Lionsmane38

Okay, I've done various searching and I understand that these kinds of issues are difficult to diagnose without seeing it hands on, but here goes:

A little background: I bought the EM1 about a year ago and I think that the previous owner realized an intake leak, but instead of taking the IM off and replacing the gasket like he should have, he used some sort of puddy that I am unfamiliar with to seal it up. One could say that it was supposed to be temporary, but I doubt it. He was probably just a cheap ***.

Recently, my car has been throwing four different codes consistantly" P0300 - random misfire, P0302 - cyl 2 misfire, P0304 - cyl 4 misfire, and P1139 - IAT High output or misfire (?) I think. I don't have the codes with me, but I think that is right. the misfires must be small because I barely notice it and it idles just fine. Every once in a while it while drop to about 300 RPM then back up to its normal 700 or so RPM. I hear a faint buzzing from the engine bay that gets more prominent while I am on the throttle, but since I have only had the car for a year I am not completely familiar with all of the noises yet.

I have run the problems by a few people and some say that it is completely logical that the possible intake leak could throw these codes and others say the contrary. I am thinking about paying honda the $65 for the diagnostic so that they can just pinpoint it, but I figured I would ask for your help.

IF it is the IM leaking, I was thinking about replacing it with Skunk2 IM. My first question about that is would I have to chip my ECU in order to make my car run properly with a new IM, or could I just switch it out? Sorry for the long post I wanted to get as detailed as possible. Let me know if you guys need anything else.

EM1, B16A2.

SoFresh1189

you should be able to just switch it out. i dont see why you would need a chipped ecu.

Lionsmane38

That's what I would think. It has a larger plenum and longer runners than the stock IM, but I have been getting mixed answers about that as well.

disfreshkidd

In my Si I have a Skunk 2 Pro Series intake manifold and running the stock P2t ECU and it runs perfectly. You should be fine.

Lionsmane38

fantastic. Did you put it in yourself? If so, was it a pain in the *** or reasonable?

As for the CELs, can anyone confirm or help me further diagnose the problem?

disfreshkidd

I did it with a few friends. If you know what your doing it's not hard, just takes a while. You will leak coolant, so get some coolant. And the gasket was stuck to my stock intake manifold so you may need to get a new gasket. Do you have a stock intake?

Lionsmane38

yes I have the stock intake. I was planning on getting Hondata's gasket anyway when I decide to dive in.

Former User

When you have misfire codes, the first things to check are the plugs, wires, cap, and rotor.

Lionsmane38

I plan on replacing the cap and rotor soon anyway, but I changed the plugs and wires under a year ago to NGK Iridiums. I will pull them out and check them again when I have time to be sure.

UPDATE: Seems like its started to clear up a bit. The CEL just didn't come on one day when I started the car, which further emphsizes that its irregular. I will replace cap and rotor first thing and then check the wires. Even though its not throwing the codes anymore I think that I may take it into honda still and have them check everything out.