HELP - 87 Civic Wagon smokes after valve Job

[robsonline]

Hi All, I really need some help on this. This is a long story, but I will try to make it short. The timing belt broke on my 87 Civic Wagon. I had it towed to my local mechanic. He replaced the belt, but it bent the exhaust valve on the number 1 cylinder. I drove it around for two weeks trying to decide if I was going to fix the bent valve. It ran fine except it would hesitate at low RPMs, and it did not smoke. He quoted me $500-$600 to do a valve job. The car is in great shape except for the bent valve, so I said go ahead and repair it. This is were the nightmare really starts. It takes the mechanic two weeks to repair, and then he said the cost was $968. When asked why it was so much more then what he quoted, he said that while he had it torn down, he decided to replace the PC Valve and do a tune up. I reluctantly paid him and got in my car and left. I started to notice that the valves are still making a lot of noise. I took it back to work and called him, and he said bring it back in a week and he would adjust them. I left work to go home, and when I started my civic, it blew a cloud of blue black smoke that completely enveloped my car. When the smoke cleared and it had been running for a few minutes, the smoke went away and did not smoke while driving. I drove it home, but if I tried to get over 55 MPH, the car would sputter and almost die. I took it back the next day, and the mechanic kept it for almost two months. He had one excuse after another, and I pressured him to redo the valve job. He finally relented, and took it back apart. He said he found the problem. He said the valve guides were bad. When I asked why that had not been replaced, again he had no good answer. He got my civic back together, but now it smokes all the time. Compression tests are good on all the cylinders, but the number 1 cylinder keeps fouling out. When you pull the plug, it is coated in oil. Now my mechanic is telling me that my cylinder rings are bad on number 1 cylinder, and that it will be another $1500 to rebuild it. He said that he knows that he did the valve job right this time, and refuses to fix the problem. He told me to come get my car or authorize him to repair it. I know that it did not smoke before the valve job, and he has no answer as to why it is smoking now except that he wants more money. Can anyone tell me something that I might be able to do to fix this. Thank you in advance.

-Rob

[cvcc_wagon]

go to another mechanic, that one is incompetent (IMO) what is happening is your valve seals and guides are wearing out or improperly installed. what this does it let a little oil drip onto the top of the valve while it is not running so it smokes when it first starts up. once it is running less oil drips (well the same amount of oil drips but it does not accumulate) so you don't see any smoke. if the rings were bad it would smoke all the time and never stop, i don't think this is the case. (you also said that compression was good so that is another reason the rings are probally okay)
the price he originally quoted you was quite low i think, $900 seems like a more normal price for removing the head and valve work (i was quoted about $700 just for a head gasket replacement on my 83). but he still quoted a price that was way off what he charged you and that really sucks. my suggestion is to remove the head your self (get a service manual, it really not that hard if you follow the instructions) and bring it to another mechanic to rebuild. a lot of the cost goes into the time it takes to remove and replace the head.
make sure you specify what the mechanic is going to do when he rebuilds the head and get it on paper, that way you dont get into a "i didn't say to do that" situation.
the main thing is to go to another mechanic, it really sucks when these things happen because you're out a lot of money now but there is no point in trying to deal with him any further if he isn't going to do the work properly.

"He said that he knows that he did the valve job right this time, and refuses to fix the problem"

so he is admitting that he charged you $900 for faulty work and still won't fix it....

did he replace all the valves with new ones?

[robsonline]

cvcc_wagon, Thanks for the reply.

The mechanic said that he replaced all the valves, seals, and valve guides (the second rebuild he did). Also, the second valve job the engine is smoking all the time. Not just when it sits for a while. It is poring so much oil into the number 1 cylinder that it fouls the spark plug after a few hours of running. Do you think that he has installed one of the valves on the number 1 cylinder incorrectly? That has been my argument, but he refuses to work with me. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[cvcc_wagon]

it sounds like the no. 1 cylinder is the only one giving you trouble then. if the valve seal is completely shot it will send a lot of oil in while its running as well. i still don't think there is any reason to think it's the bottom end, if your compression in the no. 1 cylinder is good (or at least no different than the other three) then it's probably fine.
the unfortunate thing is that even with it being just the one cylinder you still have to pull the head to fix it.