Folks this is one of my first write up about my Honda. I haven't touched a car in nearly 20 years and my buddy put me to the test to see if I would pick up a wrench again and sure enough, bought a used EJ8 from an original owner.

Purchased: $3400 No damage, clear title, and.....silver at 158K miles

Mods: AEM Intake, Exhaust, Fully tuned suspension, oh and 15x8 rims just for kicks.

The car has 185,444 miles on it as of today. I've never touched or tuned the engine till now. It all started a few days ago when I left valet parking downtown San Diego. The car literally started to blurp at around 3500 rpms. Not too sure what was going on here but thought it would go away. On my way to my office in Anaheim the next morning I did the same thing just cruising around 70 mph, literally lost power for 2 seconds and the engine kicked in again. A few more times on my way to the OC so now i'm really worried.

Decided to take the day and trouble shoot this bad boy and do some research. After all I've read, I can say that most of the common reasons and fixes were executed. Let's take a look.

ISSUES:
Bogging at normal average speeds became more common as each day went. car would stall at a light. Really low idle. The car originally through a P0420 code so I cleared that prior, not sure if that had anything to do with it but apparently OBDII Bank 1 bad. Cleared the code with my handy sensor but came back the next day. Keep in mind, this is before the above issues came up.

TROUBLE SHOOTING & REPAIRS:

Day 1: Replaced Spark plug with platinum NGK and Bosch Cables. The only reason I did this was to figure out if there was a firing issue, possibly a bad cable as i read in some forums. The cables look to be a no name brand so hmmm... Also cleaned the IACV, this thing was super dirty. Mind you this was original and never replaced after this many miles. Cleaned the Battery as there was build up. Also replaced the fuel filter. Now, fired her up and she died in 2 min. Fired her up again and wala, she stayed on but with low idle. Decided to look into the throttle body and tons of build up so I grabbed some carb cleaner and a rag to get as much gunk out as possible. The throttle felt a little sticky and sprayed the throttle spring were your throttle cable mounts too and lubed it up a little with WD40. Fired it again and it felt much better but was still having some stalling issues. I mean the car idled fine but rather low around 500 rpm, sometimes drop down to almost 200 rpm. By the way, a P0113 popped up but P0420 was gone. Not sure what's going on here, a bit confusing but went ahead and insured plugs on the intake were plugged in all the way. Reset the computer again, fired up and died after 2 min. Fired up again and P0113 was gone, no other codes popped up again. I decided to call it a day banging my head around on my next steps.

Day 2: Decided to replace the PCV. After pulling this thing out and shaken it, there was no ball rolling around. $2.99 at autozone and replaced it. Next I was going to replace the Cap & Rotor. Well, my car requires the whole distributor to replaced. The one I picked up has a rotor that you would typically use a screwdriver to remove. However, mind was rather built in. So, moving on (doens't look like I needed a new Cap & Rotor so I'm returning it for a new battery, heck why not right since the one in my car doesn't look too good). Topped coolant as it was low. Reset the ECU by removing the negative side of battery for 8 min. Fired her up again and it shut down in 2 min again (maybe its me but I feel like the computer was relearning its maps again and stopped to re-program it self?) . Fired it up again and it was just fine. A little low on idle and same issue came up again when i pressed the brake going in reverse to take her for a test run. Ran around the block and parked in the garage and let it idle for 15 min. RPM still rather low so I adjusted the idle on the throttle body to around 600-800 rpm. This time I decided to take a run on the freeway in cruising speed. On the streets I decided to shift at max rpms and brake to see if there would be any further issues. She ran strong with no problems.

Overall, trouble shooting took some research on this forum but in the end the reality is that i ran this car for nearly 30K miles prior to having to tune her in. The previous owner did all the changes back in 2011. I'd say this Honda just needed a little tuning and shes ready to go for another 30K miles.

Hope this helps someone else, its a very easy fix all DIY and.... I haven't wrenched in 20 years. Cheers!