I test drove an LS/VTEC hatch the other day that was running the stock fuel pump and a stock P28 ecu. The car pulled pretty hard and I was quite pleased with the setup as this was my first time even riding in a B powered Honda.

2 noticable problems with the car. It was having trouble holding idle at stoplights. The owner kept having to flip on the A/C to keep it running. Also, it REEKED of gasoline. I could even taste it in my mouth. We had to keep the windows down the whole time.

The owner told me this was all atributed to the SOHC based P28 which makes sense to me but I wanted to run it by you all, the experts, to see if you think it could be anything else. I will be getting a Hondata ECU as soon as I buy the car, but will that fix these problems?

 

i didnt know the P28 was programmed to purge gas into the cabin. Also, the a/c thing is pretty out there, but idle can be adjusted.

 

What is usually the cause of a fuel leak like that? The shop who performed the swap is very reputable.

 

With a stock p28 he should actually be running lean but i believe the fuel smell might not be related with what ecu he was runnig.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SilverCivic2k &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">With a stock p28 he should actually be running lean but i believe the fuel smell might not be related with what ecu he was runnig.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats what I'm thinking....

Unless its a p28 ecu that has been chipped for the additional fuel, the p28 is going to shoot less gas because its for a 1.6 sohc vtec motor.

Besides that, you shouldn't be smelling fuel at all. Especially in the cabin, there has got to be some sort of leak if you can taste it in your mouth.

The funny idle can mean lots of different things. Vacuum line leak, and even a leak through the intake manifold. Aggresive cams, (don't think it could be that though).

Whats the setup he's running? (pistons, cams, head, etc)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by camera obscura &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
It was having trouble holding idle at stoplights. The owner kept having to flip on the A/C to keep it running.</TD></TR></TABLE>
thats funny! my car has a funny idle to and i all ways keep the heat on to keep it at a normal idle . i have a b18c and i'm running a p73 so that why it does that but turning on the heat does help.

 

the reason the idle smoothed out.. or.. it ran anyway is because when the AC is on the ECU bumps up the duty cycle of the IAC/EACV (whatever you wanna call it).

I would guess it has a MAJOR fuel leak (injector seal?) or a bad exhaust leak under the cabin and its running pig rich.

The fact that it wasnt idling right with the P28 tells me its stock or only the fuel maps were touched at least... if it had teg code it would idle properly.

 

Yeah, completely stock block and head... stock P28 also.