My brother and I just swapped in a JDM H22A motor in his 92 prelude which replaced a 96 USDM H22A1 engine. After making sure all sensors and what not are plugged up with the engine harness, we fired the JDM up with no problem. However, the timing seems off and the CEL came on. The RPM stays up between 1k to 2k rpm at warm temp. After adjusting the distributor the RPM would still stay in the said range. Also, after giving the engine some gas the engine would drop in RPM and want to die. We doubled check the sensors and were stumped. What could be causing the CEL, timing, and the engine going out with some gas. Any help is appreciated. THNX

 

What ECU are you running. Should be a p13, if you used the 96 ECU, well thats OBD2, and with an OBD 1 motor, it wont work to good. As for you stepping on the gas and the car bogging down and dieing, well thats a sign that you have the wrong plugs plugged in.

As for the high, idle, check and adjust the idle accordingly. Probally have a few bad sensors, might want to start swapping bad sensors for the ones off the h22a1.

What CELs are you throwing?

 

The car is a 92 Si with its original engine harness with the added lines for vtec. It's using a OBD1 ecu. Haven't had time to see what CEL it's throwing. We had a friends 94 prelude vtec side by side with my brothers car and it looked like the plugs were definitely in all the right sensors and so on with the vacuum lines. Still no clue what's going on. We did do a compression test and all cylinders went over 300+psi. That seem weird at all?

 

300 is very high.

 

Yeah dont eyeball your wire connections. You literlly have to check each wire.
300 psi is well sounds like its way too tight. Motors are 220 out of Honda. How its at 300.

You have to pull those codes as well. Then come back and post them up and we can go from there.

 

the CEL is throwing code 21 which is the vtec solenoid valve. Would it have caused my stepping on the gas and the car bogging down and dying?

 

Probally not, it means that its not plugged in right and or the solenoid is broke. If you have the old solenoid from the last motor swap that on there.

You still are going to have to figure out which plug is plugged in wrong. I remember when I did my swap it did the same thing. It idled fine, but once the gas was applied it bogged like a mother expletiveer. Turned out I had some plug, plugged into the ABS, and the abs into something else. I had a mechainc help me figure that one out. I never would of guessed it either

 

or possibly solenoid just needs to be cleaned

 

ya we raised the car on the stands and rechecked all plugs and still it's bogging...dunno whats going on. we had a check light to check and seems fine. Checked the vacuum lines also. The TB backed fired when i petal to the metal...seem weirder every time we check something out.

 

code 21 is the Vtec Valve not opening and closing.

code 22 is the vtec oil pressure switch not working, indicating a clog.

Code 21 is more of an electrical error as opposed to hardware error