I'm going to sound like a broken record. Every search I've done on mini me problems results in what I'm faced with/getting.

My Honda mechanic has been helping me with a mini me swap in my 91 EF. We have completely rebuilt the top & bottom end. Using the following:

FJ distributors gasket kit
Zex/comp stage 1 cam
head was hot tanked
NPR rings
Honda bearings
I reused the head bolts
I didn't have my Z6 head decked
I visually inspected the valves and only replaced the 2 we felt were bent

New Z6 t-belt, water pump, thermostat, valve seals, distributor cap, rotor, plugs, adjustable cam gear

PM6 ecu-converted from DPFI to MPFI. All of the wiring appears to be good as I'm not getting any error codes. (we were at first but got that figured out)

Symtoms:

Car is overheating while idling, cooling fan doesn't kick on (original engine harness had the cooling sensor on the back of block, I had to extend the wires, swap cooling sensor to near thermostat).

White smoke and what smells like burnt oil.

Compression tested and getting 150+ across the board.
Timing & valve clearance appears to be in spec.

We want to let it run for a while to see if the white smoke clears but the car is overheating too fast.

Tomorrow I'm going to have him check/swap out the IACV valve
Coolant has been properly bleed.

I've come across something about the distributor being 180* off. I'm using an Si distributor, does this 180* thing apply?

All of the vacuum & coolant lines appear to be in correct places.

When I put the head gasket in place, i didn't check to see if all the coolant holes matched up but did make sure the head/block was clean. Torqed to 49 ft/lbs per Honda manual

What sequence of trouble-shooting would you recommend???

Thanks for any sound advice

 

Wire a switch to your rad fan to leave it on so you guys have time to check if the smoke clears.

 

I've never heard about the distributor being 180 degrees off but that doesn't mean it's not possible. The key on the distributor is offset to prevent that. Your distributor (TD02U) should work fine.
I'd just hardwire your fan for now. The IACV won't cause you to overheat, it'll just make your warm idle unstable. You can unplug it when it's warmed up if it's making the idle bounce and annoy the crap out of you. I guessing you clocked the rings right and checked for any hairline cracks in the sleeve.

 

If the distributor is 180* off i don't think it will even start, when it happened to my car when i was MPFI swapping it, the car just backfired into the manifold.

 

did u replace valve stem seals? my car smoked really bad once it was cuz the cylinders were warped i had to go with bigger pistons

I have used pm6 dizzy with b16 ecu with d16z6 motor works just fine you have to get it chipped tho for the d16 motor instead of b16

 

you converted the pm6 to mpfi? it was already mpfi to begin with..

if the piston rings were clocked or installed improperly it would cause oil to be burnt. as the fella above said, valve stem seals leaking can and will cause oil useage. since you say the smoke is white however that leads me to believe you are burning coolant. when you torqued the head down did you tighten them in the proper sequence? and did you tighten them first at the lower ft/lb and then a second time at 49ft/lbs? is it possible the head gasket was installed upside down?

in the meantime, rig up your radiator fan to stay on and see how the engine temp reacts.

 

lol what? He's using a PM6 in a DPFI car that was converted to MPFI.

 

i read what he said as he converted the pm6 ecu to mpfi, which wouldn't make a whole lot of sense lol. probably just misread what he was meaning to say. no biggie.

 

Sounds good, I'll ask him to do that today.

I never heard of this either until I started doing some research,

http://www.d-series.org/forums/gener...th-busted.html

Just not sure it applies to my application or not.

Your note on the IACV is noted. Thanks

My honda mechanic installed the rings, never say never but he has 20+ years experience with H/A's. I'm going to assume he did it correctly.


Valve stem seals were also replaced, as the FJ kit includes all gaskets/seals from top to bottom.

My EF is an LX sedan, so I had to convert from DPFI to MPFI.

When torqing the head, I did follow the proper sequence, hand tight, 20 ft/lbs then 40 ft/lbs then 49-50 ft/lbs, just to make sure. In proper sequence of 1-10.

In regards to the head gasket being installed upside down, I'm not sure. I slapped it on and just made sure the dowels/pins lined up. Is it possible?

How can I go about checking/confirming if I'm burning coolant??

When I ordered the full gasket kit, I was originally going to work with a D15B2/Z6 then switched to the B7 as the B2 I had would require additional work. Per FJ, the gasket kit applies to all 88-95 D series.

From what I've read, the Y8 HG is recommended, I mostly thought this was because it's metal and offers a little bit more compression. I didn't think the gaskets were different in that it could cover up one of the coolant passages. Is this possible?

So from what I've gathered:

I should have him bypass the fan switch so that it runs w/out over-heating. Hopefully the smoke clears....

If the smoke doesn't clear then it could be several things such as:

Coolant leaking into head/block
Improperly installed piston rings
Faulty or improperly installed HG
Faulty or improperly installed valve stem seals
Bent valves which I didn't see
warped head

I have the Y8 HG & new head bolts on hand, ready if needed.
I have someone also lined up to deck my head, check for bent valves, 3 angle valve job & new valve stem seals if needed.

Just really don't want to have pull it apart and was hoping/praying/wondering if it could be something simple...

Thanks for the responses so far guys. Any additional insight would greatly be appreciated.

 

a pm6 is a crx si or civic si ecu for those who dont kno u need it for the mpfi conversion

if u want vtec use pr3 or pw0 obd0 ecus still use the pm6 dizzy crx si dizzy der ta der

it works im using it and have used it to get car rolling

now if u could i would convert to obd1 i tried but my dizzy ignition moduale is broke and i needs a new one to get sum spark

 

Update:

My mechanic disconnected the fan switch and placed a jumper between the two pins. Fan didn't kick on.

Because the original motor was a D15B2 and I switched to B7, I had to extend the cooling fan wires as the location is different between the two motors.

Should I continue with tracing these wires back to the ECU and check for continuity?

Are the pin-outs for the fan switch the same between the DPFI LX ECU and PM6 ECU I'm currently working with?

I'm trying to work one problem at a time. Get the cooling fan running to allow the motor to run long enough to determine if the white smoke clears.

Any sound advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys!

 

the fan switch is going to be the same wires on ur chasis they just need to be extend and fitted with with the right female end and then ur fan switch will work long as ur sensor is good

 

the fan is not controlled by the ecu. there's the fan itself, the fan switch in the block, and the fan relay. that's it. by jumping those 2 wires you've ruled out the switch itself as the problem. so either the fan is no good (jump it to the battery to test), the wiring has come disconnected from somewhere, or the fan relay isn't functioning.

the relay is located here



here's how to test it

 

maybe the thermostat is locked up? try removing that. if it still is locked up idk what 2 say!! lol i had the same problem with my stock y7 swap in my EF but when i removed the thermostat it didn't overheat anymore

 

Thanks a million D16SiHatch, we'll check that out tomorrow.

One step at a time....

 

Did you check the head before putting it on,, could be warped. Dont chase your tail on this one. put 12 volts to the fan directly and make shure it turning in the rite direction if not switch polarity. start the engine and with the rad cap off and if it spues water up or bubbles its a head gasket or warped head problem , with the rad cap on you can sometimes see bubbles in the catch tank or it overflows White smke is usually antifreeze.

 

Thanks. The head was hot-tanked and valves were eye-balled/rolled check for straightness. My stupidity for not having it decked while it was out.

We'll bypass the relay/switch and get the fan running today and let the motor run for an hour or two to see if the white smoke clears or if the boiling stops.

If nothing changes, the head will be coming off for to be decked, 3-angle valve job, rebuilt & new Y8 HG & Honda head bolts.

While it's off, I'm also gonna check the block and make sure (for a 2nd time) that the rings are still good.

Thanks for everyone's help so far. I'll keep you guys posted.

 

01/12/10 update:

Car is now up and running. What we found:

We were finally able to bypass the fan switch. It turns out that when I extended the fan switch wires, I over crimped and broke the wire

We let the car idle for close to 8 hours and the smoke didn't clear.

Had a leak down test performed and found that cylinders 2 & 4 were bad.

Ended up taking off the head, headers, oil pan and had the head checked out again. It was fine, perfect valve sealing, did not require decking.

Replaced the rings, used a Y8 HG & new OEM headbolts.

Everything is running good now, just need a good tune.

Lessons learned:

Don't assume anything when doing a complete rebuild, double check your work & patience, patience, patience....

Otherwise, you'll end up spending twice the time redoing everything again.

Thanks to all who responded.

 

why not just go ARP if you were gonna spend money on headbolts?

 

^^^mostly because I needed em now, and cost was around $65 from the local dealer. Not going boost or anything & I prefer the OEM quality.