hey all, so i put this car together back in the summer and all was running and working perfectly fine. its a 91 ef, and the engine is a b18a1 with the proper acura ecu. i had to move up north and the car held up fine for the 900km drive up and the first 2 months before the snow and cold weather hit. first it started with a cold idle surge, once warm it sat at its idle around 7-800 no problem. i searched on here and i tried the little white plastic piece adjustment, it was already nice and snug. is there anything else that might be causing the surging? also within the last 2 weeks we saw a -25 temp wave that the car didn't like at all, and now she lacks in power abit, like i've lost 20% of power, all across the rpm range. the rpm used to go really cleanly all the way to 7200, now it kicks out at 6500 and has a long drop to 5500 before it kicks back in, the regular rev limiter just bounced right at the 7200 and was really quick "ba ba ba ba ba" what its doing now is "baaaaaaaaaa baaaaaaaaaaa baaaaaaaaa" and it really smells too. a couple times while warming up in the morning it has thrown a check engine light, but went away when the car was shut off and didn't come back, i have shorted the blue plug and turned on the ignition and no codes flash on the cluster.

i just replaced the plugs as it was misfiring abit when really cold.

does anyone have any ideas on what might be causing my issues? im not sure if its all one thing or 2 different things, one for the idle, and one for the power loss? im wondering if it might be my o2 sensor? i've also noticed worse gas milage since the loss in power too. it almost seems like maybe im lacking ignition timing? like maybe its not advancing as it should be? when i changed the plugs they all looked really even, one wasnt any worse than the others in anyway. is it possible my valves might have tightened up on me? its just so messed that it changed like litteraly overnight, and threw a few CEL's but hasn't in the last week...

anyone with previous experience please chime in :D

 

i started the car today and it has just been running 2 hours before, its only about -1 outside, and it was missing really bad for about 30 seconds at first start up. could this possibly be a fuel filter issue? i havent changed it since i got the car in july, i guess ill try that next? i think the plugs did look a touch on the white side when they came out, a lean condition would probably also explain the loss in power too.... and i hope its not the fuel pump, but those usually just work or dont work, right?

 

could be the fuel system. it (idle searching) happens commonly with f22as and obd1 h22s in the cold. the reason for the f22as i know at least its because of the tension on the throttle cable usually. id try that, it could at least the idle searching.


as for the misfire. ur on your own unless you get some help here.

 

ok, i figured out the idle issue, i just fully removed the idle control coolant piece from under the throttle body to check it out, and the white plastic thing was not screwed in all the way, it felt tight but i could see otherwise. i pulled it all apart, cleaned it all up and screwed in down properly and now it idles nicely lol. still has a bit of a miss and i pulled the plugs again to see and one does seem a touch darker than the rest, so i wonder if that could be a tight valve? when i rev it i notice alot of intake noise and the occasional pop and air pressure coming out. the timing belt is tight and hasn't moved, so the only things i can think of are a valve not sealing on that cyl (probably an intake valve?) or the injector not spraying right? any thoughts people?

and the cyl that looked abit different is #2 i believe? (second one from the belts)

 

checked the valves today, lol i guess honda valves adjust abit different than i was thinking, still abit of preadjust with the screw and nut but its also hydraulic as well to keep it snug. i did try something else to see what happens and found something very weird. being plug #2 was the darker one when i checked them the other day i decided to pull the plug leads off 1 at a time to see if i could find which cylinder was worse. well #1 removed, it stumbled abit and kept running on 3 cyl resonably ok like it should. it did this on #3 and #4 as well. on #2 when i pulled the lead the engine almost stalled, dropped to like 100rpm and just barely held on till i plugged it back on. so it seems like #2 is doing almost all the work in the engine, or at least getting the most fuel for some reason? has anyone ever heard of this? i wonder if this might be something like a resistor back crapping out? could still be a fuel filter but why would #2 still be getting all its fuel? it seems like either 3 injectors aren't working properly (ecu, resistor pack, map?) or that 1 is not working properly (#2) and there is a lack of fuel getting to the rail in general (filter, pump, fpr).

anyone? help please? something? even if its just critisism lol

 

anyone? wtf? no one has any ideas? coolant temp sensor? IAT sensor? MAP sensor? could any of those screw up and not set the CEL?

 

it could be anything if your like me i have extra parts layin around try to swap stuff out till you get it try dizzy for shure

 

yah i have a spare MAP sensor at home ill be trying when i get back down there in a couple days, once thats checked off first then ill try the other sensors one at a time and see if that gets it. i gotta drive 900kms back home so i hope she makes it ok, just gonna keep it under 3k the whole way, i can also get a good idea of how bad the milage is right now too

 

ok so it made the 800km drive home, some other issues showed up that arent to do with the engine .

so the check engine light does constantly come on now, once shut off it goes away, but once started and driving it take about 10-15 mins for it to come back on. so im thinking it deffinately has to a sensor, wether its the coolant temp, iat, or o2 im not sure, ill see if i can try pulling some codes today.

 

ok so i was having issues reading the check engine light, being that i never knew that honda's flash the LED inside the ecu for trouble codes lol.

with the stock pr4 ecu im getting a code 43 fuel system issue (replaced the fuel filter, o2 sensor, tightened my FPR and all the plugs are even so its the fuel pump)

with the chipped pr4 ecu im getting a code 1 o2 sensor (its brand new so its just the lack of fuel thats throwing that out)


hopefully she'll be ok if i just take it easy on it for the next month till i can afford to get a new pump, its already been doing this for over a month, and 900 strait kms in one day so........lol