I'll start from the beginning. Bought the LS, has almost 300k miles to it. Nice body, decent interior. (I'll swap the engine soon enough) And I recently changed the air filter and spark plugs. Just basic stuff, right? The night I did this, I drove it to put gas in it and it started acting up. Loping at idle, delay on throttle but catching up with itself. At higher rpms it sounds and runs right, but as soon as it drops down, it starts loping.
Moving forward, I decided to start checking stuff. The fact that when I filled up with gas that night and my tank was almost completely empty pointed me in the direction of fuel. I was thinking that build up and sludge may have been clogging the fuel lines and I let the tank get too low. So I replaced the fuel filter (which the gas inside was black as hell and had orange rubber pieces coming OUT of it, as if it were in such bad shape it was deteriorating) and also threw some fuel injector cleaner in there and it actually helped for a few days of light driving. Those few days soon passed and it started acting up again.

So i further diagnose. At first cylinder 3 was misfiring. I would take the boot out of it and no change in idle. Then after the fuel filter change and it repeating the issue the second time, cylinder 1 was misfiring. So just today I took the fuel rail off and to my surprise it was squeaky clean. I'm thinking maybe the injectors are bad.

As a side note, I'm not pulling a CEL, although I did ONCE, and unfortunately I wasn't able to run it to see what it was. I think it was probably just a cylinder misfire cel.

If anyone else has any opinions or previously similar issues and can offer help, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm trying to get this car atleast running decently before I save up and just do a complete engine swap.


Oh and on an extra note, whenever the car is running at higher RPMs and I take the spark away from the spark plug, it affects it and starts loping. So that tells me that at IDLE, there is a fuel regulation problem because at higher RPMs it's not misfiring, only at idle and lower rpms does it misfire.

HALP!

 

I would check the spark plug gap... Also pull the spark plug wire off and see if its getting fire. I think its a spark issue

 

I know the gap is correct at .44. And I did pull the spark plug wire and checked every one of them. I see electricity coming from all four. Also, I took the cap off the distributor and used a sand paper and cleaned those connections.

There was, however, a small crack in one of the boots on the spark plug wire. I used some electrical tape and wrapped it tightly around that because I was thinking it could have been going out the side and grounding itself. No change though.

 

was that wire on the cylinder that was misfiring?? How did it run before you changed the spark plugs??

 

It was mildly having the same problem before i changed the spark plugs. Yet only in take off. Like when i press the throttle it kind of sputters, had a delay and proceeded to 'catch up' with itself. But after changing the spark plugs, it does it all the time.

Also yes, that wire/cylinder is the one misfiring. Although before, right after i first changed the spark plugs, it was cylinder number 3. Then, as i stated in my first post, it ran good for a few days and started with the same problem again, and now the cylinder misfiring is cylinder 1. And yes cylinder 1 is the one with the crack in the boot. But I'm not so sure that that crack is significant enough to be causing this issue ENTIRELY.

Also I'm thinking that since it's not throwing a cel light all the time (it only happened once and wont come back) that it's fuel injectors. That is, the problem is happening even before the car can register anything to throw a cel.

I dont know if i worded that all correctly and clearly but i hope you get the idea.

 

Also I thought that maybe I had the wrong spark plugs so I tried putting the old ones back in there just for kicks and it did the same thing.

 

Well I dont think its the injectors but I do have a fuel rail with the injectors from a 91. I also have the spark plug wires from a 91(which it sounds like you need to change). Ill sell you both for $30 plus shipping.

 

I'm skeptical that those wires are the issue. I took them apart and examined them all. Sure they COULD be replaced, but explain to me why at higher RPMS the car runs great and as soon as you let off the gas and go into an idle, it starts misfiring.

 

it very well could be a fuel issue. I had a bad o2 sensor on my toyota tacoma cause my truck to run like complete crap in the lower rpms and then at WOT it would clear up. That specific o2 sensor was a air/fuel sensor and caused my air/fuel mixture to be off. It would clear up because at WOT the computer dumps all the fuel at once. But that is on a tacoma. I have no idea how the o2 sensor works on an obd-0 acura integra. You could check this by uplugging the o2 sensor. It puts it in safe mode to where it has a set a/f mixture that the engine can safely run off of. But ive had this luck on an obd-2 tacoma not an integra but it wont hurt anything to just unplug it.

I was more trying to sell the fuel rail to you rather than the plug wires. I was just throwing those in because you need them anyways. I felt like i had a better chance at selling both.

BTW, do a compression test too. You never know what you're getting into with a motor with 300,000 miles

 

Fuel rail was clean when i took it off and looked in it today. Although maybe the regulator or whatever thing that is on it has crapped out.

Yeah I have yet to do a compression test, a friend of mine has been telling me to do it, and I will.

That o2 sensor was actually in my mind already. This car does have fan issues (it's ghetto rigged and i think a relay is bad in it so sometimes the AC doesnt turn off for hours and I've had to unplug the battery so it doesn't drain it down dead) so it very well could have been effected by heat. I'll try unplugging it and seeing if it reverts to the safe mode a/f mixture.

 

AC fan, i meant.

 

i mean i was trying to sell you the fuel rail with the injectors.

 

Okay so i just unplugged the o2 sensor and nothing different happened. I was thinking that if i unplugged that, it should also throw a cel, am i right? Well no cel happened.

Also, I'm not too sure about replacing the fuel rail. If it ain't broke, why fix it? I mean I don't want to just go throwing money *****-nilly at things when I'll end up doing an engine swap in the future anyways. I really want to locate the problem in itself and replace/fix whatever that is. I wish it would throw a cel and tell me.

If I decide to replace the fuel rail though (I'm already thinking about replacing injectors), I'll definitely PM you or something though.

 

Oh wait, but THIS time when I unplugged the o2 sensor, instead of cylinder 1 misfiring, cylinder 2 was misfiring.

wtf?

 

If anyone has any more fuel to throw in on this fire, I'd appreciate it. Or if you can refer me to something I can read related to this topic so I can get my learnin' on.

 

You need new wires man. You're gonna pay $40+ for new spark plug wires so why not buy my wires plus get another fuel rail with 4 injectors for $30 plus shipping??

But yea, the c/e light should come on. It may not come on immediately so give it a little time. If it never comes on, the bulb itself could be burnt out. Drive it around for a bit and see if it comes on.

 

To be honest with you though, the first things I would do is change the wires, recheck the gap on the plugs, change the distributor cap and rotor button and do a compression test to make sure the engine is still good. It really sounds like you have a spark problem. It doesn't sound like you have bad fuel injectors but it could be the problem. You changed the fuel filter, you have good fuel pressure.... The o2 sensor is fine... If that doesnt fix it, check all around the engine and make sure nothing came unplugged anywhere.

 

bump before work

 

bump..

Also, I just noticed I said .44 for the spark plug gap earlier.

yeah that's wrong.

 

And after work today I'm going to replace the cap and rotor.
We'll see how this does.

 

I think I'm all screwed up. .44 is right.

Also, I solved my problem.

Now to save up for a GSR swap, and do more reading to get my learnin' did.

 

what was the problem?

 

cominbation spark plug wires and dizzy rotor/cap

haha, I took those wires apart and put them back together. Apparently, though, they still screwed up.
It's always the simple stuff.