ok, this started just yesterday...I;v never had a problem like this b4. I was driving up the road yesterday and everything was fine, the car ran great. All of a sudden im just sitting in 3rd gear going down the road, and I give it some gas and the car wouldn't rev up. It was cruising at about 2,700 rmp when I went to give it gas and it got unbelievably loud and the rpm's wouldn't go anywhere! It barely makes it past 3000 rpm without struggling to build power. And I mean no power at all! The car wont even rev close to 5,200 rpm, so vtech is totally out of the question. If i were to come from a dead stop in 1st gear the car builds power just fine between 1000 and 2500 rpm. As soon as the tach crosses about 2700///close to 3000 the car gets so unbelievably loud and it just doesn't go, it looses all its power and the rpms just don't build up, maybe 100 rpms every 3-5 seconds. Bassicly, acceleration is totally screwed. I honestly dont have a clue whats wrong, but I'm leaning towards the vtech solenoid? Car has a lil over 126000 on it. Any help/advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanx alot

 

definitely not the vtec solenoid, check your ignition system, plugs, wires, coil, cap, rotor, distributor

 

/\/\Yep, and check your timing...tensioner could have let go.

Definately not the VTEC solenoid.

 

well the ignition is all knew, i did all that about 3 weeks ago, but just to be sure i double checked it and everything seems to be fine. If it was the timing belt wouldnt the engine not run at all? What ur saying does make sense to a degree but I always thought on an interference motor if the timing was messed up it wouldnt run at all. Like I said, the car just wont build up any power after 3000 rpms. I'll check it out tho

 

Does it rev at a stop? Your belt could have jumped a tooth but I thought that would bend a valve. What does the noise sound like when you try to go past 3k? Knocking ect.? If its not mechanical you could try a TP sensor. I would check voltage before replacing it though. Can you get a ecu tester I don't think they are that expensive but getting more information on what the computer is doing is key.

 

alright, the belt itself i pretty tight, i did change it about 4k miles ago and it seems to be ok. Maybe the timing advance has been thrown off? Cuz at low rpm everything is fine. This problem only shows up under load. If I rev it up at idle i can take it to 5k no problem. So, im not sure if a timing light is going to tell me anything, I dont have one on me at the moment. But if it is the timing advance, could that be related to the tensioner? I'm not very skilled in engine timing, as u can probably tell. I dont really know how the whole thing works. My dad knows a few things about it, he thinks its timing advance but I dont know how it could have been thrown off all of a sudden. Thoughts?

 

What year is the car? If its 96+ it should throw a code if there is a problem like this. What was the sound like again? Noises can be a place to start to rule out mechanical problems. Also seeing what the computer is reading is a plus to rule out other things.

 

What exactly did you change on your ignition? Are your plugs gapped correctly? This has the classical characteristics of an ignition problem. If you didn't replace anything recently on the ignition system it would be wise to replace it before doing anything else, then check and recheck it. As for other possibilities, although less likely would be a clogged cat or intake, are you throwing any codes when this happens?

 

the plugs are gapped correctly, when i changed the ignition it included the coil, cap, rotor, plugs and wires. All were installed correctly, I've confirmed that. There is no engine code...no check engine light on, no lights are on or come on intermitantly. The noise you are asking about comes in at mid range rpm, 3k+, by the way the engine WILL hit vtech, i tried this morning and it did manage to reach 5200 rpm. But it struggles like none other. It just gets incredibly loud, and it loses almost all of its power. Basically sounds like the engine is screaming and trying to build power but it wont. And also, this hasnt been a recurring problem, it just all of a sudden happened. And power builds up just fine in low rpms.

 

so yea the cat was clogged to ****!!! I had a friend stand behind the car when I rev'd it up there was no pressure coming out what so ever.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Slick-Prelude487 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so yea the cat was clogged to ****!!! I had a friend stand behind the car when I rev'd it up there was no pressure coming out what so ever.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yikes, that'll do it. So then I would assume your car is a 95 or earlier?

 

I would not try to hit vtec. The h22 is an interference motor only in vtec. So if you did skip a tooth on the timing belt it would still run and not break anything below vtec.


I would still check the timing of the bottom and and cams.

Take off the valve cover spin the motor to TDC and see if the cams line up.

And do not try to go into vtec again. there is a possibility that you have or will bend valves doing that. if your timing is off.

 

Pull off the exhaust pipe just below the manifold. Run it and verify thats the problem.

 

How would that verify the problem?

 

A clogged cat could cause that problem but I would think that if the cat was that clogged up that the car wouldn't start at all.

 

A clogged cat would definitely do that. That's what my 81 Lude did when the cat was plugged on it. Accelerate fine until about 2500-3k, then no power. It was so bad I couldn't hold 55mph on a flat road. There's no emissions testing here in Montana and I didn't have money for a new cat, so I dropped the exhaust behind the cat and knocked a hole through the honeycombs inside. Voila! Problem solved for no cost except for an hour's worth of my time.

 

You should try putting a cat back on when you have the time. Cause that is soo bad for our environment