My cousin put a H22A(something).. a USDM engine, into his 97 accord. He's had issues since the start, but it's running. It's turboed with a F-Max kit and such...

The issue is his oil pressure. He had a tuner check the pressure while he did a dyno run. The pressure dies at around 3700 or so, and VTEC won't kick in. He installed an oil guage and it's reading 15psi at idle and around 60psi in the top end... but again VTEC isn't kicking in.

One dealership that looked at it didn't have a clue.. but found his main bearings to be worn some and replaced them. Another dealership thought it was the oil pump... but other shops say Honda pump's don't go bad, the oil gear does.. but if that goes you'd know. The engine sounds fine when I heard it running, and it's not like his turbo has melted down from lack of oil.

The other odd issue with his car is with the EGR. He had a code saying there was too little flow... here he didnt' have the control selinoid hooked up to the EGR. My brother (turbo97lude) hooked the two vaccuum lines up... but when he ran the line from the control selinoid to the manifold, the engine would stall out. With the line just hanging there not connected to anything, it idled fine even though that was creating a vaccuum leak.

Anyone else run into either one of these situations? Mostly the first issue, as the 2nd issue is a minor deal.

 

15psi at idle and 60psi up top sound about right to me, that's close to where I'm at. I hit about 80psi above 5K or so.

What ECU or management is he using?

 

he's using the FM2 from the F-Max kit with a P13.

I know what his guage is reading sounds good... but why would the other test the dyno guy did show really really low oil pressure? I was telling him the VTEC not kicking in could be caused by a few things... I Know he said they tested the selinoid and it's functioning correctly... i'm wondering if maybe the sending unit is screwed (but wouldn't that cause the oil light on the dash to kit on?)

I know it was thrown into an EX so all the VTEC wiring should be correct. He said things worked fine for like I forget how many months and then things just started to "slowly" go down hill

 

since this is and pressure related problem i would start by looking at the bottom of the oil pan. my pan was dented just alittle and i ended up overlooking it for a while. i decided to take it off just to make sure. when i did i had cleaned the inside of it up and noticed that the pickup is obviously very close to the bottom of the pan and it was very visable that it was completely flush with the pan cause it left the outline of the pick up inside there. my pressure when cold at idle was 30psi and up to about the same rpm as yours it leveled off at 50psi. when i would let it warm up to opperating tempreture it would drop down to 20psi at idle and level off at 40psi when reved once again at the same rpms. it sounds like your pick up is alittle too close to your pan and can't flow enough oil to creat pressure. the oil pump from honda is $280 and oil pumps don't usually "wear out". i work with hydrollics they either work or they fail. not too often do they just wear out like that. but that is a very overlooked and great place to start. good luck and keep us updated with your results. peace.

 

the oil sending unit read for about 7-10 psi if im not mistaken. also i beleive it is just for the dummy light only. the engine will still run but the pressure switch is mainly what the computer is looking for. try reving the engine up past 6800rpm. if it goes beyond 6800 then the pressure switch is seeing enough pressure to activate the solenoid and allow the ecu to switch into the vtec's secondary fuel and timing maps. also had it just stoped or has it slowly just stopped working. my h22 would do all sorts of things that threw me off. enguaging late, when warming up then stopping when the engine warming up, also would enguage and disenguage in the same gear. all things that indicate low pressure. i beleive also that the releif valve is set to about 80 psi. a good rule of thumb is to have about 10psi for every 1k rpms. 8000rpms = 80 psi roughly but not everyones engines are teh same. but i would take a look at the pan. it would be worth the time.

 

HELLO people, my name is Luis and im from CORDOBA IN ARGENTINA..... i have a prelude 2.2. vtec h22a1 and have the same problem sometimes my vtec doesnt work, sometimes its work intermitent..... i have made the oil test and when the car its at normal temperature (in the middle of the gauge) the car has 10 psi at iddle but in 6000 rpm or higher no more than 40 psi..... I changed my oil from 10w-40 to 25w-50 and its a little better because before was 10 psi and 25 psi..... I dont know but what its the normal pressure at 7 000 rpm? could it be the oil pump???
And for last what is the part of the car that you call "oil pan"? its the oil reservoir or the carter? I cant figure out what is it. SORRY for the bad englishhhh.....thanks for all people

 

I'll have him check he pan for dents... IIRC I think he said a few months ago about scraping somwhere because of his crappy suspention. I also asked him about the issue with the redline.. if he was able to go past 6200 or not, and he said a night or two ago he took my brother for a ride and shifted around 6800~6900 (via an aftermarket tach)... so I was thinking too that the ECU must be seeing the right pressure or it wouldn't have switched the cams.

So I'll let him know to check the pan to make sure... and to also check his VTEC wiring its self. maybe one of the other required signals isn't working. Thanks for the help!

BTW> The oil pan is the "Pan" under your engine where the oil sits... the metal peice the oil drain plug screws into.