atarigamer01

I made an earlier post about a loss of power I was getting. I thought it was a dirty iacv but was told that wouldnt be it. My engine is d15b vtec and its stock, new head gasket, new piston rings, seems to run fine otherwise. But its just slow as hell. Someone mentioned it may be jump timing. I wish I new how to fix the slow problem. It ran rich when I first did the swap cause I was using a bad ecu, but it ran pretty quick. Shortly after, it slowed waaay down. Im using a stock p28 and its still slow. Would a timing gun maybe be of use? Im out of ideas. If anyone lives in riverside area who can help me Id appreciate it or just any ideas. Only one of my friends is in to hondas and were both out of ideas.

Former User

Definitely check the timing with a timing gun. Be sure the engine is warm, the idle speed is set to spec, the spark plugs are fine, and the service connector is jumped when you do this procedure.

It's also possible that when the engine was running rich, this condition destroyed the catalytic converter, which now may be clogged. A clogged cat can cause a loss of power.

Also check the fuel pressure.

atarigamer01

About the catalitc converter, I was thinking that same thing. Cause it was like, it just slowed waaay down. But so far that first time I drove it was the only time it really felt fast, I mean I know its no b series engine but I was like damn! Yeah it was running really, really rich. Im gonna look into that! Thank you for saying that, I probably would have never thought that would actually be a possiblity. What would I measure for as far as electrical output? What is the service connector?

Former User

Remove the cat and look into the hole in the end with a flashlight. A good cat has an internal honeycomb appearance. If this structure appears melted and clogged, then the cat is bad.

atarigamer01

Have you known anyone personally or experienced this yourself? Im just wondering if it made a big difference. Cause like I said it was really running super rich so Im sure its clogged like krazy. I hope thats all it is, I really want it to perform at its full pottential like when I first drove it. Thatd be sweeeet.

Former User

A clogged cat is a well known cause for loss of power.

The 2P service connector is located above the ECU. You jump this same connector to retrieve CEL codes from the ECU and to check/adjust the ignition timing.

IndySporty

I know you cali guys have to have cats on your cars, but you should keep a high flow laying around for situations like this. Pop it on and see if the power improves, that will tell you if it's that or not real quick.

atarigamer01

Oh ok I know what ur talking about. Rywire did the harness for me when I did the swap. I wanted to say also that my temp gauge goes up a little higher also, not much but just like a hair. I just googled online about bad cat converter symptoms and everything it said is what my car is doing

# Markedly decreased low rpm power,
# Engine runs a little hotter than normal at constant cruising speeds,
# Exhaust leaks near header that won't seal in spite of new gaskets,
# Bucking or hesitation while accelerating,
# Cat's exterior surface temp cooler near outlet.

All of these is what its doing. I cant thank you enough for commenting RonJ@HT
. What is a good brand of catalytic converter to get? Ive seen an obx one on ebay that looks good, what would you recommend?

IndySporty

a tell tale sign of a clogged cat is an engine that idles good and has good power at really low RPM and runs good at light throttle, but seems to bog down under full throttle and/or high RPM situations.

atarigamer01

Yeah it goes good the first few feet its just embarrassing. Its really hard to go into high rpms.

redline870

o yeah u definately have a clogged cat. big time if its pushin the exhaust out at the manifold with new gaskets. the inlet on the cat should be cooler than the outlet which is another sign. a cats job is to act as an oven to burn off excess gas before it reaches the air so the outlet should definately not be cooler. it sounds like your cat is severly clogged, i would get that thing off asap

atarigamer01

Ok, yesterday around 4:30 I took it to the muffler shop and they welded a new cat on pretty quick, but its still kind of sluggish. I will say though it is a little bit more responsive and smoother. I was wondering would resetting the ecu help at all? Or could their still be a clog somewhere in my exhaust system? I just have my stock exhaust.


Modified by atarigamer01 at 8:14 PM 10/11/2008