hey guys, i have a 97 GS, i have a DC Sport header and cat back system with deleted cat, that and intake are the only things i have added to the engine. anyways my problem used to be that between around 2500 and 3500 RPM's my car would kind of lag and a few times sputter, well that has gotten worse, and now it does it from around 2500 RPM's and up, and the sputter is a lot worse, as in it almost acts like it wants to die. sometimes the sputter will happen while i am giving it gas and accelerating, but mostly happens when i am staying at a constant speed. I am going to change the timing belt, blah blah this weekend because it is time to do that, just crossed 100k miles, and dont know if that will help the sputter any. plugs all look good, have less than 10,000 miles on distributor cap, rotor, and plug wires. oh, another thing, since i have deleted the cat i have no where for the 2nd O2 sensor to go, so it has just been strapped to the underside of my engine, this was done almost a year and a half ago, but i dont know if it may be making a problem now or not.

There is a CEL, checked it with a code reader and it shows that all 4 cylinders are misfiring, i can check it again and see if there are any others. if there is any other information that anyone can use to help me diagnose this problem just lemme know, i have the helms manual and a few friends that know more about honda engines than i do, so i can figure it out. thanks for any help in the meantime.

 

Most likely the O2 sensor being strung up in the engine bay is causing the misfire, my first suggestion would be to get an O2 sim, reset the ECU and then see if its still happening. It could also be a bad distributor coil/distributor and/or MAP or TPS sensor. How long has it been misfiring?

 

it hasnt been misfiring that long, maybe started a week and a half ago at most, it has been barely sputtering and just constantly getting worse for about 3 weeks, and it has almost always had a little pull to it between about 2500 and 3500 RPM's since i got the car if i happen to be cruising at that speed anyways

 

bump

 

Dude!!!! my car just started doing this too, I also have the same set up as you do, with the cat thrown away. This is very sad that this happen. I am thinking that I might have blown my head gasket, but I dont know.... I have never heard a head gasket blown.

If anyone can help out with solving this problem, that would be awsome!!!

 

yeah, im gonna try replacing the MAP sensor tomorrow, if that helps ill post and let you know, i just put my second o2 sensor back into the exhaust and that didnt really do anything for me. hopefully ill have some luck

 

here's a little update, swapped the MAP sensor with a friend's that worked, engine ran better, but i didnt change sparkplugs, or reset the computer like i should have, plus my timing was still fully advanced, so it didnt seem to make a huge difference at the time, plus i didnt have a lot of time to play with it blah blah, anyways, on monday im gonna try and do all of the things i listed as well as swapping the MAP sensor, i think it may work... crossing fingers... will update again