Whats up guys... Hoping someone has some thoughts as far as where to go troubleshooting wise. I just had this issue right before I had to stop working on the car so when I go back tomorrow I want to be ready to attack the problem.

2005 RSX-S just added a Mishimoto radiator and Skunk2 Pro Series intake manifold. I start her up to get the coolant flowing so I can top it off before putting the last few pieces back together.

She starts up after a few turns and idles just a little rough. Press the gas a little and it bogged in low RPM up to maybe 1,800 to 2,000 RPM then above that it revved just fine.

The Skunk2 manifold didn't have the same spot for the injector grounds so I had to relocate it... Thinking it was bad I made a quick wire and ran it from the new injector ground location to a known good ground and still the same problem. And now that she has ran a little bit it just bogs and dies after about 5 seconds.

No CEL or anything like that. Any thoughts on where to start? I will mention that I have a Skunk2 composite fuel rail and I converted the lines to braided stainless during this process. The fuel pulsation damper was eliminated, do you think that might be my issue? I don't see how it could cause such an issue. Just trying to narrow it down and figure out other places to start when I get back to it tomorrow. The more minds we have on it the better it will work out.

 

Some side notes... The plastic of my knock sensor busted off while I was working. It was going out anyway as I barely touched it and it broke. The new knock sensor will be in tomorrow. So that may be an issue.

Both the extra vac ports on the bottom of the Skunk2 manifold are plugged, all factory vac lines and wiring is hooked up properly. Fuel pressure is good. I didn't have time to do much troubleshooting before I had to go. For now I've got my nose in the factory service manual for ideas and I'm hoping to get other ideas from you guys and gals.

 

do you have kpro?

 

Sounds like a vacuum leak to me man.

 

No K-Pro...

SickSi99, yeah that's what I was thinking at first too.. I only had literally 10 minutes to start troubleshooting last night which sucked. The two extra vac ports on the bottom of the manifold are capped off. I will confirm the vac lines when I get a chance to get back to the car.

I'm thinking the lack of knock sensor has a little bit to do with it since the knock control system adjusts the ignition timing to minimize knock. The new knock sensor will be in today. With the circuit not even grounded the ECU has no basis for adjusting ignition timing, so my timing could be way off causing the engine to misfire and flooding the cylinders with fuel from incomplete combustion eventually killing it.

I'm just think what all is different on the car now since changing the manifold and what not. It has 63,000 miles on it and ran like a champ before this install.

I figure this wouldn't be a problem but I do want to mention that the Skunk2 manifold doesn't have the vac line that goes to the PCV valve. I guess just to make sure this isn't causing problems I will get a vac line reducer and run this to one of those ports on the bottom of the manifold.

 

If the knock sensor was causing problems, you would have a CEL.

Do you have a multimeter to test ground connections for continuity?

 

In my past experience it usually takes the ECU a little while to throw a knock sensor code.

Yeah I've got a multimeter, going to check continuity when I get over there.

I'll be able to figure more out tonight when I have more than 10 minutes to troubleshoot the issues.

 

probably should have purchased Kpro before this manifold. how do you expect to get max power gains out of the manifold if you can't tune it??

 

butt dyno > real tuning

 

this and its probably why your bogging and then dying, since you stock ecu doesn't recognize the manifold...it is odd tho that you are not throwing a CEL

 

Without tuning I know I wont get the full potential out of the manifold, but the stock ECU should run everything just fine.

Well got the new knock sensor in, also ran a vac line from the manifold to the PCV valve... Two of the things that were possible issues or at least things that were different from when I had the stock manifold on, reset the ECU and gave it a shot... Ran fine for a little bit, gas it a little get to warm her up to normal operating temp to make sure my coolant level was good. After a short while it cut out again. Then back to the same thing. And when it cuts off it literally completely shuts down. There is no sputter, can't keep it running with a little gas pedal. Its as if the ECU just shuts down completely.

Still no CEL, and she ran for a good two minutes at idle before I upped the RPM to get to operating temp.

The last thing that is different is the elimination of that fuel pulsation damper. After she eventually dies for the first time it seems like it may be flooded with fuel. Opened the oil cap and could smell fuel inside the valve cover and on the dipstick. So I'm going to get a banjo to AN fitting to put the pulsation damper on because it seems to be a fuel issue. Has anyone with a Type-S eliminated this damper without issues?

Gotta call Skunk2 to see what they say on this tip. And I figure even with no CELs I will hook the scan tool up to see what sort of codes might possibly be on there.

Any other suggestions guys? I mean the only other thing I changed was adding the Mishimoto radiator and running stainless braided lines instead of rubber for the fuel line... FML this **** sucks!

 

So we'll see what happens when the damper goes back on.

 

hm interesting. FYI when you reset the ECU, you shouldn't touch the throttle until the cooling fan kicks on twice and the engine is up to full temp. The ECU needs time to recalibrate all the sensors.

If it's still bogging you might have to take the spark plugs out and clean them and give the cylinders time to dry out.

 

Fuel pulsation damper has gone back on, still the same issue...

Again at first it ran fine, idled well and everything for a good 5 minutes. I was a little tempted to let out a "Eureka!", but didn't want to jump the gun... Temp gauge was moving up a little too fast and the heater was still blowing cold so I shut it off to do the whole raise and lower front corners to use gravity to get air pockets out of the coolant system. Started it up again and after not too long I was back to the same issue.

There is a decent smell of fuel inside the valve cover so I seriously think its flooding for some reason. Fuel pressure is good, primes to about 52psi.

So we'll hit it hard with troubleshooting tomorrow. **** it lets do everything... Compression test... Though I'm not getting a CEL a scanner is going on her just in case.

Does anyone else out there have any other ideas/suggestions of things to look for? I'm no rook to the Honda game, K-series are a little new to me but ****...

 

Yeah only had about and hour and half tonight... But tomorrow I've got from 0900-1900... Of which I will be working on figuring this out the entire time. Or well hopefully figuring it out pretty quick then putting everything else back together. I'm definitely pulling the plugs and cleaning them off. I'm going to clean the injectors too... Since I went to stainless lines maybe there was some debris stuck in the lines that is clogging an injector. I used compressed air to blow the lines out before installation but still. Just going to check everything!

 

ground?

 

Only two grounds were disconnected... The neg battery terminal (I'm probably 20% sure I hooked thi back up right) and the injector grounds. Injector grounds had to be slightly relocated since the Skunk2 manifold doesn't have the threaded hole just for the ground like the stock PRB manifold does... However I've used to multimeter to confirm not only continuity to ground but also checked for excessive resistance. All is good there...

I just know it is going to be one of those ****ed up stupid little things and blam she works. Just have to find it is that hard part.

 

20% is not a very good percentage for being "sure".

 

LMFAO.... I hope you sensed the sarcasm in my statement of being 20% sure I hooked the NEGATIVE BATTERY TERMINAL back up right...

 

Cleaned the plugs (they were pretty black, too black for only having maybe 3,000 miles), cleaned the injectors, compression check good. She ran fine for a good 20 minutes, CEL finally came on so I'm off to scoop a OBD-II code scanner and go from there.

 

Well ran the scan tool on her.

P0325 - Knock Sensor - The female pin wasn't making good contact, fixed that ****, doesn't throw this code any more.

P0172 - Fuel System Too Rich - The scanner listed this as a pending code. So I flipped to page 11-79 of my Factory Service Manual to troubleshoot the code...

Fuel pressure is good, check, already established that anyway.

So I moved on to using the scan tool to check the primary O2 sensor, or A/F sensor as it is referred to in the FSM...

"Check the A/F sensor (Sensor 1) output with the
scan tool. Does it stay at less than 0.3 V or more than 0.6 V?"

As you can see in the attached picture my primary is reading in at 1.6 V, haha!! Now this manual is for an 02-04 RSX, but the 05 should be the same or similar voltage readings. Does anyone have a 2005 RSX Factory Service Manual to confirm it is the same??

So it looks like the primary O2 is getting replaced... Bosch 15954, $287.99 FML!! Damn Denso for the 02-04 RSX-S is like $180. Damn buying an 05 to hell! An extra $100 for the O2 sensor, then K-Pro wont work on my ECU so I have to spend another $600 on the PRB-A0 from the 02-04 Type-S. Plus the extra $150 for the adapter harness and then you have to run the 02-04 primary O2 sensor at another $180.

I'm going to do the other test on the EVAP purge valve while I'm at it just to be sure.

Seriously considering taking out a loan for now on my Civic to buy the K-Pro setup, pay the damn thing off in 4-5 months.

 

I'm glad I double checked this... What I posted was for the 02-04 model but the 05 has significant differences electronically...

It states "Check fuel pressure, if fuel pressure is good check valve clearance and adjust if necessary. If the valve clearances are OK replace the INJECTORS and go to step 2"

I'm lucky the place I work on my car has this "AllData" system so I was able to pull up the 05 Factory Service Manual. Looks like I have an injector problem. Either way I'm working towards K-Pro sooner than expected so I will pick up the injectors I was going to run with K-Pro first, hopefully correcting the issue, then K-Pro will be right behind that.

 

Does anyone have a 2005-2006 RSX Factory Service Manual in PDF format? I will trade parts, other manuals, whatever. If not looks like I'm going to the stealership and spending $80 on the 05 FSM so I don't have this issue in the future.

 

Check on Clubrsx.com, i'm sure someone has a PDF file of the manual.

I'm still not sold on the injectors being bad. They're OEM injectors, right? What else did you do besides the composite fuel rail and new stainless lines? How did you check your fuel pressure?

Do you have Kpro? I got a little lost during your rant about 05-06 RSX's and I wasn't sure if you had it or not.

Assuming you had a stock fuel system and stock injectors, ECU tune, etc...replacing the IM wouldn't cause these type of problems. Also keep in mind a CEL for a fouled o2 sensor isn't always the sensor itself that is bad. It could be something upstream causing the sensor to have a faulty reading (like an assload of fuel dumping in the engine), thus causing the sensor to be "bad" when really something else is the culprit.

You must be leaving something out.

 

I'm also not sold on the injectors being bad since they worked just fine right before adding the manifold... Plus I have already been running the composite fuel rail for a while now. Otherwise I just did the standard oil change and trans fluid change.

K20Z1 stock injectors, stock fuel pump etc. All I did besides the manifold and stainless lines is a Mishimoto radiator. I do not have K-Pro though, stock ECU no reflash either. After cutting and making the lines I blew them out with compressed air, but maybe there was still particles in there that ****ed up my injectors or something.

I'm getting K-Pro next, just a little pricey right now. I was going to run RDX injectors with the K-Pro so maybe I'll start there just to be sure it solves my problem. Then drop K-Pro in the bitch.