Honda Prelude Forum - PreludeDriver.com

Ok so I have a 94 prelude si, I was sitting at a railroad crossings waiting on the train and I went to pull off in second gear. I didn't put my foot in the gas that hard, my rpms were low and I got about three feet before I heard a loud pop from underneath my hood. It was like a loud backfire sound, then my the engine got to sputtering. It went a couple more feet before it died completely out. There wasn't any leaks of any kind oil or anything. I can start my car and it sputters, I've had to different mechanics look at it and they both have told me one of my piston rods may have bent because its not firing off. So what can I do?? Do I just replace my head on the motor or just replace the engine?

Could certainly be a piston rod. These are in the block, so replacing the head won't do you any good. If you are interested in confirming this possibility, you'd have to find a way to see the rods. This would likely be easiest to do by dropping the oil pan and looking up from below. You can also do a compression check on the cylinder. If the rod is badly damaged, you'll get bad compression readings off the affected cylinder.