I have a 01 prelude with a rebuilt H22a4 with about 500 miles on the motor now.Vtec was not engaging during tuning.Took it to my builder and He checked the wiring,solenoid assembly, and manually checked all vtec rockers. He narrowed it down to oil pressure.Hooked up a gauge and pressure at idle was around 20psi and engaged vtec while driving and the pressure was around 53 psi. I have a kaizenspeed balancer shaft eliminator kit installed and He suspected something there. Took the oil pan and lower bearing girdle off to inspect the plugs.When he took the pick-up off he noticed that no oil came out of the pump and the pick-up screen was slightly concave.There does not appear to be any damage that can be seen.Thats all the info I have right now any help is greatly appriciated.

Specs:
Type S pistons
K/S kit
Skunk 2 Stage 2
KMS springs and retainers
Atuo to manual tensioner conversion

 

you will receive lower oil pressure reading running without the balancer shafts. but if you have 53psi at 3k on rpms there shouldnt be any issue with vtec engageing. make sure the bearings were turned in the rear shaft hole and plug was put into the girdle bolt hole. I run without bs either and my cold start psi on my mechanical gauge is 23psi and when warmed up it drops to 10 psi at 3k I have right around 55psi on my turbo car. It doesnt even have 200 miles on it. Brand new build all the way thru also. check my sig

 

Is there anything else to check relating to the vtec system? He went through everything and the oil pressure was thought to be the culprit.

 

Lower oil pressure from running without the BS shafts? :/

 

How did he check the solenoid?

 

He checked it by removing the top half of the solenoid and hooked it to a battery .