JKov240

...What's going on with my car.

'94 Civic with '94 GS-R swap...I'm running a chipped P28 (phearable.net).


A while back I was at the track running my car on it's old ECU, it ran fine, but whenever it hit ~7K, it was like the car didn't want to pull anymore and sounded terrible (almost like you pushed the clutch in and stayed on the gas).

I figured the ECU was bad because the wrecked car that I got the GS-R out of was half-assed beyond belief.

So, I got a new ecu from phearable.net (good people, might I add). The first time I ran the car it redlined at ~7.5K, but it was supposed to be set to 8.2K. I came back home, turned the car off and let it sit for an hour, went back out, and revved it 8.2K no problems and worked fine for a couple of weeks, then it started doing the same thing (in addition to redlining early, it threw the CEL shift light early, and engaged VTEC early).

I talked to phearable.net, sent the ECU back, they inspected it and said there was no problem, but they sent me a new one with the same program burned to it for my particular set-up (really cool guys BTW).

I got the new ecu in yesterday and it's STILL doing the same thing.


The guys at phearable said to check the tachometer wiring, but everything is good there, and now I talked to my dad, brother, phearable, and my friends at the local speed shop and I'm beginning to think the distributor has crapped out even though it's ~10 months old (I put a new one on when I did the swap last November). It's still under the 12-month warranty.

Do you think the distributor could be the cause of my problems?


HELP!!!


Modified by JKov240 at 4:07 PM 9/24/2007

JKov240

It says that there was a reply by "Froth", but I can't see anything...

bump

JKov240

bump...

JKov240

ttt

JKov240

Today I was on my way to work from school and I realized I hit a lot of bumps on the way (maybe gave something a better connection or something like that)....I also noticed that my gas gauge was pegged out (you could barely see the "F"), so I assume that something's gone wrong within my gauge cluster.


Anyways, I got down on it and it ran up to 7,800rpm's before it hit the revlimiter (it's been hitting it at 7K)....so I'm thinking bad connection, or an incorrect signal.

Do you think the gauge cluster could be sending an incorrect signal to the ECU?


What an awesome time for my car

thesmogman

What came to my mind was timing. Is it at stock spec's? What does Phearable say it should be at?

Then see if the dist is advancing correctly.

It also might be leaning out at the top end or something like that. Time to get a tune.

JKov240

I'll have to check on the timing because when I had the half-assed P28 in, you would hit 7K and it just wouldn't have any more "oomph". It worked ok for a while, but then it started doing it's thing out of the blue.


But now I'm trying to figure out these things...

1) Would the timing engage VTEC a whole 500rpm's early...
2) If so, then would it throw the CEL shift light early along with hitting the revlimiter?
3) Would the ECU realize that it's leaning out and hit the revlimiter early?

It's like everything occurs between 500-1000rpm's early than what it's supposed to be.

Archidictus

Sounds distributor related to me.

JKov240

^12-month unlimited mileage warranty on it, so I think I'll get my boss/dad to call up our parts supplier in California to get a new one sent our way.

I'll check the timing on it as well

Azn Kenny

Had the EXACT same problem on my GSR-swapped hatch, turned out to be a bad gauge cluster.

After trying out 3 different ones I finally found one that worked.

JKov240

^That was also in the back of my head as well.


So EVERYTHING I listed happened (VTEC engaging early, Revlimiter early, etc.)?


Tomorrow I'm going to check the timing, distributor, and see if I can figure out a way to possibly unplug the gauge cluster and get an aftermarket tach and drive it to see if there was a short or something inside.

And play Halo 3

Azn Kenny

Trust me, your tach is off and that's why you THINK vtec is engaging wrong and rev limiting early.

JKov240

It idles correctly and everything (but I have noticed that sometimes cruising at 70mph it will be 3K, but then others it will be a little over).

It also seems like the gears aren't quite as long as they used to be...

Archidictus

It should be relatively simple to determine whether or not there's something wrong with the car versus you being retarded. Seriously dude, a toddler can tell the difference between the car being broken and you having a gauge cluster that doesn't read properly.

EDIT: Master Chief (who is black as per the leaked ending) would know what the problem is.

JKov240

^True, I'll give it a try tomorrow.


He's BLACK??!?!?111?!?1

Don't say anymore!


EDIT: I feel like a big geek for saying this, but I did read the series that they made out of Halo.

One was a prequel that showed his training and how they chose him...the book said he was a white kid with red hair. But Bungie might have had other plans, I dunno.

Archidictus

I've actually never played Halo, nor do I care about it, but I did hear that the ending to III was leaked and that MC was black. I didn't watch it so I can't comment as to the validity of said rumor

JKov240

Halo is beyond badass.


Anyways, you know how rumors get started...one person claims one thing, then another repeats, and then another, etc. etc.

JKov240

I ran it today with no cluster...VTEC didn't seem to stay engaged as long as it used to and it didn't feel like I was going as fast.

I didn't have time to check the timing...

JKov240

Update...I got a new distributor.


Car runs great, VTEC engages at 5.5K (what's it set at), but it's still hitting the rev limiter at 7.5K (set at 8.2K)


I know it's getting close to the time where I get a new gauge cluster, but money's short (in college)....so it'll probably be a while till that.