from the very 1st day that we got this swap up and running in my wife's car, it sounded like it's got upgraded cams. It's got a chip/base tune from anthony in eastern idaho and 2 1/2" exhaust all the way through with just an intake and header and now a skunk2 IM. it just sit's there at idle and lopes like a smaller version of a v8? the rpm's might jump about 50 rpm's (you can barely see the needle move) i cleaned the IACV and still no change. it's an obd2 motor so no FITV plate on bottom of throttle body to clean. no codes/cel. checked all sensors and they are clean. thought it might be the tune, took it out and put it in my buddies gsr hatch, and it doesn't make the same sound. took off the distributor to check for grooves and end of cam and nothing, all smooth just like stock cams. no stamping marks on them on the end or on the cam itself. the cams do look brand new with no wear marks on the lobes. motor has supposedly 130,000 miles but checked with 210 compression across the board. anyone have an idea of what's going on or how else to tell if it's got upgraded cams without taking it out and degreeing the cams with the wheel?

forgot to add this, dont know if this will help out but. Her coupe with this stock motor gsr swap with just base tune beat out buddies gsr swapped hatch with intake manifold and ITR cams by 4 cars up to 100mph. this is with her driving ( and she and my buddy are pretty good drivers) anyway he got pissed that his itr cammed gsr hatch lost, he went and got it tuned by anthony, now we are dead even bumper to bumper. doesn't make sense that a stock motor gsr in a coupe could keep up with a tuned itr/gsr hatch. she also walks on out other buddies hatch with a stock gsr in it by about 6 car lengths. not sure if this helps out or not but everyone else says that she has to have cams cause there isn't anyway her heavier car with less done to it should be able to beat/stay with these lighter cars.

 

Does your tuner "Anthony" have any information? I mean he needed to know what is in the motor before he made the chip. Outside of that there is no other way of knowing outside of you either taking the cams out and look for identification numbers or degree and measure duration then search and compare. My assumptions of course.

 

You could pop off the VC again and look at the valvesprings. If it's got dual valvesprings on intake and exhaust it's likely it's got aftermarket cams.

 

i'd say that that gsr motor is just healthy, i've seen some stock 94-95 gsr that would beat 96 and later gsr's with full bolton's. And i'm talking stock down to the stock airbox vs later gsr's with i-h-e-no cat-im-clutch-flywheel. Some of those gsr's are just factory freaks.

 

I think OBD1 GSRs had stronger tunes than OBD2 GSRs.

 

OP:

so pay for a proper tune for the freak gsr and beat your buddies itr/hatch by 4 cars again :D

maximize what you got...if it's healthy and reliable...be glad!

 

i would look at the computer board in your ecu,my my resistors were leaking!long story sort new ecu no problems.

 

You never know what your going to get with a used motor. A few of the motors sitting in junkyards just may be build motors. Sometimes people get lucky.

 

yep sounds like u got lucky and got a mildly build motor...good find. ur compression is very good 210s across all cylinders , thats higher than typical gsr numbers which r usually 180-190ish. i wouldnt be surprised if there is itr pistons or a milled head/2 layer H.gasket something along thoses lines could bump compression to ur levels. since u hear a lobe probably is bcause of an aftermarket cam most likely maybe a stage2 level of some kind , i run bc spec3+ and i cant hear any lobe at all it sounds stock , my friend has skunk2 stage1 and it ldles like stock also. i assume u didnt see any aftermarket cam gears?

 

My 10:1 GS-R got 215 with GS-R cams so 210 doesn't mean anything as far as that goes.

 

Its probably a retarded motor with extra HP. LOL only way to find out is open it up and look at the cams.

 

thanks everyone for all the input and help. i have taken the vc off to look at the cams but cannot see any markings on the cams. however i have not gone as far as to take off the cam caps to take a really good look at it. guess i'm gonna have to do that next. like i said it is not yet "tuned". i went ahead and put a skunk2 IM on it and got that annoying whistle. went out and raced a s2000 last night. raced him twice just so there wouldn't be any excuses, both races from a 20mph roll, got him both times by a car and a half. really suprised me, plus the s2000 had intake, exhaust and vafc, didn't think that her supposed stock gsr motor'd coupe would beat that car.

 

Or the s2000 driver didnt know how to drive. LOL

 

Did you see dual exhaust valvesprings?

 

just had dual valve springs on the intake side. but not on the exhaust side. not sure what that means?

 

That means it's less likely that you have aftermarket cams. At most you could have ITR/CTR or possibly stage 1 cams. It's not really possible to run stage 2 or above cams on stock single valvesprings. It sounds like you just have a strong stock engine.

 

i wouldnt really do anything to that motor, alot of motors i've seen that run good like that, start running worse when they start modding it. I'd just put i-h-e and call it good. if you can pull a s2k and they cant pull you back up top, your motor is running super good. regardless how shitty the driver, from a roll, a s2k just shifting at redline should start walking a stock gsr.

My cousins delsol with a 94gsr swap was the same way, he got the motor from the original owner that wrecked his integra for like 1800. had 150xxx on it and all the service history from 94. had it serviced at acura at all the intervals. All i know is it keeps up and beat most h22 hatchs and s2k's. If he does lose to them, its by barely a **** hair.