So last night I was driving out to my girlfriends and went to punch it in 1st for alittle fun down a straight away. around 7k rpms it starts sputtering all the way to 8700 rpms when i finally backed off. It felt like i was hitting a rev limiter (which I don't have) or something like that.

I checked my oil first, that was fine. I popped the hood and revved it up and the engine sounds fine, real smooth. Then I get look at my VAFC. The VTEC setting has always been set at 6700 since thats where the Hondata is tuned to engage. (the vafc is just a monitor) But the VAFC setting was back at 5500 and I have NO idea why it was. I turned it back to 6700 and the car was ALOT better but still sputtering some, just not nearly as much.

I am thinking its a tuning problem (timing maybe) that needs to be worked out since the car has never gotten tuned since the engine rebuild and the dealership messing with my timing.

The only weird part is that its always been fine redlining and plenty of power never sputtered in high rpms, only sometimes in low when i first start up it would not want to get passed 3k for a second and then would fire passed it.

Its almost like the VAFC reset itself or something, which I know is impossible. And the Hondata can't just change either. I am going to do a compression test, but the engine is still very powerful and sounds and runs fine as long as I dont take it passed around 7k....

Any thoughts guys? I am thinking its just a tuning thing.... I hope its not timing BELT involved... Its a brand new OEM belt and I doubt any teeth have gotten ripped off.

Heres my setup if it helps..

Portflow P&P head,
ti retainers,
Toda Spec B cams,
Toda cam gears,
Toda valve springs,
CTR .25 pistons,
rc 310 injectors,
aem fuel rail,
fidanza aluminum flywheel,
act hdss clutch,
dc jdm 4-1 header
SMSP custom 2.5" ss cat back exhaust
SMSP Testpipe
Injen short ram intake
hondata standalone management

 

How about plugs or the plug wires or the dizzy?

 

well i am going to check the plugs when I do the compression test. I was thinking the dizzy might have a effect, but its weird I would have full power until that moment... ya know??

 

check for a clogged fuel filter. Do you have a gauge? It will tell you if your pump is weak, filter is clogged.

 

I will check that, but I don't think thats the problem. I did a compression test today and got 240 240 230 240 soo that looks really good.

We held a listening device to the motor and they said its my distributor that needs to be replaced. Its been making noise for a while now. Anyone have one laying around?

 

Why are you running VAFC and Hondata?

Why are you running a "high" compression cammed engine with no tunning?

What noises is the distributor making? When did you service it last? It easily could be ignition related.

 

correction sorry, it was tuned by Sakai and has never been right since I bought it... then the timing belt snapped and the dealership set my timing back so it needs a retune.

Does anyone have any other ideas besides the Dizzy beign the issue?

 

also the VAFC as I have told 100 people on here is justa monitoring thing. Doesn't have the controlling wires connected.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by totsie7944 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">also the VAFC as I have told 100 people on here is justa monitoring thing. Doesn't have the controlling wires connected.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm not a mind reader and I didn't get a memo where I'm supposed to track what you have done.

I was going off of: "I turned it back to 6700 and the car was ALOT better but still sputtering some, just not nearly as much."

Which sure makes it appear like it was fully connected, or at least partially enough to change how the engine runs.

*shrug*

Good luck though.

 

sorry, i didn't mean to sound like an ***. You are right, it shouldn't make a difference. Maybe it doesn't and its just me thinking it felt a little smoother.

If it makes a difference it still doing the same sputtering with me changing the vafc so it must not be doing anything but monitoriing.

 

What was the last time the cap/rotor was replaced, or even looked at? I'd start with that.

It could also be the camshaft position sensor falling out of synch, but I'm not sure the Hondata looks at that.

If you have an adjustable pressure regulator you can bring the pressure up (to make it run richer) to see if it's a fuel problem, if the issue goes away, or is lessened with higher pressure than it's likely to be a fuel issue to begin with.

 

thanx for the input man. 2 weeks from now I am doing this with Brad (mythias):

Toda Spec C cams
New fuel pump (aftermarket for more fuel... not sure what kind yet)
Replacing fuel filter
Brake pads
New Distributor
Checking Valves and aligments

We basically are tearing the head open for a day so I will check everything out. I want to make sure its purring like a kitten before I give it up to Jeff for tuning.

 

I'd stick with OEM retainers unless you're willing to check on the Ti ones regularly.

 

the Ti's only have about 30k on them. And I will be checking them in about 2 weeks. But they should be fine. I talked to a few people with them and they told me that they had them for 80k and been fine.