Very hard to start when cold

[MIKEYZCB7]

I have a 92 lx,when I start it up after it's sitting over night(it's worse when it's cold out) I really gotta crank it for it to start.It idles very rough and white smoke comes out of the exhaust.Once it's warmed up it runs fine and starts right up every time.Anybody got any ideas?

[MyDianaZ06]

maybe its time for a new battery. Its the cold season and cold kills batteries. as for the smoke you have oil dripping in your combustion chambers. you wont notice it untill you leave it their for a while when theres enough oil to burn out white smoke (time for an h swap lol) Thats really nothing major. It could hurt you when you get your inspection sticker.

I could be wrong but there are my guesses

[wed3k]

check if it is coolant or oil smelling.

[CB7lx91]

if it is in fact oil dripping into your cylinder then it is more than likely your lower tube seals. they are o rings that sit in between the rocker assembly and the head. There are 4 of them and they are engraved into the rocker assembly.

Buy from honda.

[Losiracer2]

if it's "rough" when it starts, and you say white smoke comes out, then its most likely your headgasket thats either blown or leaking. I had this happen to my F22. For the first 30 sec or so it would start but it would idle really bad, like it was starving for fuel or something.

Turns out when the car was sitting, coolant was leaking into the combustion chamber, so when I went to start it, the engine would try to burn that coolant along w/ the fuel and air and would idle really poorly.

It'll just get worse and worse until you replace the head gasket.

I noticed I had to refill coolant every week or two. The overfill bottle would be bone dry after I filled it and even the Radiator would loose some.

A new HG from Majestic, an online honda dealership is about 75 bucks. To mill the head its about 40, I went ahead and replaced all the valvestem seals since my engine had 172k at the time. I did a 3 angle valve job along w/ it and it was 300 for the machine shop expenses. They also pressure tested it and hot tanked the cyl. head to clean it. I did all the work myself and it was my first time doing the HG. Wasn't that difficult, maybe a 6 on a scale of 10. You can get away w/ just getting a HG and a milling of the head if thats what you want to do, so on the cheap side, 120, on the expensive side, I did everything: 3 angle valve job, HG and ARP headstuds...600

[MIKEYZCB7]

It doesn't burn oil or antifreeze.I always check them both because I thought I might have had a blow head gasket.Also the battery is new(I know that's not the prob).It's really weird like a poor air fuel mixture,I have to really crank it for at least 20 seconds.Once it starts and warms up its fine.I don't get it
also only when its cold out,it never really does it in the summer

[kouzie]

test alternator.

Last winter my cb beater does that and turn out its alternator.

[slammed91cb7]

It doesn't burn oil or antifreeze.I always check them both because I thought I might have had a blow head gasket.Also the battery is new(I know that's not the prob).It's really weird like a poor air fuel mixture,I have to really crank it for at least 20 seconds.Once it starts and warms up its fine.I don't get it
also only when its cold out,it never really does it in the summer

hey did you ever figure out the problem? my car is doing this exact same thing.ran fine till it started getting real cold now it doesnt want to start either i have to crank it for like 5 minutes.

[MIKEYZCB7]

Could it be the air boost valve or the FITV?

[wed3k]

doubt it, even with air boost disabled it shouldnt take 20 seconds.

check your plugs and fuel pressure. if it sits overnight, the pressure can bleed off so the extra cranking would be necessary to get optimal pressure so the injector can fire.

[MIKEYZCB7]

doubt it, even with air boost disabled it shouldnt take 20 seconds.

check your plugs and fuel pressure. if it sits overnight, the pressure can bleed off so the extra cranking would be necessary to get optimal pressure so the injector can fire.

yeah makes sense maybe the fuel pressure regulator is bad

[nostringz]

check the cold cranking amps on the battery (i had under 200!). i replaced mine for an optima red top.

[low-keyseg92]

I was thinking fuel pressure....