Car: 96' Integra LS stock B18B1 engine

So almost a year ago when i bought my car one of the first repairs did was the timing belt and water pump, I went to a mechanic for this. Total was around 600 dollars (pretty cheap), but even cheaper work. They couldnt get my car running smooth, the idle was jumping between 1,500 RPM's to almost a stall. I gave it back to them and they fixed the rough idle.

Now to part 2 of the story. I recent got smogged and failed NOx by 2 points. However the smog technician saw my timing was at 36 degrees BTDC when it should be at 16 degrees before top dead center being stock.

Do not tell me to go back to that shop, I am NEVER going back there again, not even for them to fix their shotty job, I dont trust them.

So I want to take this into my own hands and fix the timing myself. However I contacted a friend who knows alot about cars and he says that they might have just turned up the timing alot to compensate for being off a tooth. Is this possible?

I am going to buy a timing light soon to reset my timing back to 16 degrees BTDC, however what if that doesnt fix it?

Thanks HT!

 

Advancing ignition timing will not help if your mechanical timing is off.

Jack up the car and rotate the motor CCW till TDC lines up with the timing belt cover mark. Check to see if you are in fact off a tooth or so. Take pictures if you can.

Ignition timing at 36*BTDC is insane.

 

Yah I know and it runs perfectly fine, no loud knocking or pinging or anything out of the ordinary.

Have I been damaging my engine for the past 9k miles?

Is it possible to be off a tooth and compensate that by turning the timing way the hell up?

 

If mechanical timing is off the car will run like crap period no matter how advanced your ignition timing is. You might not have damaged anything if the car runs fine.

I would do a compression test. My timing was off 1/2 tooth and it ran like **** no matter how I changed my settings for ignition timing.

 

Here are some pics of the smog results.

Under the visual/functional check results section it says I failed the fuel cap functional. What is that? They didnt mention anything to me other than I failed and that my timing is at 37*.

 

I think he means pictures of how the cam gear timing marks are lined up. And yea if it was off a tooth it would run like ***.

 

I know he wants pics of the cam gear marks but I dont have those yet. But I posted pics of the smog results because they are relevant.

So you are saying if the mechanical timing is off it would run like ***. Currently my car run's smooth all throughout the powerband. The only thing that I can see is that the idle is kind of low, around 500 +/- 50rpm

My next question: Hypothetically, If my cam gear marks are all lined up and good, is it even possible for me to run 37* without pinging or detonating? As mouab18c1 pointed out 36* is insane. And I was wrong when I said 36* its actually 37*

Also what is fuel cap functional fail?

 

The fuel cap failure is just the cap being loose or not sealing, it would cause and evap code, that's about it. And with timing like that I'm actually very surprised there is no knock or detonation.

 

Does the fuel cap failure contribute towards me failing smog?

And no check engine lights since I've bought it.

Been running 87 octane with about 5 or so tanks of 91 octane throughout one year of ownership so far.

 

I don't understand how the ignition timing is at 37* btdc. Is your distributor like way off the hook looking at it? That shop must really suck ***

 

Yes i know the shop sucks ***, im never going back there again.

Is it possible that the distributor could be the problem?

 

The distributor must be like completely turned. And you would fail if the fuel cap doesn't hold pressure, they test it with an adapter that the fuel cap goes into. But your car is OBD2 so I don't know why it wouldn't have thrown a code for that. Most dealerships wouldn't fail you for a cap, they would just replace it for you, but like you siad, that shop sucks.

 

Well actually I guess it depends what state you are in, I do Pa inspections/emissions, so that's all I know about.

 

The worst state possible, CA.

 

Would it matter if it is the cap is on too tight? I kind of over tighten it, like over three turns of clicking.

 

CA you would have definately failed for a cap lol And I'm not sure how the caps are on 96's but most modern cars don't let you over tighten they just keep clicking and spinning. And overtightening could possibly affect it if you don't tighting it that far down the next time. I would think tightening it farther would make the normal position looser, like the actual part the cap screws into would widen I think. But I'm not sure if that would affect the cap itself, because it's removed from the car to do the test.

 

Are you running the stock distributor? I have a vtec dizzy on my B18 and looking at the bolts, you'd think it was advanced farther than that. However, the mounting bolts don't line up properly so you really don't know what your timing is unless you use a timing light.

 

Yes, stock dizzy.

Yesterday I adjusted the timing on my teg. I put the gun at 37* and saw the lines, so I turn the timing down slowly on the gun, and adjusted the dizzy accordingly, until I finally reached 16* on the gun and matched the pointer with the pink mark (middle of 3 marks). Is this correct?

 

that is incorrect. if you're advancing timing on the gun, you should be at the 0 degrees on the pulley (white mark). you are actually reading 32 degrees if you are 16 on the gun and are in between the 3 marks.

 

So if I understand correctly, I would put the gun @ 16* and line the pointer up with the white mark?

 

UPDATE: I tried putting the gun at 16* and lining the pointer up with the white mark.

This is did not work because i turned the distributor all the way retarded and it could not make it to the white line (About a centimeter away from it) So now im sure its the timing belt that is off a tooth or so. So next sunday im going to open her up and adjust it.

 

UPDATE: Me and my buddy had to take it all apart since it was of a tooth. So we did all that re-adjusted the belt correctly timed it, replaced dizzy rotor and cap, spark plugs and wires, and some worn belts.

Check out the new smog results!

Side Note: Its odd how I failed the gas cup functional in the first test, yet somehow I passed it on the new test?

 

Well like you said, that shop sucked *** lol. So everything is squared away now right? Good stuff brah.

 

Yes all is good. Next thing, suspension! I already bought a set of GC/Koni's but my bushings are shot, so looking to get a new whole kit of them.

 

Yeah... consider yourself lucky you have options of other mechanics. I live in a stupid hick town, bring my car to the shop
First he says he doesn't work on acuras

didn kno it was a honda
ok heres the list
I overheated it, all he was to do was replace the head cover gasket.


November -Bought car, ran great, never died, amazing ppwer, tuned correctly, timing belt was on there the way a person is SUPPOSE to do it.


Middle December - Car overheats, wont start, this was our fault, yes. The head gasket then was bad.

BRING TO SHOP: K&J's AUTO

I didn't really go up there to deal with them, but I am almost positve a shJanuary: End up getting the car running. fixed distributor ourselves. that thinks you need SPECIAL tools to work on an Acura ahd didn't know it was a Honda?

HONDAS ARE RELIABLE IF MAINTAINED AND FIXED RIGHT, MY CAR BURNED NO OIL, PERFECT COMPRESSION ....


TO 2 MONTHS OF THIS "SHOP WORK" I still haven't been able to drive the car a full gas tank.

WHO THE HELL FIX

Wanna know what that loud noise was?ES A BLOWN HEADGASKET............AND THEN REPLACES THE TIMING BELT, TIMING IT WRONG?

Did he replace the tensioner




ruar= Car over heats badly,

ise almost like a jack hammer coming from the valve cover / block. DURING IDLE ..... This was AFTER




Maybe he did not know my engine was an interference engine, wouldn't surprise me even though you run a shop and a honda is a car, a customer if you will, at your JOB that you need to know how to work on, or don't open your own shop plain and simple.


first timing belt incident broke like i said after it was at shop for 1 month and was suppose to be good to go!
Car ran good, for the next 10 miles.

Start it the next day, putting foot on gas doesnt even rev it above 500 rpms, crazy misfiring, dies 3 blocks away. TIMING BELT SNAPS #1



Explain you need it to run for the next 3 years and ask what their warranty covers.


HE SAID NO WARRANTY ALLOWED ON THE B18B1 BLOCK? HAHA you mean the over $500 bul-**** repair that [iut shitting *** heli coils as threads in my block,oh I can't wait to give him my opinion. Him sayin he thinks we should sell the car and all this **** after charging us over 1200 for it to literally break the timing belt again. Hmmm maybe should warn your customers that if no bent valvres (which who know how he can even tell, didn't adjust the valves and get rid of the valve lash, which is common sense to at least measure the valve clearances, but I am sure no record of doing that either.


So now, if he has ruined this rare head, he can buy me about 5 b18b1 complete engines as a refund because I have done nothing but trust a MECHANIC ... with fixing my head gasket. I refuse to believe the timing belt breaking within a few days after the head gasket was fixed is just PURE coincidence. Like i said, this should have NEVER NEVER happened. The head was fixed, the block fine, UNTIL they put on a new timing belt with no tensioner, negelected to do both,

He wants to blame the ECU? No actually its very simple. CAR IS TUNED TO THE MODS IT HAS. CAR RAN GOOD BEFORE, YOU don't plug in stuff that you THINK should go there sometimes people have reasons, all the sensors are in the distributor.

Also, need a record of the compression tests they did on all 4 cylinders since I didn't hear the numbers once, not sure if you did either.
==

Absolutely RIDICULOUS. You told me well they couldn't tear down the block, they could have ran compression tests AT LEAST so we know t was pointless to try to heli-coil thread that block too.

Okay and then his final excuse is.... well you guys don't know how the car was taken care of.before you.

Considerring it was a HONDA that LEAKED NO OIL... I would say its pretty damn healthy, till this guiy ruoined it more than likely with the timing belt snappin twice.

Basically the Del Sol we had before had the EXACT SAME BLOCK, and that to this day (I am sure is drove hella hard, and the timing was off by a notch on that car,night and day difference when I actually got it timed right.

If your telling me my b18b1 block with about 100,000 miles on it, is going to fail... before my buddys white integra pushing 250+ HP through stock internals, same BOTTEM END AS ME, yet 100 more horse, 60k more miles/... now boosted and reliable.



Dude insulted my sexy teg, fucked my pr8-7
1300 dollars
for what.. my ****** helmet
i could have built my whole engine and he just breaks it

Nope, sorry to hear it, all too much of a coincidence, he will not get away with blowing you off saying its the ecu. ECU is newer and tuned and chipped, it had N\O PROBLEMS BEFORE,



So unfortunately something isn’t hooked back up right, and they don’t seem to know what.

It’s not uncommon, but it’s not a good sign that they’ll be able to figure out it, they’re probably just troubleshooting at your expense.

The cam sensor (yours is probably a little different, but just to give you an idea) often gets broken if you’re not careful with the parts. I’m not saying it’s their fault, it’s like losing a bit of glassware when you move. Honestly they probably have replaced it as an attempt to fix the rough idle without knowing for sure if it’s the problem.

The fact that they keep telling you to come and get it isn’t a good sign, because they’re just trying to get it clo