Ok...about 3 weeks ago I blew my head gasket and instead of putting my old A6 head back on I had a rebuilt Y8 head that was port and polished on. It felt sluggish and bogged down and someone on here told me to retard the timing to -3-5 degrees.

Well I got out there yesterday and changed my oil, set my cam gear at -4 (it was at +2) and wired up vtec (just to a switch right by my shifter for now, just to see if it was working) Well it bogged down bad and sounded like it was missing a little. I came home and set it to -2 degrees and it felt a little better.

Coming home I wanted to see how it was running. It was late and no one was out on the interstate. I redlined 1,2,3, but 4th wouldn't go past 6k and 5th wouldn't go past about 5k. I would floor it and it would just sit at 6k/100mph even with vtec activated.

Now I didn't mess with the dizzy timing...so could that be it? Also I was thinking and I was wondering if the guy that did the work took the A6 oil jet out the block like I said. Would that cause it to bog down like that? I can hit the switch and hear the vtec clicking (at idle), up in the RPMs if I hit it I can't really feel anything just makes the motor sound deeper or something.

All I know is with the Y8 head my compression is raised, and the port and polish job should help too. 100 mph isn't worth a crap....my A6 head would have me sitting at 125 in no time.

Thanks for all the help! Doug

 

i really hate to be hard on you, but come on man, you're changing the cam timing... the distributor works directly off of the cam.

OF COURSE YOU HAVE TO RESET THE IGNITION TIMING. *any* time you change the cam timing you must reset your ignition timing.

your ignition timing is probably WAY off.

also, i would set your bottom end at TDC and your cam gear at 0 and make sure that its not a tooth off.

I have had best results with cam timing set 2-5 degrees retarded and timing at stock (16BTDC, the center mark) or slightly advanced (18BTDC, the left most mark of the three marks on the crank pulley)

 

How do I reset my ignition timing. I don't have a timing light at hand if I need one.

 

tttl

 

unbolt the distributor. towards u is retarding and away is advancing.... u will see how to do it when u start messing with it....

adjust it and see what feels the best...

 

Listen to 91civicdx, since you retarded your cam, you've also retarded your ignition timing which at higher rpms is killing you. The combustion cycle is now starting much later causing you to lose power. You want ignition timing to be advanced for high rpm power. Get a timing light and set your timing 1-2 deg advance. It will feel much better.