Right after my head rebuild the car began idling low after warm up, and stalling if the accelerator is depressed and released. Moving the idle screw can make the idle go lower if I move it in a lot, but moving it out only has an effect for so far. After that you can hear that it's still sucking in more and more air, but the idle isn't changing. The water was a little low and the fan didn't run, but it was having the same problem the other day when the coolant was full (about 2 days ago. It's leaking out of a bad radiator cap.) I was sure to make sure the valves seated right and the valve lash was set right. The cam timing is perfect, the ignition timing I didn't reset because I didn't change its position on the cam journal. Do I need to go get a timing light and check it?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jumpman83 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Do I need to go get a timing light and check it?</TD></TR></TABLE>

it would be a good idea

 

You made a post not too long ago about your idle being high after it warmed up.
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1404810
What have you changed between then and now? Air in your cooling system can do funny things to your idle.

 

That was fixed by changing out the IACV, that stopped immediatly after I swapped it out. Could it be overreacting now or something? I really hope I don't have to bleed my cooling system, I don't have a pump and I'm in debt so buying one won't be fun...

 

Alright, the fan still isn't turning on... thermostat? Could the bad radiator cap cause that? Something about lack of pressure holding? I timed it. I had it fully advanced and it wasn't enough. How in the hell could that be possible? And how could it be that if I loosen the distributor any more than the least amount I can muscle it to move, the engine dies? I should be able to let it out until it's easy to move, shouldn't I?

 

I really don't think this sounds like an "air in the cooling system" problem. Sounds kinda like a clogged fuel filter or clogged PCV valve to me

however, bleeding your cooling system is easy, and you don't need a pump. With the engine off, locate the little bleeder screw right behind your distributor, next to the ignition coil. If you loosen it a little, you should be able to get a little bit of air to come out, before the coolant starts coming out. As soon as coolant starts coming out, just tighten it back down again. easy.

 

wow, very. PCV valve is a possibility. My intake manifold is full of oil. My throttle body is not, and I can only think of 2 ways it could get in there- breather or PCV. None in the TB means gotta be the PCV.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jumpman83 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Alright, the fan still isn't turning on... thermostat? Could the bad radiator cap cause that? Something about lack of pressure holding? I timed it. I had it fully advanced and it wasn't enough. How in the hell could that be possible? And how could it be that if I loosen the distributor any more than the least amount I can muscle it to move, the engine dies? I should be able to let it out until it's easy to move, shouldn't I?</TD></TR></TABLE>

If the fan isnt turning on, its most likely the temp sending unit thats screwed into the housing where the upper radiator hose meets the block.

If you cant get it in time by adjusting the dizzy, and you are sure you had the cel connector jumped, then you are probably off a tooth on the timing belt.

Did you reset the ecu after replacing the iacv?

 

i had the same problems

how long are you waiting for your fan to turn on?
i had to wait a good 15 mins

i also had the low idle problem...cleaning the iacv sorta helped it out a bit and i adjusted my idle

 

what about the other temp sensor on the thermostat housing? Guess I'll have to take a multimeter to it. It did turn on once I turned the car off, that was before i refilled the radiator. After that it never turned on again, and that was with it holding 2 bars (besides the one that's always on) on the temp gauge (this is 4th gen BTW) for some 15 or so minutes while I was figureing where 15 degrees was (I don't have a mark on my flywheel. XTD lightweight.) The ECU isn't throwing a code. When I jump it, the CEL just stays on. That means it's on a backup system, doesn't it? I think I remember reading that somewhere. I didn't have the CEL jumped when I timed it, I'll try it again that way. The cam timing is perfect. I spent forever getting everything exact. The ECU has been reset several times since the IACV swap.

 

blleding collant was already described... post deletion...

 

Alright, I took a look and the distributer was fully advanced but the timing was still retarded. I put my P14 ECU in and it helped a lot. It's running a lot better, even though the timing is still slightly retarded. I guess that has to have something to do with why the timing belt is getting eaten again. Last time it was because the tensoner wouldn't hold straight, it could still be slightly off, and maybe that's changing how the timing belt is running and that's changing the timing. I still havn't bled the coolent because I've been dicking around with bigger deals

 

That's cool, but just remember, it's easy to get involved with thinking about all of the major stuff it could be, when sometimes it turns out to be the simple things that we choose to over look.

 

Yeah, well understood, I've done that many times before. The reason I overlooked it this time though was the ignition timing was really sparatic and I wanted to figure that out first, I couldn't make air in the coolant make sense for ignition timing.

 

Did you check all your vacume lines to insure everything is in its correct spot ? FUBARed lines will cause this exact condition.

 

Fubar has a meaning? Hum, I can't remember where I first heard it but I thought it was a brand of something or other and they made up the name at random. Anyway, yezzur, all the lines are as they should be except for the one that goes to the IAB's. I don't have the solenoid, so I run the vacuum straight to the diapraghm. I think that makes it run in reverse, but I don't have much of an option right now, that solenoid costs $150. I'll cap them open when I find a place with caps.

 

I am having a similar problem so I decided to re-open this post. I recently replaced my H22A head with a H22A4 head. We original thought that the head was bad but after a leak down test we have discovered that the compression is good. The car runs great cold but once it is warmed up it will not idle. EGR ports are clean because the were cleaned 1 year ago and I have not put to much miles on my Prelude. The car was sitting for weeks so I am thinking it could be the Fuel Filter, or PVC. Any thoughts?