I wasnt sure where to put this but since my motor is boosted ill post my question here.
Okay so i have a ERL built block and i just recently got my head rebuilt with new valves and everything. Well it has been running fine but today i noticed that when i went to pass someone on the highway my VTEC didnt engage. I didnt think much of it since i wasnt winding out the motor. Well when i got home i checked my oil level anyways. I know its a characteristic of the h22 to burn oil. The level looked fine but i added about half a quart anyways.
Well about an hour ago i was out doing some tuning. I set up my datalog and was about to do a 3rd gear pull. Everything was goin fine but at 5200rpms VTEC didnt engage. Then at about 5800rpms it sounded like it kicked in then went off again. It hit the fuel cut at 6800rpms. With my last prelude i had another VTEC related issues. That was a clogged VTEC solenoid. That time i cleaned that and it fixed the problem but when that was the case VTEC didnt enagage at all. I started to head back and was very confused. Usually VTEC related problems are with oil pressure. So i decided to do another pull keeping my eyes on my oil pressure gauge instead of my wideband. I was getting up in the rpms and my oil pressure wasnt rising at all. It stayed at 25 and didnt engage at 5200rpms so i let off. Could a clogged VTEC solenoid cause low oil pressure? or is my problem somewhere else? What should my oil pressure be at while in VTEC? Any ideas? Havent really got to investigate yet since its dark out. But where should i start at?

 

Check your oil (and filter) for shavings or glitter.


Hondas generally will have 50psi by 3k rpm when warmed up. If it doesn't increase, and vtec doesn't engage, you probably have low oil pressure overall, which is a good sign the bearings are going. A cloged vtec solenoid will not decrease pressure, since very little oil is being leached from the main oil system when engaged, and zero when off.

 

I dont think its a bearing problem as it has normal pressure at start up and idle. Its just not building pressure past that. Is there any way to test/diagnose the oil pump?