I just bought a 2000 Civic ex that I think was severely overheated. I put the engine in the car for my cousin and got it done at about 2am. We started it, drove it up and down the street and when the temp got about halfway up and we had no heat, we parked it and I went home. The next day my cousin just jumped in it and drove it about 10 miles and said when he got to the place he was going it started running rough and died in the driveway. He said the heat still wasnt working so antifreeze wasnt circulating. Obviously he shouldnt have been driving it. But the damage is done. I went back down there and checked compression. It had decent compression on one of the outer cylinders, but the other end was low and the 2 inners were at 10psi and around 30psi. A bunch of stuff has happened since but I have the engine on a stand and tonight I pulled the head off the engine and the middle 2 cylinders exhaust valves look pretty bad. But want some other opinions. all the cylinders walls are clean and have no visible or feel-able grooves or scuffs.

Ive never had a burnt valve issue so im not sure if the damage to these valves is enough to cause the low compression issue, so im looking for opinions? I have another head in my garage and would love to be able to just throw that one on it and put a new water pump, timing belt etc on it. But before I go bolting up a transmission so I can get a starter on it, I figured id see what others think.

 

Heres a pic of the block

 

my guess would be your cousin warped the block driving it like that while overheated. in that case your pretty much screwed.

 

Warped head can sometimes be shaved if you find a good machine shop,may not be worth the cost.

 

It actually turned out to be a broken cam. Snapped right after the first set of valves. Put a used head on it and the engine runs great over 180psi on each cylinder for compression now