First off a few months ago my car died in the middle of the road and i had to get the coil in the dizzy replaced. a few weeks later i made a four hour drive on a bumpy road in high temps and when i got back to town i had about half the power my jdm h22 normally puts out.

The strange thing is when its on the cooler side outside it runs like it should, but if its warm outside or the engine has been going for a while i can feel this power loss happen. I have used three sets of plugs since then all gapped NGK vpower, new NGK wires, i got more power when running correctly but then something happens and turns my lude into a piece of shizzle.

what really gets me is nothing changes on my a/f gauge. still optimal and slightly rich wide open. it is almost like my brakes are on, but i can coast fine. It seems like a loss of 100 hp. No oil leaks, no vac leaks, idles perfectly, runs smooth even while being slow. Any guidance would be appreciated. Basically its a heat realated problem. or maybe the dizzy wasn't alligned to the right timing at the shop, it was a certified honda place though.

Thanks for reading and hopefully someone can help me figure this out. I'm a mechanical engineer, and i don't much like asking for help, but i'm stumped and have lots to do other than fool with my car.

 

cant it be ur thermostat being off and its actually overheating but not showing?

 

even if it was overheating it would sitll run fine. wouldnt go into a limp mode because of it. have you done a compresion test on it. it really doesnt make sense how its a cold hot thing

 

yeah. I just went out and looked at it and my markings on the distributer for allignment weren't where they were before the shop messed with it so i advanced the timing a bit more toward my mark. I'll just have to drive it around and see if i loose power again. I'm pretty sure changing a coil wouldn't require new timing. I have 13:1 compression so i don't use stock timing if thats what they set it to, if they set it at all. It was right in the middle which make me think they just plunked it back into place.

different parts have gone through my mind that could cause my problem.

o2 sensor-doesn't make since as its reading is neglected during WOT

EGR-can always block it off :-)

thermostat- might be messed up, went into the red on a real hot day in stop and go traffic when i had my fan relay out (jdm fan timer + subs = no juice) but ever since i put that back its been fine. gets to half warm same time as always.

exhaust leak- exhaust made a weird sound once, but i don't really see how it could be temp related. and its a 3 inch pipe and visually has no leaks so a tiny hole compared to 3 in of flow is negligable.

fuel pump- i have a gauge on my fuel rail, i thought it was broken, always said 40 psi when the car was off. goes to zero now after a few min, not that it didn't before, just never thought it worked so i never looked at it. people say to listen for it... im guessing its the high pitch squeal from under the fuel pump gromet.

rust- sunroof and right quater panel are getting under the paint cancer spots. nothing has broken through, but my car may be sad because of this and not want to give its best. :-P

 

I have the same problem exactly. Except i have an unmodded JDM h22a.

 

I would recommend that you get a data sheet of what the computer is doing on both hot and cold days. This might be the only way you will be able to figure it out. For some reason I'm thinking air intake temp but I'm guessing it could something else.

 

i don't think it would bethe air intake temp cause its an off on sorta deal. i can feel something is occuring that is cutting power, if it was intake temp it would gradually get bad. this is a sudden loss of power. it seems to run correctly with the throttle barely depressed, but when i push it further i can feel the torque vanish.

Maybe its the tps. my vafc says 0.145 volts when left alone and 4.5 when pedal is fully pressed. thats what it has always read. I know its supposed to be 0.45 volts with no throttle but it always worked at this setting.

i drove around today for ten minutes and at first it was nice and fast. then i sorta noticed a loss in torque. and after about 5 more minutes it barely accelorates at all. no chugging or anything, just slow as hell.

 

You have the exact same problem I have with my h22.

Your ICM (basically a high-speed relay) is somehow getting messed up, and not giving the coil enough dwell time between sparks. This doesn't allow it to cool enough, which in turn fries the coil. I bet if you take a multimeter to the coil, from the positive to output terminal, you'll get around 10kohm, when you should have over 15k.

I replaced the distributor, which took it away for a long time, but just last week it came back for a day or two. Just to be clear, the car will almost jerk if you're cruising when it does it. When it does it, no matter how much gas you give, it won't go anymore? Correct?

I had a few other small problems like a messed up ecu connector I just fixed and I have another distributor sitting at my house I'm going to try tomorrow.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Just so you know, replacing the coil is a temporary solution, you really need a new ICM too, it is usually cheaper to pick one of those jdm distributors up off honda-tech used. In the meantime, I'm going to check my tps to be sure the voltages are correct, bc yours is definitely off.

 

yeah once i get the power loss it stays lost except maybe if i sit at a light then i get maybe half a second of waht feels normal then nothing. Its not really like a jerk, its sorta like i feel it through the pedal, like all of a sudden the sleeves turned to tar. i had a feeling it was the distributer, i'll probably get a new one somewhere or make the local honda place here fix it since they suck so bad.

the one wierd thing is that i took the dizzy apart and it looked like it came fresh off the assembly line. might as well get a new one, there are only a few parts left on that car that aren't new anyway, that being one.

as far as the tps i would fix it but i don't have a star tool. lol. atleast not one i can get back there to adjust it. i never payed attention to it cause thea/f is fine and figured it would be messed up it the tps was to blame.

also i have never taken the distribter all the way off, its it pretty easy to replace?

 

you should get the torx bit you need to fix the tps, that is def something you should fix

taking the dist off is simple, just be sure to get a timing light and set timing for the new one.

 

same here... JDM H22A I/H/E mine used to be a **** box after it warmed up... Mine had zero midrange power (it was fine after VTEC engaged), and sometimes ran into a spark cutout at ramdom RPM under heavy loads....

I changed the spark plugs which cured most of the spark problems for one.... and two, I discovered that the way I had my old H23 coil mounted was right atop the thermostat housing, causing it to overheat and reduce its current ALOT..... At one point at the track after a few runs, it quite all together.... I bought a new coil now, but its really of no use seeing as how I bent the exhaust valves up while performing a WOT upshift from third to second gear at 95mph..... whoops.....


Now its time for building the head a little ahead of schedule... but I notice this weird phenomena with alot of the vehicles I've owned and/or driven in my time.... They feel super quick and strong right after they're started and begin to warm, but once you drive around they loose power.... I think its mostly the underhood temps along with rising air induction temps causing the motor to loose efficiency...

 

now that i think about it, this problem started the day after i taped up the hood scoops on my hood to keep rain out of my engine bay. one scoop is directly above and behind the distributor. i'm going to get a new one and cross my fingers.

 

WOW!!! it seems that their are alot of us with this problem. I too have this loss of power when its a HOT day. When its cold, the car seems to run pretty good. Ok...so i read that one might be heating up the coil becuase of the thermostat housing. For all us JDM h22 swappers, were having the problem of mounting the coil, in its OEM location. correct or is this only me? I have my coil lodged in between the lower radiator hose, thermostat and trans housing. Do you guys think this loss of power is due to excessive heat??

IS anyone else have htere coil just "in there" and not mounted?
If not, how did you mount it, to let it get frsh air and not all nect to hot *** components??


With my swap i just used my h23 wire harness which only gives so much slack, i dont see how i can get more length out of that purticular part of the harness. Also... i noticed the JDM thermostat housing is not equpped to have hte Coil mounted.

ANY IDEAS!!??

This is a big problem for all of us, let figurre this one out!

 

well on my JDM H22 the coil is in the distributer itself model TD-60U. The problem started when i plugged up my hood but i just ordered a new distributor from distributor king and its supposed to take heat better. we shall see.

 

I see what your saying, but their are some of us that did the external coil conversion to the JDM h22. Well, if anyone has any ideas for my problem, id greatly appreciate it.

 

Bump! Bump! Buuuuump!!!!

I've been searching for my loss of power issue for over three months. This has to be one of the best threads that I've found that totally describes my loss of power in my H23a1. I've checked and changed almost every fu$*en thing!

(((I.C.M, dizzy, and timing)))....Please give us a hand on these areas, electrically & mechanically.

If anyone can ping in to give a little more info. on the tech. properties of this specific subject.....That would be outstanding!
__________________________________________________ ________________
I 'm not trying to high jack the thread......but here's a question from one of my previous posts.

"Has anyone that owns a 1993 honda prelude with an H23A1 engine, ever had problems with pick up issues, discussing vacuum problems, egr, map sensors, O2 sens., timing, back pressure, compression, clogged lines, faulty plugs, distributer, clogged cat. conv., faulty ecu, clutch, clutch master cyl., slave, etc. etc. I guess I'm the only one that has these thoughts about a possible problem that someone could generously help me solve?"


Modified by shadow29485 at 7:49 PM 9/29/2007

 

Here's my thread.....You guys just went straight to the source, unlike me.....beating the bush. I knew what to say, I just didn't know how to explain it.

If you have time, please read mine, I hope between the both of our posts, we may be able to figure something out.

Thanks,
-Shadow-

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread/2087821

 

x10000000!!!!

on my 2000 sh stock motor, ive been having this problem forever, i always thought it was what everyone else was having, the 2-3k hesitation, but mine only happens when the car is hot!

 

There's a chance that my thread will help someone out: https://honda-tech.com/zerothread/2111333

 

BTT

 

OK here we go...

I have the same issues here, with jdm h22a. Internal coil dizzy.

Now, We can eliminate one thing here, the knock sensor.

When i had my engine swapped in the k/s was busted. Which threw a CEL code. This put my engine in "limp mode" it ran like a bag of ****. Then i got a used k/s and put that in and the code went away and no more "limp mode" But then i was having hesitation issues.

So i decided to buy a new ECU chip off ebay(i know im going to get heck for this but anywayz) and this chip did a number of things to the engine but more importantly DISSABLED the K/S.

The new chip got rid of the hessitation, but did not fix my bogging issues.

Therefor i say it cant be the K/S because mine is dissabled in the ECU and im still driving brick.

I must admit, its really embarassing when u pull up to a cavelier and they smoke your ***... So lets all team up here and put an end to the gutless prelude syndrome once and for all.

 

Hey. What you said in your thread makes perfect sence. If noticed the loss of power in the 3-4k rpm region when the car's hot. My solution was to pull the radio fuse every once in a while, the power is great for a while then it falls into its old habits again. That makes me question the importance of the knock sensor, if we use desent fuel then in theory we could get away without it? Dont most ECU chips disregard the Knock sensor anyway?

 

I think the 4th gen ECU's memory can be cleared with the clock/radio fuse, but not the 5th gen. If you have a bad KS then it will just come back. I just bought an obd-II scanner and this one found the code again and I was able to delete it. I drove around the block and scanned again and it wasn't there so I'm not really sure what the deal was, because I didn't fall back into **** mode.
If the code keeps coming back for me then I may have a bad wire or something like that. I'll drive around a lot today and see if it comes back.
I would guess that anytime that there is a sensor that is being reported as bad but is actually good and sending data, it probably causes this strange performance crippling.

 

The ECU does not dissregard the info from the k/s. Its there for a reason. The k/s is there to tell the ecu to retard timing to reduce the change of detonation.

The k/s is ONLY used under 5K rpms. Anything higher in the rpms and there is too much mechanical noise which confuses the k/s. This is why when Vtec is engaged there are no hessitations, because the ecu ignores the signals from the k/s.

Poor quality gas or too much timing advance will cause the engine to ping, or worst case detonate. If you only use minimum 91+ octane fuel, you shouldent have to worry about detonation. Mine has been running for months with the k/s dissabled with no problems.

 

Has anyone tried changing the distributor yet?

Im wondering if putting an aftermarket coil on there would cure this problem.