I believe my 94 prelude vtec is not engaging. I have a pretty big oil leak from my oil pan gasket. I have to put about a qt. a week in the car. Would this cause vtec not to work? Thanks for any help.

Oh yeah last i checked i'm not throwing any codes.

 

Most definitely it could. Oil is REQUIRED in the first place to engage VTEC. When your oil reaches a certain pressure VTEC engages, so if you don't have enough oil regardless of what you do you won't be going into VTEC. Has your oil lamp come on?

 

oil light has not come on.

 

if u have a leak in the gasket, it wont be able to build up the oil pressure to engage vtec...and u need to make sure u have enough oil, to where ur oil light comes on, cuz when that light comes on, u are very, very low. and thats really, really bad on your engine...

 

Actually it shouldn't have anything to do with the pressure. The oil pan is nothing more than a reservoir. The oil pump supplies the flow and causes the pressure to build up. The oil pan is not a pressurized reservoir. The only way that will affect your vtec is when you leak out enough oil that the system is starved and there's not enough oil engage the follower (at which point you should get a 'low oil' light long before if in fact your light/sensor works).

 

I always check the oil and light has never come on but I do have to put about a qt. in a week. I need to get off my lazy azz and change the gasket .

Thanks for the input.

 

do you have any small dents in your oil pan, a well placed one can cause problems other than that just a lack of oil can do it.

 

I don't think I have any dents but will check when I drop the tank to replace the gasket, hopefully this weekend my car seems to really be running like poop. First I have to change the ignition switch (electrical part) to get the car to run again . So many problems not enough time to fix them all. Damn my car damn it to hell I just want it to run like the old days. Thanks for all your help guys.

 

Just be sure not to overtighten the bolts like I did and split the gasket...not sure what the torque specs are for them, but it's not much. Probably in any shop manual.