Olimar

94' Honda Civic CX
160,000 miles

I don't know anything about cars and I was referred to by a friend to this site.

I opened my coolant reservoir yesterday and found that the coolant inside was all black.

And I inspected some more and I found that on the bottom surface of the distributor and on the lower side of the motor there was some black sludge on the surfaces.

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Another problem I have encountered recently is the smell of gasoline when I drive and also my car seems to be shaking more than when I received the car 3 months ago.

Any help would be appreciated and if more information is needed then I will try to give you as much as I can.

I know nothing has been done to the car!

Thanks

Thurm@n

Well obviously the 'black sludge' on the side of the motor is oil. Probably the seal behind the distributor need to be replaced. The shaking could be a number of things. Out of balance tire, Bad axle(s), Broken motor mount(s), tie rods, could be a miss. Who know your descriptions are very vague, so its hard to tell you about the shaking. Where is it coming from?

Fabrik8

The black coolant is slightly scary.

Olimar

Mmmk, how should I handle replacing the seals by myself? Don't want to go to a shop and do it.

The shaking seems to be coming from the engine bay. I don't know if it's suppose to be happening but when I go up a hill on the highway, my car struggles a lot trying to accelerate. It feels like I lost a lot of power since I got it. Since it doesn't even come with much that just makes it even worse.

Could something in the exhaust be a problem?

eg6_bryan

I'd spray carburetor cleaner or brake parts cleaner to the motor where its dirty, (do it when the motor is warm/hot), clean it up, then drive and then check again so you can see where the leak(s) are actually coming from

wright

With 160k I would assume that oil is coming out of the distributor seal.

OP, to change the o-ring your best bet is to take some sort of cleaner as stated above to get the sludge off of the side of the head. After it is clean take a sharpie and make a line at the top of the distributor from where the bole head is to the other side of the cam cap. This will give you a reference point to align the distributor.

After that unplug the connection to the engine harness, then remove the three 12mm bolts holding it on. After you have the bolts out take a pick or a screw driver and pull the rubber seal off of the back side of the distributor. Then reinstall it.

Also look at this link: http://hondaswap.com/general-tech-ma...-o-ring-81866/

g230sport

feel some of your radiator/heater hoses. if any crack or crunch or even feel really mushy, id say the black shit is just the factory hoses deteriorating. like other said, the oil leak is probably the distributor oring. its a 10 minute fix. and the loss of power and shaking i would bet is a misfire. which could be as simple as replacing the plugs, wires, cap and rotor. or there could be more to it.

Olimar

Ok, I'll try cleaning up the motor today.

I'll update when I find out where the leak is coming from

Thanks

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UPDATE:

Ok I cleaned up the mess and looked at it again after I drove it around today. I don't really see much of a leak or anything but it was kind of dark so I'll reupdate tomorrow.

I went to a shop today and asked somebody about the shaking and he said the timing was off on my distributor.

Is fixing it an easy job?

Olimar

Ok, I just checked and it does seem to be leaking from the distributor. Would I only need to replace the o-ring or should I just replace the whole distributor?

I still have to fix the timing and I've been searching it up on other forums. Can I do it without the timing light gun?

burnoutboy

If you're smelling gas please fix that issue first before you carbeque yourself.


Dark sludgy coolant, gasoline smell, car shuddering under load, geat loss of power recently...


Any smoke at all? HG may be blown. If you can't nail it down as something else do compression and leakdown tests to check you HG seal.