ok so my engine was getting pretty noisy and i got my friend at honda to adjust the valve clearences back to oem spec, apparently they were all really badly gapped.

he always does a mint job an knows his stuff, but we ran into a problem.

because the car is tuned with vafc2 and adjustable cam gears, the adjustment of the valves has put the car out of tune somewhat.

it struggles to idle and dies and feels a tad flat, you can drive it just when the revs drop under 950 it dies..

cam gears are set Intake= -5 deg and Exhaust= +3 deg

the vafc is tuned to match the degree's on the cams, was done using a really good workshop and ran awesome before adjusting the valves

so where do i go from here, do i have to get retune? im pretty sure the cams gears are restricting the idle and are now somewhat different due to correction of the valves and because the vafc cant tune under 1000rpm (ie idle)

we reset the stock ecu to learn the idle again but just the same (hardly idles an dies)

im sure if i reset the vafc to 0 correction and wipe the tune also reset the cam gears to 0 deg the car should run ok, but i dont want to lose the hard work thats been put into the tune already but i may have already done that

any help would be awesome, fighting off a MEAN flu and this is the last thing i need

 

did you go by the zero degree marks when adjusting the cams?

 

The stock ecu won't "learn" a new idle.

Did you actually dyno tune your car to find the cam timing to be at -5 +3 ?

Your valve clearance would have to have been WAY out for a valve clearance job to make that big of a difference. It sounds to me like you have multiple issues to deal with.

My recommendation:
1. Set the cam gears to 0 until you get on a dyno.
2. Re-check the valve clearances with the motor cold (room temp)
3. Remove the afc & get a real engine management such as hondata, ectune, neptune etc.

 

thanks for the replys guys!

the cam gears were tuned on dyno and infact made 8kw at the wheels more midrange, using the stock itr cams

the vafc2 is actually awesome value for money an so far ive only been more impressed by it.. i do know the benefits of an ecu like power fc but this has done me verywell so far for a basic bolt on build, and wouldnt hesitate using it on any vtec honda for a cheap tuning tool that works in early stages.

yes the clearance was way out the engine was room temp and im pretty sure they hadnt been checked for the whole 180,000kms , so im guessing theres my answer.

will hopefully get retune in a couple of weeks, might look at some improvements,

any more help or suggestions would be good, i dont know alot an would like any advice


Modified by ITR_cam at 5:18 AM 6/21/2008

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ITR_cam &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">thanks for the replys guys!

the cam gears were tuned on dyno and infact made 8kw at the wheels more midrange, using the stock itr cams

the vafc2 is actually awesome value for money an so far ive only been more impressed by it.. i do know the benefits of an ecu like power fc but this has done me verywell so far for a basic bolt on build, and wouldnt hesitate using it on any vtec honda for a cheap tuning tool that works in early stages.

yes the clearance was way out the engine was room temp and im pretty sure they hadnt been checked for the whole 180,000kms , so im guessing theres my answer.

will hopefully get retune in a couple of weeks, might look at some improvements,

any more help or suggestions would be good, i dont know alot an would like any advice


Modified by ITR_cam at 5:18 AM 6/21/2008</TD></TR></TABLE>

stock cams? stock ecu?

the purpose of adjustable cam gears is to correctly degree AFTERMARKET cams when building an engine and using a degree wheel. they are used to sync up the cam timing with the crank timing so that the engine is running efficiently. they are not a "bolt-on" part for power gains.

my advice would be put the stock cam gears on and get a tune to modify your A/F map and forget the cam gears.

if you are adjusting the valves according to the CRANK TDC, then you might find that you need to go by the CAM TDC (when the cam has NO LIFT on the valve) because your cam adjustments may have skewed the cam position at the CRANK TDC. understand?

 

yea stock cams, with stock ecu + apexi vafc2

the honda guy just did it by the books, has done it many times and always uses the correct procedure, i have no doubt in his work. i have talked to a few who have had the same issue now, i guess its not uncommon an should possibly have got them adjusted before tuning.

i had a tune on the car without the cam gears.. then i put them on an it made 8kw more midrange.. id say one of the best tuners in our country does alot of the pro import drag cars, i dont see how its a bad thing.. the car actually went hell of alot better from this.

this is just my experience, thanks john wayne

 

has anyone else had any problems with their car not idling properly after adjusting the valve clearances.. mine were set to intake .0065 and exhaust .0075 (pretty sure thats correct from memory) this is the middle of the range that the oem specifies.. however i have been told that because my engine is quite old that even this is too tight and needs to be set to atleast the max of the specified range which is .007 intake and .008 exhaust

another guy i spoke to said his car did the same thing as mine and had to get them adjusted back to the loosest spec and then it went ok.

anyone can share their experiences?

 

Let you car sit overnight, set your cam gears back to 0 and then get your valves re-adjusted. Then you can put your cam gears back to the setting that they were at.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EG6-DC2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Let you car sit overnight, set your cam gears back to 0 and then get your valves re-adjusted. Then you can put your cam gears back to the setting that they were at.</TD></TR></TABLE>
x2....I always do valve adjustments after the car sits over night.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EG6-DC2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
set your cam gears back to 0 and then get your valves re-adjusted. Then you can put your cam gears back to the setting that they were at..</TD></TR></TABLE>

ah thats a good idea..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ITR_cam &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

ah thats a good idea.. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, having the cam gears degreed, it will throw off the valve lash b/c the lobe will be at the wrong spot.

 

yea it actually sounds like thats where we went wrong.. its getting re done on sat morning so ill make sure that its set to 0 deg on the cams

 

ok well left the cam gears at 0.. a few degrees wouldnt make a difference just the cam lobe needs to be off.. adjusted them back to 0.007 intake and 0.008 exhaust which are the loosest specified settings from the range avaliable.

car runs fine now.. funny how 0.0005 can make such a big difference

it idles mint and is still quiet which is good no tappety noise.. woot

 

you were prob more off than that i dont think that little would make a difference....when you adjusted with the gears not at zero the cam lobe was probably contacting the rocker arm already so you probably so you probably adjusted them really loose...thats what i think