Ok, so I have a 1st gen JDM B16 swapped into my 1990 hatchback. I didn't do the swap myself, otherwise I would probably know what is wrong with it...

I was driving along, cruising at 4k RPMs on the highway yesterday, and 15 mins into the drive my car starts sputtering/misfiring. After experimenting with it I have found some info about the problem

* It only misfirings around 2.5k-4.5k RPM. It idles fine and anything over 4.5k it runs fine too.

* It only starts misfiring 10-15mins AFTER its completely warmed up.

* It only misfires under partial throttle. WOT it performs perfectly.

* Turning the car off, then on again resets the 10-15 min time limit, then it starts misfiring again.

I have replaced:

Alternator (2 months ago)
Battery (2 months ago)
Spark plugs (today)
Spark plug wires (today)
Valve cover gasket (today)

The guy at Advance Auto told me it could be my valve cover gasket going bad and leaking onto one of the spark plugs, which as it turns out was true, hence the spark plugs, wires, and gasket purchases today. This did not solve the problem, however.

I also took the distributor cap off and the rotor and contacts looked good, so I don't think its that.


Any ideas guys? I'd be really grateful if someone could help me troubleshoot this.

 

did you replace the valve cover gasket around the outside, or the little donut gaskets at the top of each spark plug tube?

big difference.

I would assume coil or ignitor... obd0 is pretty notorious for using them up.

 

Yeah, the gasket came with all of that as a set, I replaced everything.

 

see my edit..

 

Is your tps not ohmed out correctly. Hows the o2 sensor? What about the injectors?

 

Ok...I've had a long day and I feel pretty stupid asking this, but my brain has been misfiring along with my car. What are those, and where are they located?


Feel free to :facepalm:

 

I was having the idle up and down problem recently, but it stopped doing it...at idle, after it warmed up, it would rev from 600 rpms to 2.5k rpms up and down, up and down. But that stopped about a month ago...I was hoping it was one of those problems that resolved itself somehow. Is that telling that it stopped doing it a month ago?

 

coil and ignitor are in dizzy take off the cap and ignitor is up top has two long screws in it from the top and two wires to it. take off the rotor button and said two screws and you can remove it. check it for spots that show heat. they generally arc out to the surrounding metal. ignitor is in the bottom of dizzy has like 4-6 wires going to it with like little squeeze connectors has two bolts in it from the outside of the dizzy on the bottom side have to take the dizzy off to get two em. Check it for heat spots also.... I had a car with a similar problem. turned out the tank had rust in it. it would float up in to the pump after some driving and it would cut out real bad till i shut the key off and let the rust settle I guess. another tank and pump she was cured.... check your map sensor also when the engine is warm. tps also could have a "sweet spot" in it causing it only at certain postions... And the ect could give you problems too.. check it and the wires going to it. ones green and ones red they like to back out of the terminals in the connector. **** ... running a pr3 ecu you have to have two o2 sensors also that bitch will hate you under partial throttle otherwise hope this helps

 

I have p28 ecu, and I'm pretty sure its not the gas tank sediment problem, because one of the times I cut the car off while doing about 70mph, then just turned the key back to let it start again...so there was only like 2 seconds of downtime, and the car stayed in motion the whole time. And wouldn't the sediment problem get worse when I floor it, instead of the other way around like its doing?

The guy who swapped it did some weird **** to the dizzy, he hard wired MSD ignition into it and took out the ignition controls inside. As in, removed them completely. But it's been running for about 2 years now on that, so even though it wasn't the best way to wire MSD in, it still ran fine until today.

 

so you're obd1... and for the sediments i would turn the key off and turn it back on with no hesitation rolling down the freeway and it would clear up for a bit. as for wot it would get better but was never right , but the car would buck like a bull lol. don't think it's your problem. lol I would be leaning toward your ignition system. I'm not familiar with msd so I am of no help there. only thing i could say is find a buddy with a msd try there's in your car. any cels?

 

Nope, no CELs. It used to pop on when I let off the gas and let it coast/engine break for about 15 seconds, but I found if I blipped the throttle just a tad before it came on, then it never would. Interestingly enough, NOW when I let it coast/engine brake, the CEL does NOT come on.

This car is confusing the **** out of me.

I don't know how MSD works either...I think what I might have to do is buy a new dizzy with the MSD plug on it...which I won't have enough extra money for for the next month at least. And I think my job might be ending soon anyway, so this whole thing sucks f*cking ***.

 

bump since I really don't want to buy a dizzy unless I really really have to...

 

you need to download the helms manual manual by click this link:
http://downloads.hondatech.info/Auto...e%20Manual.zip

once you have it downloaded, open the file, and change the "View" (the view tab) > page displays > two up
this will make it much easier to read

to find out if your distributor (TDC/CKP/CYP) is working properly, go to page 247 of the document and it will walk you through how to diagnose any distributor malfunctions you may or may not have
and the ignition output (those other two wires) is on page 256

the steps for checking your TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) are on page 252

also, check out your IACV (idle air control valve) that's page 271

i have fussed with quite a few mystery ignition problems, and they typically dont have a constant CEL.....so running these tests may not help since electric parts act different when they're actually being used, as electric stuff get's hotter the resistance of the circuit goes up....which makes them get even hotter, and the honda distributor get's pretty hot while in use.....so, you might just have to buy a distributor in the end

good luck, and happy hunting, these manuals have really helped me out a lot, and learn a lot
here's a link to all of them, the blue links in the middle of the page lead you to the manuals for different models
http://hondatech.info/downloads/Auto/Manuals/

 

Dis is bad

 

Thanks for the informative post, but I can't seem to find my engine in here. I have the first gen jdm b16 out of a 90-93 jdm integra. Maybe I can go about the troubleshooting the same regardless of the dizzy, I'll be sure to do some troubleshooting tomorrow.

 

sounds like you may have the same problem i have been having for the last month. i finally fixed mine tho. mine was running extremely rich and causing spark plugs to foul within a day. i dont know how, but the problem was the main relay. try replacing that.

 

This isn't the problem.

Sort out the distributor issues, and you should be set.

 

Ok, update: I disconnected the MSD plug from the distributor cap, and there is zero spark getting to the plugs.

I have the MSD Blaster SS coil, I thought it was only a supplement to the OE ignition system, not meant to REPLACE it completely. Am I wrong?

Also I found out that I believe I have the wrong distributor, I looked up my engine and found that the one that came stock is a "TD-22". After browsing through google images, this is NOT the one I have.

But it has run fine for as long as I've had it, even without the internal igniter coil and being the wrong one. Why now? And why 15 mins after warmup? And why does it "reset" after I turn it off and then back on?

I don't have the money to keep replacing parts ***** nilly like this. Grrrr....

 

MSD totally replaces the stock coil.

it is possible to modify the "wrong" distributor to work, so that could be your case.

BTW regarding all of your why why why questions its electrical / ecu related, somethings going bad and 15 minutes into a drive is just the point at which it poops out. dont waste too much time focusing on this, the important point to focus on is the distributor.

you mentioned having a p28, thats OBD1, so make sure that you distributor is also OBD1. oh and shutting off the car basically resets the ecu.

 

****...I feel stupid. I just checked my ecu and its a pr3, not a p28. I was really confused as to why everything on my car is obd0 yet everyone keeps telling me i have obd1. This still doesn't fix the problem, but at least now I feel dumber. :facepalm:

Another update: I pulled the injectors to see if I could take them out of the equation, (cracking whatever sensor is located on the intake manifold...FML) and cylinder 1 (which is the cylinder farthest to the right if you're staring at the engine from the front, correct?) had the little screen that slides into the injectors mashed up in the fuel rail, almost folded over onto itself...so I worked it out and put it back into the injector the right way. Could this be the problem? It seems like something that would just make the car run worse ALL the time, and ESPECIALLY at full throttle, not the other way around.

Still looking...

 

just a random thought, but you never said if you had replaced your o2 sensors or not. maybe one of them is getting lazy when it goes into closed loop, and is giving the ecu the wrong info thus causing your miss fire.

i only base this info on the info i found on the web:

 

well i did some searching and it looks like the correct distributor for the OBD0 B16A is a td-28u or td-22u.

your problem is most likely having the wrong distributor.

 

I only have one o2 sensor, and it isn't connected to anything...but it hasn't been connected ever since I first got it. So if it was causing a problem, wouldn't it have been one from the start?

 

[QUOTE=Ryd2TheMax;41573946]Ok, update: I disconnected the MSD plug from the distributor cap, and there is zero spark getting to the plugs.

I have the MSD Blaster SS coil, I thought it was only a supplement to the OE ignition system, not meant to REPLACE it completely. Am I wrong?

With no coil hooked up you wont get spark at the plugs.
The ignitor should still be in your dizzy even with the msd(at least the ones I have seen still had it) and I would think that is where the problem lies,you should be able to have it tested at a good parts store,my local Napa does,just make sure when they are testing it that theh run the test several times to let the ignitor heat up.

 

I am sure I have the wrong one. Damn the man who ****ed this up...

Also, another update: I just walked to advance auto with the injectors and had them test them with a multimeter...3 were 2.1ohms and 1 was 11.8ohms. Looking closer, I discovered that 3 were stamped with "KEI HIN" and made in japan, while the 11.8ohm injector is stamped with "IPT" and made in the usa.

WTF man...looks like I'll have to add injectors to the list. goddammit. :-(