Hello everyone, here is my sad story.

I have a 94 Integra LS. sock B18b. mods are header and short ram intake, otherwise stock internally.

I've had this car about a year, I traded it a month ago to someone else, all was well until yesterday when he contacted me to advise that the car would not pass emissions, so I being the nice guy I am agreed to give him his car back and take this one.. in short I got screwed BIG time.

I now have a couple of pretty good issues going on that were not there when he got it from me..

Problem 1. Idle fluctuates between 1-2k and bouces between the 2.
problem 2. Idle is high, I got it to stabalize for a minute but it was idling at 1600-1800 rpm.
problem 3. This car now smokes like a party fog machine, it is insane the ammount of smoke coming out of this exhaust.

So far, I have cleaned the IAC valve, throttle body, etc.. bled the cooling system from the radiator cap and the bleeder valve when cold, hot, heat on, heat off, checked for vacuum leaks with carb cleaner, and found none.. I have adjusted the throttle cable and idle screw and I'm still screwed!

i first thought the smoke was rings because it smokes at idle, when you hit the gas it gives a big puff of smoke and when you go down the road it leaves a smoke trail, however after looking at it, I think it is fuel smoke, it doesn't smell like oil, it smells like fuel. The muffler has a layer of " soot " built up on it, the plugs are fuel fouled, but not wet with oil, it just seems that it's running rich as hell.

As far as what's been done to it, I cannot vouch for everything.. I know for a fact it has new plugs and wires, cap and rotor, new exhaust including cat, single core civic radiator ( don't ask me why ) Other than that, I have no idea what else this guy did to this car other than royally screwing it..

When he got this car it idled at 800, no smoke, no fluctuating idle.. it was just fine.

Any help, where do I start??

 

an update. I tested the coolant temp sensor, it was reading eraticly so I went ahead and replaced it thinking maybe that would help, but no dice.

I re bled the cooling system, i left the vent screw open for what had to be a half hour, it was spitting and puffing, I heard air coming from it, but when the valve was open in the entire 30 minutes it never let out a solid stream of coolant. I closed the valve and drove around the block and when I got back the coolant was boiling out of the overflow. I did confirm that the fan came on, it went through about 6 cycles while it was sitting there idling.. The temp gauge was also not reading hot even though the coolant was boiling off.

I am so lost on this, I don't even know where to go next, I am out of a car and now I have no idea how I am supposed to get to work.. if someone has some suggestions here I would really appreciate it.

 

iacv and tps.


clean the iacv(remove and clean,dont just clean it)

youll know your tps is in the correct spot when you have 5v i believe.

 

thank you. Quick question about the TPS. it seemes to be attatched with rivets or something of the sort, no bolts or screws.. any tips on taking those loose to adjust it?

 

well..you should be able to "shove" it a LITTLE,but probably not enough to actually fix the problem,as it will move back into place.it is very sensitive

there are rivets,and when you go to replace it and/or adjust it,you will need to dremel them out and replace them with screws..

 

do you have at least a multimeter? no need to go adjusting/replacing anything until you've confirmed.
multimeter at the very least. you have?

have you checked for codes? that should be at the top of the list. regardless of whether the cel is illuminated

 

I do have a meter, which is what I used to test the coolant sensor. I have not checked for codes, I will try to do that when I can and go from there..

I'm really starting to suspect the head gasket as I was trying to bleed the cooling system and it just bubled and bubled for 30 minutes and never did bleed all the way out, and also because of the coolant boiling from the resovair.. I'm just starting to get upset, I went from having a nice driving integra to nothing because I tried to help someone out.. this **** sucks.

 

were you down any coolant?
what color is the smoke?
did you disconnect the iacv when you adjusted the idle?
do the problems occur when cold as well as warm?
what were the emissions readings? <--key

 

coolant level seems ok, as does the oil..

Smoke is whitish, with a hint of blueish black, but does not smell like coolant or oil smoke.

I did not disconect the IAC when moving the cable or adjuster screw.

The problem is all the time, cold and hot.. yesterday I got the idle to stabalize again, but it was at 1400 rpm with the cable all the way loose, and the adjuster screw all the way in.

I do not know the exact emission readings as I am not required to test it where I live, the guy who got it from me had to and said it failed due to high nox and co readings, but I have not seen the actual print out.. and since this guy got over on me I can't get back in contact with him to ask.

 

ok. first off, you must disconnect the iac to disable it while making an idle adjustment. otherwise, the ecm will continue to open the iac while you adjust to correct for air it's losing while the adjustment is being made. disconnecting it gets you your base idle. base idle should be roughly 500rpm + or - 50rpm.
so, disconnect the iac, and adjust the idle to that. then, reconnect iac, CLEAR CODE, and observe idle. should be at roughly 750rpm + or - 50rpm.
since you have the idle screw topped out, the engine may not run with the iac disconnected. if so, just turn the screw counterclockwise a couple turns first to maintain bypass air.

i'm not saying that this is where your problems are stemming. but this correction should at least be made before further diagnosis.

 

****. just forgot you haven't checked for codes yet. before doing the idle adjustment, CHECK AND RECORD THE CODES. this is paramount. it should have been at the top of the list before any attempt was made for repair
make sure to do that before the idle adjust, since the idle adjust requires the iac code to be cleared once it's performed and that data will be lost

 

Sounds like a blown HG to me, that white "smoke" is coming from somewhere. 94

 

x2

when you open your rad cap/reservoir tank, is there any chocolate milky kinda stuff in there? Check your oil dip stick as well to see if theres anything on it but oil.