Fireman.142

Hey, I have just finished up putting an f23a engine in my 94 accord lx 5spd. Started fine but is having a timing issue? I think. It starts fine but then revs high and misses a lot. I had a non vtec f22 in it that I swapped out for the f23. I put the dizzy, throttlebody and a few sensors on etc. Just curious, trying to work out the bugs, just did the swap.Thanks

hon2984

I tried to swap a F23 VTEC head onto a non VTEC block. It only contributed on two cylinders at idle. I tried a few different things, but nothing worked, I ended up putting a F22B1 head on it and it fixed the problem.
I would start off and do a cylinder balance test! do you have any check engine lights? What ECU are you using? F23a being an OBDII and your car being OBDI could cause problems. I've seen OBDII to OBDI coversion harnesses, but I have never heard of anyone wanting to change from OBDI to OBDII.

Fireman.142

Well, I got it to run smooth now, all cylinders are firing, it just revs up to about 2500 and then I can hear something change in the sound and it starts to surge. From about 1300 up to 2300 and back down. I got the motor from one of the big import shops of motors from japan. Came with a year warranty. Still have the non vtec ecu, and dizzy. I'm thinking I need to do a conversion to the dizzy that came with it but not 100% sure. Tonight I'm going to try purging the coolant system and go from there on figuring out the wiring for a conversion. I did change the timing belt and balancer belt along with the water pump and crank pulley.

hon2984

you need to do some research on the ECU. your trying to controll a vtec motor with a non-vtec ECU. Your engine is not going to run correctly without the correct ECU. do you even have VTEC wired? I would not recommend "one wire VTEC". You could get a chipped P28 and have it tuned! thats about 400-450$.

stereo69

have you tried running it with the F22a dizzy yet or are you using the F23 dizzy with the CK,TDC on the crank?

Fireman.142

Well thanks for all of your help. Got it running great. I blocked off the IACV completely and adjusted the idle with the idle speed screw. Turns out that I also had a plug that was bent, so that added to the problem. Now I need to find a vtec ecu for a 5spd, I have the AT one from the import shop but I can't seem to find one for the 5spd anywhere. It wont really rev past 4700 rpms but Im pretty sure that thats cause of the ecu. I drove around for about an hour and a half yesterday with no problems. Not so sure what I am going to do with the f22b2 though, it has 148xxx on it so Im not so sure it would be a good candidate for a good turbo build or maybe frankenstein build. Prob. just put a head gasket on it and sell it.

Fireman.142

Nope, I'm running it with the f22b2 dizzy cuz I dont have a vtec ecu yet. Which brings up another question, when I get the vtec ecu, will I need to get a vtec dizzy from an f22b1?