Well, I took the R drag racing for the first time ever, tonight. Hawaii Raceway Park just outside of Ewa Beach on the South Western side of Oahu. Conditions were pretty ideal I suppose. No rain...temp was in the low 70's and the air was clear.

All you do is show up, pay $8.00 and you can take as many runs as you want. I did five and went heads up a few times with this nice person I met who drives a turbo LS VTEC.

I'd like to say that I'm definately not a drag racer, and tonight completely solidifies that statement 100%.

To get the car ready, I changed the oil and filter and put in new spark plugs. Checked for VAC leaks and made everything was nice and topped off.

A summary of my drag racing debut: Lose to an LS VTEC turbo by two car lengths. Couldn't get traction in first and second even if I rolled the throttle, missed third gear, bounced of the rev limiter in second gear once, best reaction time was a .600 and best 1/4 time was a 14.5

Car stats:
Sleeved block
84mm 11.5:1 compression
Mugen intake
Hytech header
550cc injectors
Chrome
Kteller 3" exhaust
190whp
140 something ft-lbs of torque

As most of you know, I'm pretty much breaking in a new engine. Well....after about my third pass things started taking a change for the 'different'. I noticed that the idle started getting spuratic. It would do it for a minute, then it would level out and pur like a kitten. I thought nothing of it.

I drive home. On my way home I decide to go to my favorite Thai joint. Pulling into the parking lot guess what I park right next to? Word. A 2001 NBP Type-R. All stock. Never seen the car before. I leave a two page letter on his car and tell him about HT and ITRCA.com. I go get my food and come out and there is an older couple standing in front of my car, smoking and talking in hushed tones. It was the driver of the other R. We talk for a good 15 minutes and I fill him in on the wonders of HT and ITRCA.com. We exchange numbers and go our merry ways.



This is when my night got really interesting. I pull on to the freeway on rap and my car starts sputtering and stumbling like crazy. My ******* puckers up and I feel blood rush into my face. Fvck. I pull over. I think ****, if I break down, I will sleep here in the freeway tonight. No way am I leaving this car here.

I pop the hood, look for anything abnormal or different. All VAC lines look good. I close the hood and pull the ECU and wait for a minute. I plug it back in. Turn the car on and it fires right up. I pull away, and merge onto the free way and it starts doing it again, but not as drastic. I get off at my exit and come to a stop light. The car wants to idle really low...like 600 rpm. I blip the throttle and it holds at 900-1000rpm.

Driving down from the Dole Plantation toward Northshore it feels fine. No more back firing while coasting in gear....normal throttle position doesn't cause any stumbling and it idles fine.

I get it home and pull the ECU. I wait five minutes and plug it back in. It idles at 900 rpm like a kitten. I pop the hood, sounds like it is firing in all four. I walk to the muffler and it is pulsing fine. So confused.

CLIFF NOTES:

Went drag racing
Suck at drag racing
14.5 at drag racing
Missed third gear drag racing
Got beat by an LS VTEC turbo (212whp) drag racing
Notice odd bouncy idle between runs
Drive to get Thai food
Park next to 2001 Type-R
Talk to 2001 Type-R driver
Leave for home and pull over due to sputtering and back firing
Get car home
Type long thread on H-T

 

Drag racing sucks anyways. Its like sex without touching some breasts or a bottom...

Is that allowed on HT?

 

Your symptoms sound like when I bent valves.....and how another buddy of mine skipped teeth on his timing belt.

Odd, how you got it to go away though.....

 

Wow, of all people you have the worst luck when it comes to getting engine built.
I think in your case, you would be better off with a oem block from acura and a head, you will make the same amount of power that you are making now with some cams. Your 3 inch exhaust is too much, you should sell that and get a 2.5

 

why don't you tell us what you mean by "missing third gear" ...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vactor &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">why don't you tell us what you mean by "missing third gear" ...</TD></TR></TABLE>

You being serious?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Haleiwa-Brando &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Car stats:
Sleeved block
84mm 11.5:1 compression
Mugen intake
Hytech header
550cc injectors
Chrome
Kteller 3" exhaust
190whp
140 something ft-lbs of torque</TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Haleiwa-Brando &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">best reaction time was a .600 and best 1/4 time was a 14.5 </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

missed third gear and over reved second? i would say you have one or more bent exhaust valves. i would get that checked out asap even if it sound to be fine!

 

opie knows all about sucking at drag racing

the sputtering u mention could be a few things. if its the valves, it will most likely lessen greatly once you get up to speed. I burned up 2 cylinders recently, and the car would barely idle and STRUGGLE to accelerate, but once I got up to highway speeds, it would be much smoother. check the basics first, do a compression test, take it from there.

 

I would suggest too, getting a 2.5" exhaust.

 

Not all the time, but when I had bent valves, the car would start, except I would have NO acceleration, basically the car was dead.
it would barely move, I suggest to pull the head before your block goes bye bye

 

What's your rev limiter?

If you missed 3rd and just banged against the stock limiter, I don't think you really fucked up anything.

A compression test should show bent valves, if they're not seating right... Maybe spend the $30 to get yourself one.

While you're there, check the spark plugs and wires. You just changed plugs, one could be crap.

Could be the distributor too.

good luck...

 

These new plugs....did you gap them?

 

What was your best trapspeed?

 

sorry to hyjack your thread but last time i went ..
stock motor intake, exh. stock tires.. shitty *** traction
14.7 @ 97 was the highest trap lol
fastest was 14.58 or something like that @ 96 ish mph

lol sucks

 

Unfortunately I cannot add any insight to your problems that hasn't already been said.

That's awesome that you got out to the track to test the R. I plan on doing the same this season. How were your launches? What RPM did you get to before launching? Trap speed? Any vids?

14.5 isn't that bad for a first timer. From what I hear it's all about the launch.

What does surprise me though is your 190whp considering your mods. Seems low. Have you had it tuned yet?

I've got a pile of othre questions but I'll save that for a PM

 

well do a diagnosis right away and tell us wtf is wrong.

it's either in your ignition system (distributor cap, rotor button, plug wires, or plugs, etc) or bent valves. A compression and leakdown will rule out the latter.

Is this on stock cams?

 

The engine is new. However, the distributor, rotors and wires have 84000 miles on them. The spark plugs were properly gapped.

Along with the bottom end being new, everything in the head was upgraded to Rocket Motorsports generation 2 parts. The cams are the only thing in the head that are stock.

The rev limiter was set at 8500 rpm.

I didn't miss shift, I just didn't get third gear in. The car revved but didn't hit the rev limiter that time. The next run is when I hit the stock rev limiter going from 2nd to 3rd.

 

good luck with solving yet more motor problems brandon. nice that you got to run into another R on the island though. i highly doubt you bent your valves revvin to the stock limiter or 8500 rpms as you mentioned.

 

idling sounds like a Vac leak. Also, when there is air in the coolant it will also do this. Check those things.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Circuit Star-29 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">idling sounds like a Vac leak. Also, when there is air in the coolant it will also do this. Check those things.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Air in the coolant? Hadn't heard that one.

I have the feeling that I should be carrying a spare distributor, though my cap/rotor and coil are all new.

Get a video of the problem Is it misfiring?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Chris F &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Is it misfiring?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Is that the same as sputtering?

The results are in. I jumped on the motorized bike and went and bought a compression tester. It cost $50.00 so I'm asuming it's fairly acurate. So we're not confused here, I'm numbering the cylinders from 1 to 4 starting on the driver side.

Compression results:
#1) 225
#2) 225
#3) 225
#4) 225

I shined my maglight down into each cylinder to see if I could see anything out of the ordinary:
#1) Light carbon build up. Dry.
#2) Light carbon build up. Dry.
#3) Light carbon build up. Wet.
#4) Light carbon build up. Dry.

I checked each spark plug. Each was properly gapped to 1.1 and all looked EXACTLY the same. Here is a picture.


I then checked the fuel pressure immediately after cranking the engine over for a few seconds:
Fuel Pressure: 46psi

I then pulled the cap off to check the inside and to look at the rotor. The contacts on the cap...if you notice in the picture appear to be two different colors. The outer side looks more metalic where as the inner side looks to be white. On closer inspection the cap did look to have some build up of corrosion.

The rotor is a different story. I'll let the picture do the talking. There was however, no cracking or chips missing in the rotor or cap.



I hope Len will see this thread. I'd like him to look at the picture of the rotor. I believe this whole assembly has the same actual milage of the car which just turned 84K.

I'm off to check for vacuum leaks and fuel issues.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Haleiwa-Brando &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Is that the same as sputtering?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Probably.

If #3 is wet, *hopefully* that means it's not firing well, and is wet with gas. Surprised the spark plug looks the same though. Cap and rotor look a little worn, they "could" be the culprit...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Chris F &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What's your rev limiter?

If you missed 3rd and just banged against the stock limiter, I don't think you really fucked up anything.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I bent 3 exhaust valves that way.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Dr Pooface &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I bent 3 exhaust valves that way.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Did you just hit the stock limiter, or did you hit a money shift?

&lt;-- uses his rev limiter, though tries not to in neutral.