Hi all. I've been getting into building my 99 civic with a D16y8. Just put in a adjustable cam gear, timing belt and light weight crank pulley. From what I've read I set the cam gear to 2° retarded just as a start. The car drives fine at 2k + and vtec kicks in as well. The problem I'm having is @ about 1500 rpm. The idle seems to bounce and if I am under the hood I can hear what I think is "knock" if I bump the throttle. If anyone could help me out it would be greatly appreciated.
P. S. I know I need it put on a dyno and tuned ; just don't have the $$$ yet.

 

Why do you need an adjustable cam gear and lightweight crank pulley? Is the engine modified in some way? And I thought you use adjustables so you have more range to set timing, not to cause timing issues.

If you need it tuned you shouldn't bother posting until you get that done.

 

Same, why would you retard the timing right off the get go if your working with a stock motor? Do you have mods that you didn't mention? If your having problems then set the timing back to the stock setting and that will fix the problem.

 

Always make sure the timing is set to TDC whether you have stock cam gears or aftermarket when putting on timing belt. A lightened crank pulley doesnt do a thing if the motor is not built to run at higher RPMs.

 

Yeah I have some other mods msd external ignition , cap, and rotor. Look guys I'm learning. Other than that the motor is basically stock fuel pressure regular, and fuel upgrades.

 

Those aren't mods, those are pointless bolt-ons. Until you get access to a proper dyno, set your car to proper, OEM spec timing, and don't fool with it. Cam clocking is a sensitive thing. Best case scenario, you'll gain absolutely nothing because you aren't ECU tuning. Worst case scenario, you'll grenade your motor in one of three ways I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[QUOTE=NVturbo;48814388]Always make sure the timing is set to TDC whether you have stock cam gears or aftermarket when putting on timing belt. A lightened crank pulley doesnt do a thing if the motor is not built to run at higher RPMs.[/QUOTE

The crank pulley is for future use. I already had it and was in changing the timing belt so I figured why not. I guess I posted a little prematurely I'm going to set the camgear back to 0 tomorrow.

 

Hopefully not the latter! I'm setting it back to stock tomorrow.

 

unless boosting don't waste your money with little things like that on your Y8

 

That is my plan.

 

They always say that but are always kinda full of it. If you're really boosting, save all that crap and put it on the car when you're ready to get the kit installed AND tuned. There is no benefit to running any of that with a stock engine that will probably NEVER get tuned.

There was a guy that did this same stuff not long ago and was sorely disappointed. Wound up pulling all the bolt-ons and selling them because they made his car run worse.

 

Nope I'm for real I just am new to the Honda thing. I've boosted a 96 dodge neon in the past stock everything. but had built a jeep TJ for rock crawling (sold it and bought me a civic to build) I have a goal in mind but I thought I'd get some help first. I originally thought about building an "all motor" car. But that was quickly shot down when I talked with the guys that will be tuning my car. They basically said I wouldn't be happy and it would cost way more in the long run. So I read up on boosting a y8 and from what I have read it's a good motor to do just that. I haven't done much bc I've been saving money. I swapped the motor in this civic with a newer y8 bc the old one had 228000 and the one I found had 30k. Sorry to ramble but that's some history on me. It will be done.

 

Don't worry about grumblemarc.

killr I just noticed you're in SRQ. I am just north of you

 

Yep sure am I'll pm u.

 

Btw. A little update. I did lots of reading on cams and adjustable cam gears. Talked with some drag racing guys I know and the only thing that I did wrong was leave my timing @ stock setting. The knock I was hearing was post detonation.