Hopefully someone can give some insight as to what could be happening with the Type R. It's a '98 with 33K miles and never had the slightest problem with it so far.

At the last autox (yesterday), after the 1st run something was wrong with the car. The motor does still engage in vtec, however the power seems to die off slightly after 7K and it "hits" some kind of a "rev limiter" just before 8K rpm. It feels more like a real slow fuel cut-off, and nothing like the fast acting normal rev-limiter at 8.6K. Since then I've tried it and it's been doing this in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears. The revs just do not want to go over 8K. The temp gauge reads 185 F, while the oil pressure is at just over 75 psi anywhere in vtec after 6K rpm up to where it "cuts off". The check engine light is not on and it never did light up.

Even though it always gets 93 octane, I'm thinking it could have been bad gas. Maybe the ecu was detecting detonation? But even today on a full tank of new gas it still does it.

The car's going tomorrow to OPM Motorsports to get it checked out, but I would appreciate any helpful information you guys might have. Thanks!

 

Check oil levels. Then try resetting the ECU (disconnect -ve battery terminal for 3+ minutes). Or it may be you have a bad VTEC solenoid.

Did you over-rev the motor at all?

 

Hey Big Phat R,

It is not the VTEC selonid if it switches cam lobes like the man said!
Sounds like an igniter problem check your connections.

 

what's an igniter?

 

I forgot to mention that the engine still has freshly changed synthetic oil from 2 weeks ago and still reads right up to the top mark. Oil was the first thing I thought of, too, but it defiintely does have enough. The engine has seen the rev limiter probably less than 6 or 7 times since new. And this is usually only momentarily in 1st gear in order to avoid a quick 2nd gear shift. The car has never been overrevved and I'll hate myself the day I do such a thing. Thanks for the suggestions.

An interesting note is that today coming from work, once the engine got up to temp (180 F), I tried and it did rev all the way to 8.5K. I did this twice in 2nd gear, but then when I tried it again about 10 minutes later into the drive, again it was topping out at 8K in 2nd and also 3rd. The engine also feels a little less torque in the midrange and does not pull as hard after 6.5K once it is in this strange "phase". Vtec does engage as I can hear it clearly in the exhaust and engine sound. The fact that vtec engages and that the check engine light is not on makes me thinking that it might not be an ecu related issue.

I’ll see if the guys find anything tomorrow at the shop.


[Modified by Hracer, 10:19 PM 6/25/2001]

 

ITS THE OOOOIIILLLL, I had the same problem, I promise you that if your oil is low it will disengage v-tec and that is what you feel as the slow down, mine was so low it wouln't even engage v-tec. double check it