My friend's h23 prelude hasn't been running right at all since we replaced the timing belt. Here's what it does:

The car starts fine and runs ok under light acceleration. If I floor it the engine will bog down until rpm's reach 3000 or so, and then the car takes off like normal.

Parked, it does the same thing. Floor the gas, engine bogs and sputters its way to 3000rpm and runs fine. Once I let off the gas, though, the engine stalls out unless I keep the rpms above 1200 or so. If I let off the gas completely, the engine dies and won't restart right away. Let it sit five minutes or so, and it starts and runs like before.

I wasn't there when they put the belt back on. We did it at a self-help shop and the guys that worked there both knew Hondas pretty well, so I'm *assuming* the cams were re-timed correctly. Nothing's disconnected under the hood that I can see, and the car ran fine before we replaced the belt.

any ideas?

 

the timing is off man, that would explain why it sputters

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by threeshot223 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
any ideas?
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Fix the timing

 

Ok, complete noob question: cam timing or ignition timing?

 

Timing belt would be the cam timing, but you could also check the ignition timing.

 

you shouldn't need to check the ignition timing hawkze2.3, unless of course he moved the distributor

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PrettyLude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you shouldn't need to check the ignition timing hawkze2.3, unless of course he moved the distributor</TD></TR></TABLE>

Oh, yeah I agree there's no need to check it, just saying it woudn't hurt.

 

Nope, didn't move the distributor. So, the cam timing has to be checked.

Another question...can the tensioner be unbolted without having to loosen that big nut that sticks out through the plastic cover? The dude that owned the car before my buddy had no clue what he was doing and rounded the main tensioner nut completely round. My buddy got frustrated and bolted everything back together without re-tensioning the belt. I'd imagine that a slack belt could cause the cam timing to drift a few degrees, even if the cams were timed correctly....does this sound like a possibility or not so much?

 

Oh, yeah a slacked belt will skip teeth