saucocumulus

Hey guys,

New here and in no ways a car expert. I usually change oil, brakes, fluids, steering components, etc... Last week I just fixed/replaced this car's driver's side rear brake assembly which was seized open, all because one spring was placed in the wrong spot...

Anyway, this car, for a little time now, has had what appears to be oil seeping from the head. This morning, my wife was driving it to the store (her car, I still own a 1998 Honda Civic), when she noticed the engine sputtering. The signs are a sputter, an idle that dips too low, and then cycles too high, and white smoke coming off the engine block, just under the headers.

The oil needs to be changed, and the air intake hose has a split. I'm not sure if one or a combo of those is exacerbating the issue, but it would certainly affect the idle.

The main recent problems include the sputter (sounds like a knock, but it's tempo, not random), and the smoke. I've read a few forums which say it could be a bad valve cover, a bad adapter bracket, or a bad manifold/head seam junction. The last one I'm not sure how this would happen, or from the header in general. Again, the long term issues are the air intake hose, oil (a few months overdue), and the coolant seems to be dropping faster (indicating a temperature issue which I'm guessing is precipitous of the rest of the above).

In looking at the car, oil seems to have seeped from the header seam onto the manifold across the front of the block, and even on the right side. My best guess is that the valve cover/gasket need to be replaced. If they are bad, I am guessing oil is getting in the spark plugs too, causing the sputter.

Car usage was about 200 miles a week for two years plus, with regular oil changes, fluid checks.

Let me know what you all think... I know aveos in general tend not to have good ratings.

Thanks.

tech2

valve covers do leak on these. I'm wondering if the waterpump is leaking and the coolant is dripping on the exhaust. If it turns out to be the waterpump, buy the complete timing kit that includes idler pulleys and do them all. A lot of these cars have blown engines due to broken timing belts, timing belt idlers.

saucocumulus

Thanks, Tech2.

I ran it by my old man, he confirmed my thoughts. It's the valve cover gasket. I went to clean out the spark plug wells b/c of the sputter, and plugs 3 and 4 were covered in oil, with a few mm of oil in the wells themselves. Yikes...

Hoping to get the old part off and the new one on today. Not too much work, just hoping I don't torque the bolts too tight... Or not tight enough...

TB/WP are both new, we took care of those last year.