Squidwort

Honda Accord V6 won't rev past 5k rpm

Hi all

So I have a 07 Accord EX-l V6 at 118k miles. It runs great, everything is maintained well and it's as smooth as butter. Except when you hit 5200ish rpm. This started happening once I did a timing belt change along with water pump and pulleys and all went well. I was meticulous with the change and made sure everything was in time at least a million times. After that I did a few maintenance items:

• Trans fluid change
  
• Power Steering fluid change
  
• Coolant change
  
• Air filter change
  

Symptoms: Once I hit 5000rpms the engine starts stuttering and will bounce between 5.5k and 5k rpm no matter how long you hold the gas pedal down. If you only hit the 5k ceiling for an instant then the let go of the gas the engine will return to running normally at lower rpms. But if you hold it for a second or two and let off the gas the engine will cough and drop down to under 500 rpm and idle very rough. Switching the engine off and on after this will instantly resolve the issue. I did get a CEL once but after turning the engine off and back on the light went away so I was unable to get a code. I would try an replicate it to see if I can get a CEL again to check but I don't want to harm the engine.

At first I thought it was the trans slipping but this also happens when I put her in neutral and rev. I also checked to see if the coils or plugs were but all of them were firing as normal too. I have read that it could be a problem with VTEC is this a possible cause?

Thanks for the help and I'll update the post if I remember anything else.

Edit 1: First startup after timing belt change was smooth and normal so I assume everything thing went as planned.