1. coolant, although that's usually later in the warmup process.
2. if the idle had been set wrong to compensate for bad belt timing,
you'll need to re-do that.
3. also, make sure the valve lash is correct.  if you've had the head
off, it's always good to re-check it a few hundred miles later.
4. condensation inside distributor cap?

soooo, any ideas on the funky idle for 10-15 seconds on cold start?

It did not do this before we did all the work on it.

t

yes - good for you!!!

you can try taking issue with the dealer, but since you did the work
yourself, there's no labor receipts you can show the dealer for "loss"
in getting their repair repaired, so it could be tricky.  still worth it
though.  call the main honda usa customer care # too and discuss the
problem with them first.  they're generally fair.

again, good for you in fixing the car - there's many a good honda
prematurely consigned to the junk yard because of "repairs" like your
dealer did.

Hi all,

Previous posts I have put up will bring you through the 'saga' i have had
with my sisters car.  Short story is that the t-belt snapped.  It was
then
taken to a honda dealership.  They just put it back together (650 bucks
later)
said no compression on cylinder 3.  Obviously, the incident caused valve
damage on cylinder 3 (all 4 valves bent), so I took the car to my house,
pulled the head off, replaced them and put it back together.

Well its all back together now, and it is running well, except at initial
startup.  It takes 10-15 seconds for it to figure things out, then it goes
up
to about 1500 rpms until warmed up, and drops down to the correct rpm.

I told my sisters husband that this is probably due to there being air in
the
cooling system.  I imagine that if the car has been sitting overnight,
that
the air in the system would 'burp' up to the top of the cooling system.
Pretty much right at the top is the coolant temp sensor, which would not
be
immersed due to the air in the system.  After 10-15 seconds though, the
water
pump will have primed the system, and the sensor would now be immersed,
allowing the correct idle to be attained.

Is this a safe assumption or am I talking outta my a.s? :)

Other items of note:

Initially, the car had been put back together (without any work on the
valves)
at a honda dealership.  2 items got destroyed when the t-belt snapped;
the
CKF sensor and the lower timing cover.  Well there are already belt slap
marks on the inside of the timing cover due to incorrect tension setting
on
honda's part.

Also, the timing belt was off by 1 tooth from the dealership.

I'm pretty pissed at the dealerfor their complete lack of knowledge
on how to tell if there is valve damage without actually just putting it
back
together and hearing a cylinder miss.

Thoughts?

t