Ok I have a new JDM b18b in my car that I put in 2 weeks ago. I blew my old b18b1 at the dragway @ 150k miles. Now I have a question, I am trying to get my new motor running great where I don't have to worry about it at all. It doesn't happen in 1st gear, but in 2nd gear it happens lightly, it really happens in 3rd though.

Say I'm going around 40-50 in 3rd gear, I push the gas to the floor, turbo spools and once I start producing boost a little bit into it at around 5-6k rpm there is a faint ticking sound that SOUNDS like it's coming from the engine, but I can't really tell just from hearing it out the windows. It's kind of like a ticking/rattling, almost like a heatshield is tapping on metal but I don't think that's it.

Now whenever I hear it in normal driving I just let off cause it worries me. It's not pinging or detonation as far as I know, I had a local tuner with a built integra listen to it and he said it's definately not pinging, but I've never heard pinging so I don't know what to compare it to. On my new motor when I did a valve lash we were messing with the springs and we can push the valves down with our thumbs, it takes a little bit of pushing but we are able to do it, is this normal? The local tuner friend said the noise might be valve float and recommended I get new valve springs. What do you guys think? Any suggestions?

My car is tuned on uberdata... but for the old motor, and when I got tuned I was tuned with 92 octane, and I run 87 daily because of the huge *** gas prices. I haven't been retuned for the new motor, mainly because there isn't a dyno/honda tuner anywhere near me.

Until I figure this out i'll just be pussyfooting it around on the new motor.

 

You should stick with 92 all the time. I find it hard to belive that you would not boost when daliy driving, and you should not boost on 87octan. Also yon should retune you new motor, and or atleast rune a wide band o2 on it. As for your sound if is not detionation then I don't know.

 

I was thinking about it last night while I was driving and I have a possible cause I want to get your opinion on it. Ok, when I first got the kit on, I had to get a custom downpipe made by a local exhaust shop, when I did I had them attached the dumptube to the downpipe so it dumps into the exhaust instead of into the engine bay because I didn't like the noise. But when they did it I had to take the car back to them about 5 times because the dumptube flange wasn't positioned right so when you would tighten it down to the wastegate, the wastegate would tilt slightly and cause a leak between the wastegate and the turbo manifold. So after getting tired of taking it back I fixed the issue by removing 1 of the dumptube bolts and leaving just 1 in. This was enough to make it not leak before the wastegate and it is aimed up with the downpipe so most of the gas that is let through goes through the downpipe but the flange isnt mated all the way up with the wastegate. I was thinking, that maybe the noise i'm hearing, is just the gas escaping from between the wastegate and the dumptube because it isn't mated all the way up.

Do you think that could be a likely cause? Because it only happens in boost in 2nd 3rd and 4th gear, so thats the only time the wastegate has to regulate the boost, in 1st I don't ever achieve full boost plus that's when my engine and exhaust are the loudest so I probably wouldn't hear it anyway.

 

put race gas in your car(100 octane or higher) and then boost. If you dont hear the knockin g noise anymore, then it means you were having detonation problems.
i would not put anything but 93 octane in my turbo car, especialy daily driver. you are most likly not getting enough fuel in high boost, or you might need to retard your timing... the best thing to do is see your tuner

 

Yea I realize that would be the thing to do but the people that tuned my car are about 350 miles away. Running 93 would be a little expensive for me, I drive my car for work and I average driving about 300 miles a week, I'll try running 93 for a week to clear out all the 87 or so and if it fixes it then i'll know whats up.