I had rough idle and obvious loss of HP around 60K miles, took it into honda and after $3000 they fixed what they called a bent valve...it drove good for about 30k miles (it did leak oil, though)

about 30K miles later (@ ~90K), I have the same symptoms and having no money i just drove on it up to my current 131K miles... just did a compression test the other day and i have ~40psi on #1 and #4 and ~150psi on #2 and #3...

it actually doesnt run that bad (maybe i just got used to it) for having such low compression and i'm thinking of just doing a complete engine swap as i'm kind of sick of the problems ive had over the life of this one... i imagine i must have 2 bent valves or a head gasket blown (maybe?)...

any suggestions/ideas?

 

the car should be running like crap with compression #s that low. i'd be surprised that it would still run with 2 cylinders that far gone... are you sure you did the test correctly???

 

one thing i didnt do during the test was pump the gas pedal to the floor like i've read after the fact that you are supposed to do... otherwise, you know, it pretty much does run like crap

 

not using the pedal would have a marginal lowering effect but wouldn't explain the disparity between the pistons.

it sounds like a blown hg since it is on more than one cylinder, but you'd expect #s 2/3 to be bad and 1/4 to be good. definitely odd, which is why i asked the question. i suppose it could be a couple of bent valves... pull the VC and visually inspect everything.

shoot me a PM if you need help looking @ the thing. i'm pretty slammed this weekend but if need be i might be able to make some time

 

i had zero compression in 2 cylinder on my s2000 and it still ran, drove like complete shit and for obvious reasons but it did stil run lol

check the valve retainers before anything else, might be able tot save your self some $ and a tare down

 

would cracked or bad valve retainers cause low compression(s) ?

 

Man 40psi is really low. Atleast the cylinders that fire at the same time are the problem. (1 and 4 then 2 and 3) I vote bent valves. First thing i would do is pull the valve cover like stated above.

 

FYI cylinders dont fire at the same time.

 

yup !! check the retainers first