alright, here it goes.

**no codes

1) Lately my zc has been hesitating sputtering around 2800 in 1st and 2nd gear while trying to slowly acclerate.

2) I can't get it to idle right. After setting the idle correctly to 750-800 and resetting the ecu, I start it up and it idles around 1500-1200 then bogs down to bouncing around 750, sometimes returning to 1200. This happens after everytime i hit the gas.

3) Just recently I noticed that my #2 sparkplug wire keeps poping up. What causes this?

This is my daily driver and i'm only 17 so I hope i wont have to do any internal work, but things aren't really looking good.

I also noticed a little bit of seepage right at the corner of the block and the head, left of the header. Don't know if this is new or not, but I fear its a blown head gasket.

Any help would be great.
located in ohio

later,
Joe
pod@neo.rr.com

 

Shitty bud im 17 and cant afford much Do you have any pictures of your car? It sounds clean, sorry im not much help to ya, take it to a shop for a diagnostic

 

what did you find seeping out? did you wipe it off and see if it reoccured?

are you blowing any smoke out your tailpipe?

are you low on any fluids? any oil in you coolent? have you changed you coolent?

 

Nah no pics yet.

I just noticed the seeping oil of whatever and tried wiping it off, but it didn't really come off.

Just last week I put in a new radiator, so i'm pretty sure everything is cool there.

I dunno, i'm lost and now tonight my battery light kept fading in and out, finally coming on and staying on. Car still is starting fine. Time for a new alternator or what?

 

yup! the sign of a new alt.

 

eh that sucks.

I got all the grime away from the area where the head meets the block. We'll see if it stays clean.

I pulled the plugs to see what they look like. All are completely ashed white and the #2 plug had oil on the threads and the electrode thing.

BTW, the car doesn't smoke and seems to run pretty strong. Although my stock clutch is slipping so i havn't seen its full potential.

I pulled the valve cover off and noticed that the center nut does tighten down. Just turns and turns.. could that cause the oil on the plug? or do i have a bigger problem.

 

As for the corner of the block, there are a few possibilities. Mine has had oil there for about 3 years and I'm still pushing 7lbs of boost without issues. One possibility is that the crank angle sensor is leaking oil... it runs down the side of the head, and sort of pools up there. It makes it look like its comming from the head gasket area. The second option is the same thing only coming from the distributor and filling the space where the head gasket goes. The third is that there is a slight leak from the head gasket, but as long as there is no mixture of oil and coolant, I doubt that is the problem.

If it makes you feel better, my ZC has had that oil there to the point where it runs down the front of the block, and its never been an issue.

As for the idle, stop adjusting it via the screw on top. There is a problem of some type, and you're only going to further screw up your idle by adjusting that screw. My ZC did that for some time, and I never figure it out. It eventually quit after I messed around with potential leaks, loose wires, etc. I checked and double checked every vacume hose, sensor wire, etc. I found a faulty wire on the O2 sensor, a few potential leaks in vacume areas, and I removed and reset the ECU. The problem is gone.

I personally think it was a vacume leak. Go over everything with a fine toothed comb. Other things to tripple check would be temp sensor, timing, and air idle control valve.

Sorry for the long post.

 

alright thanks, so do you guys think its safe to say that the hesitation issue between 2000-2800 would be fixed by a new distributor?

 

oil down in your spark plug holes is a sign that the round seals at the top of the hole are leaking - pull the valve cover, you'll see what I'm talking about. An old valve cover gasket could also be the source of your oil leak.

 

I don't. I've had 3 distributors on mine since I've had it and always had that hesitation. Mine only does it when its cold. I would seriously check in to coolant temp sensor problems.

 

yea, the seals are brand new though. I think the only reason the oil is getting down there is because I can't tighten all of the valve cover nuts. The center nut just spins. tightening and loosening. I finally got it off by using some vice grips to loosen it while i pull on it. After getting the valve cover off, the studs look fine. I'm confused

 

another case of someone overtorqueing their vavle cover nuts.
check to see if the threads on the pin are fuggored. if they arent try getting a new nut. mabey the little nut threads are fuggored.

i think the torque on those is like 10inch pounds. correct me if im wrong.

 

mine did that. all i did was hold onto the boot (at the valve cover) and pull on the spark plug wire till i heard a pop. the rubber seperates sometimes. but after i did that, never popped up again.

 

You're definitely getting oil in that spark plug because your valve cover is not able to tighten all the way down. About the bogging, I really don't know.

BUT, your crazy idle problem, I do know. It was mentioned above that you should check all of your vacuum hoses and wires. This is really good advice, either you have a leak, maybe a wire problem (i doubt it though) or you could have a bad EACV. I had a very similar problem when I swapped out my intake manifold - the idle speed would go from 2k rpms, to 1.2k, just up and down up and down.... I replaced the eacv and it works perfectly now.

Usually when a intake manifold gasket, or TB gasket is leaking you just have a high idle. But if it's going all crazy, you're more likely to have a screwed up eacv. But, keep in mind that eacv's don't just all of a sudden die, they'll usually only give out if they take a hard hit. So, what I'm asking you is, have you had this idle problem ever since you put the ZC in?

 

I'm also having the hesitation problems. I have tried:

New Fuel Filter
New Ignitor
New plugs (NGK BKR6E-11's)
Check vacuum lines and nothing
MSD 6a

450cc injectors going in early next week. Going over all grounds, vac lines, etc tomorrow and going to try to get to the gdamn bottom of this.

jB

 

I just remembered something. With my old intake manifold, it would hesitate quite a bit. I kinda fixed it before swapping it out.

Take off your entire intake manifold, get some good carb/choke cleaner, a new TB gasket (only like $1 from hondaautomotiveparts.com). Take off the TB, and clean out the ENTIRE intake manifold! After I cleaned mine out, most of my hesitation issues lessened a lot.

Also, somtimes a out of wack TPS can cause some bad hesitation.

 

hey guess wat..my zc sttutter too..mostly when cold..guess u just gotta deal wit it..

 

Yeah, well my Greddy doesn't like dealing w/ it. It's trying to spool at 2500, and the engine doesn't want to go anywhere, and it gets pissed and spools; I run lean cuz it's spoolin and the car is too busy hesitatin...boooooooooommmmmmmm



jB

 

well the idle was crazy because it was set to high and it would always drop down to the correct idle then back to what it was set at. I correctly set the idle and it was fine for a month. now its doing it again and its not just the idle screw moving out of place either. One thing i did notice was that during the day my tach needle bounces a little (say 800-850-750, 1500-1400, ect.) Just little shakes. But at night the needle sits dead still.

I've read before about the eavc and I needed to clean it, but i pulled it off and couldn't figure out what to clean. You can take off the little back plate, where the coolant lines run in, but nothing is in there.

Anyone got one of these for sale?

 

If you take off the entire eacv (two bolts, plus two coolant lines connected to it) and pull it out, you'll see that it has two holes, if you look into those holes you can see a spring like thing inside. Just spray in carb/choke cleaner inside those holes. (Make sure you let it dry completely before putting it back on)
I cleaned out mine and it didn't make any difference.

Try disconnecting your EACV wiring harness, then start her up and see if you still have the idle problems. I'm starting to think that it could be a vacuum hose leaking or something. But I'm telling you, you should clean out the entire manifold, replace the two gaskets (intake, and TB) and maybe even get all new vacuum hoses. Summit racing sells vacuum hose kits for like 25$, they are silicone and have cool colors!

 

when i unplug the eavc it idles fine. Sure sign its the eavc?

My pos. batt. cable had come loose and I think that was the reason the batt light was coming on, so i dont need an alternator now.

so the hesitation is the only thing i gotta figure out. I'm gonna try a new fuel filter and see if that helps

**hesitation seems to be getting progressively worse. Does it both in the day or night, but seems to do it more at night. Happens both when the engine is hot and cold.


[Modified by Digitalcivic, 4:33 AM 9/13/2002]

 

[QUOTE]**hesitation seems to be getting progressively worse. Does it both in the day or night, but seems to do it more at night. Happens both when the engine is hot and cold./QUOTE]

Same here. I'm really hoping it's the injectors, otherwise I'm stuck...

jB

 

hey, my battery light is coming on again and both batter terminals are clean and tight. Is there anyway to test to be sure its the alternator.

Car is starting fine. Radio, lights, ect are all working just as always. Idle doesn't seem effected by turning on the lights, ect.

I dont wanna buy and alternator if i dont have to.

 

Did you throw the belt by any chance? If not, let it idle for a few mins to give the alternator a chance to charge the battery and see if it goes off.

jB

 

belts still on. I let it idle for about 3 minutes before I had to go back to school and the battery light didn't go out. However, the light goes off at WOT after about 4000 and comes back on when I let off the gas.

I actually think I am hearing the alternator at WOT. Is this normal or am I crazy?