Help! 98 Accord "lurching" right at 4000 RPMs

Yup. I was there for awhile. (Honda, Nissan, Indepedant, Honda, Suzuki, VW, now Dumbestics)

Hondabond (the older kind) was black goop?

is that black or red goop?

Whatever, if it works, your golden!

xci.ed6 said:

Yup. I was there for awhile. (Honda, Nissan, Indepedant, Honda, Suzuki, VW, now Dumbestics)

Hondabond (the older kind) was black goop?

is that black or red goop?

Whatever, if it works, your golden!

Click to expand...

Good question, not sure as I haven't opened it yet. However the service manual for the 98 Accord specifies honda part # "08718-0001 or 08718-0003 Honda liquid gasket" to be used on the corners of the semicircular cam recesses on the valve cover. (doesn't actually call it Hondabond, I guess that's just the proper name) The Hondabond I got is part # 08718-0004 which is simply the updated version.

well, anyway, if Honda recommends it, it works.

I just threw out a cheaper option.

the only weird one was an aerosol goop, that worked 1 day, only, then you had no gas but plenty more goop.

edit: like this

Well the HondaBond was indeed a gray color, I put a tiny glop on each of the 4 cam recess corners on the valve cover gasket.
However I encountered another problem while replacing all this stuff last night-- the spark plug tube seals. Ugh!! The old ones would ABSOLUTELY not pull off without ripping- I ended up ripping them into pieces trying to get them out. It appeared that their edges are supposed to sit down in round "grooves" in their respective holes in the valve cover, to where the "tops" of them were flush with the hole cutouts. But try as I might, after trying to get all the remnants and gunk out from the old seals, I could not get the new seals to sit down in those grooves. It ended up where all I could do was just sort of "place" the new seals into their respective hole cutouts then flip the valve cover back right side up and fit it down over top of the spark plug tubes and down onto the block (the tube seals DID actually stay in place when i did this, even though they were just sort of pressed into place in those holes.)
Is this correct and the force of torquing down the valve cover will get them to seat properly? Or did I just screw everything up?
I took the car for about a 30 minute spin after putting everything back together, and did not really see any signs of leakage, but who knows. If I DID put it back together wrong, then by God the only way i can see to have everything correct is to NEVER replace those spark plug tube seals once they are seated in the valve cover--there was absolutely NO way to get them back out cleanly!!!

Yeah, they're hard to pull, easy to place.

Ya get new tools after the first one.



Don't know about your torque, check again after a bit of driving, ~7lb/ft, when they don't move, they're tight, for good.

As far as putting everything where it goes, keep a 'note', often helpful using cardboard, drawing a picture, and stabbing holes to hold bolts.

xci.ed6 said:

Yeah, they're hard to pull, easy to place.

Ya get new tools after the first one.

Don't know about your torque, check again after a bit of driving, ~7lb/ft, when they don't move, they're tight, for good.

As far as putting everything where it goes, keep a 'note', often helpful using cardboard, drawing a picture, and stabbing holes to hold bolts.

Click to expand...

What are those tools you pictured? Are they for working the tube seals down into those grooves?
I didn't get anything "out of place" I put everything back right where it went. My only concern is that the new tube seals were loosely fitted into the valve cover instead of being pressed into those grooves. As I stated there was no way to do it. If it's wrong then I'm better off finding a whole other valve cover with the original tube seals still in place.

most likely, they have an edge that is smooth when installed, then 'catches' when removed.

From your description of installation, that's how they usually are.

Tools a prybar for removing, turns a 2 minute job into 2 seconds.

Well in the last couple weeks I have tried xci's suggestion of Seafoam in the gas tank at the last 3 fillups, didn't do sh$*. Still losing oil like a sieve. Just happened to check it today and it was just below the low level mark on the dipstick.
This is ridiculous. Need a surefire solid explanation for what's going on.

My 2002 5spd has the same issue. Leaks a little out the back of the block and burns oil. I put in a quart every 7-10 days.

From the block up is less than a year old on the motor. Purchased new from Honda. I was quoted $2300 to go in and fix it. $12 a month suits me fine until I either sell the car or swap the engine.

what's the compression?

need psi, like a compression tester, it threads in the spark plug hole