air in the system was my fault. I changed the radiator fluid when I bought the car and didn't properly bleed the system.

But I do think it is still starting rough. I'm still waiting for the distributor and rotor to come in the mail.

 

I just gave the system another bleed. I had some help this time so I could watch what came out of the tail pipe under under higher RPM. There was a little steam up around 5000 RPM, and when I first started the engine there was a little steam also. On a warm engine under normal idle there was no steam. I might actually have a head gasket problem after all. That's a major PITA... Is there a another way to check the integrity of the head gasket without pulling the engine apart? I also noticed a filmy layer on the radiator fluid that came out of the engine, it was not murky like oil, but it could have been oil I don' know.

 

Search the forum. Forty04 has a good DIY compression test that should tell you if the head gasket is blown. You can rent the necessary gauge from AutoZone and possibly other parts stores. Good luck.

 

I own a compression tester, the problem is it's 300 miles away. I was planning on driving to my parents house to do a bunch of work in March. I hadn't planned on dealing with a bad head gasket, but it looks like that's what I will probably end up doing. I am apprehensive about driving it 300 miles if the head gasket is indeed faulty, but I don't have much choice. I can't do any major work at my current place, its an apartment. The land lord is a *****.

Thanks for your help Ron

 

An update, I put some sea foam in this tank of gas which damn near solved all the problems I mentioned above. I also sucked up some sea foam through the vaccume lines (and pissed off the land lord from the smoke). The car is running a lot smoother, but the starts are still not as smooth as I would like them to be. My rotor+distrib cap came yesterday in the mail so I wll be installing those tonight. I noticed that this D16Y8 motor is not as smooth as my old 95 LX motor. But that could be the result of a bad previous owner.

I'll perform the compression test in two weeks, but at this point I think the head gasket is fine. I'll add some sea foam to the oil too before I head off to Northern Cal for my 300 mile trip back home. I'll change out the oil when I get there as part of the scheduled maintainance.

 

That's good news and nice progress. Good luck with the trip and the additional repairs.

 

The old rotor and cap were in bad shape, the contacts were worn bad, and there was carbon/corrosion on the rotor electrode. Problem is the replacement rotor doesn't fit. I'll just pick one up from Honda, they can't be that expensive.