OK here is the shpiel. Bare with me because it's kinda long and I really need some help diagnosing the POS's problem. This car isn't my daily driver, it's my weekend warrior so these set of events has been over the course of a few weeks or so...All the info on my car is on my site here if you have any questions...

So A few week ago I installed some Fidanza adjustable cam gears(nice). Ad. my cams abit to tweak my power some. Took the car out, didn't feel much different. Maybe alittle more power, I just chalked it up to still needing to go to the dyno for some real tuning. I installed those gears on Sat, but didn't go out or really drive it till the next week....However I didn't notice that it idled kinda funny(surging and irractic), like it was loping(stock cams tho)..

That went on for the past 2 weeks, it still ran ok, idled ****ty, got a bit worse MPG, didn't seem to have all the power there any more, no more smoking the tires into 3rd gear...But I did just buy a set of new really sticky tires. So I chalked it up to better traction, even if it didn't seem that much faster. Well this past weekend I finally decided to fix the custom closed loop dump-tube that I fabbed up and had broken loose.

So my bestfreind and I removed the the down-pipe with all the parts to re-engineer the dump-tube. While he's comtemplating on how to hook all the things together without the use of a welder....I installed the GM 3 Bar MAP sensor I recently ordered. OK so we get all that fixed/fabbed up. By this time it's about 10 PM on Sat night(cruisin time)....I start up the car(still idling like ****)...We take the car out for a test run and in won't go WOT/Spool up, it just boggs down.......this was accounted a MAP sensor wiring problem seeing as how this was the only thing changed during the car's down time. We just threw in the towel for the day, spent some time with our respective g/fs, chilled at the house for the evening...

Early Sunday morning i'm up, re-wiring my MAP sensor setup. I find the correct info from Hondata.com and get the problem fixed. So I take the car up the road. Ok the WOT problem has been eliminated....now when ever it hits boost it just boggs down and doesn't want to go. Really slugish and surging power. So I whip out the laptop and see if it's my tune(Zdyne standalone), I make sure i'm re-calibrated for a 3 Bar MAP, correct fuel/spark, all looks in order. But still it's runs(idles too) like ****...

Back to the house I go. It's noon by now time to kick my friend out of bed so he can help. Well appearently I pissed of someone in the neighbor hood, b/c no more than 2 ins after I get back to the house a guy in truck rolls up in the yard and starts asking who drvies that car, need to quit speeding, blah blah blah. We told this sweat-pant sportin red-neck, that the car would even do 45, let alone 70 like he was claiming and to STFU.....he left, we ate lunch, went back to work on the car.

After 3 more hours of troubleshooting the ignition(plugs, wires, dizzy) and fuel systems(injectors, pump, filter etc). We concluded that it may be the plugs, which were HELLA fouled when pulled and checked for spark. So I whippied out a spare set of plugs we installed them.....No good, still runs and idles like ****....Ugh back to square one, so we put our heads to thnking and checked the timing......Bingo. The intake cam had jump one tooth advance, which in turn off-set the dizzy timing too.

So the belt came off, timing was reset and the car was started. It seemed to run a better. Still idled poorly but a major imporvement over before. The plugs and cylinders were full of carbon from the mis-timing. SO we took it up the road. Ran better, but boost was still being read wrong still. It ran like **** on boost, but like a champ N/A....So I swapped back in the stock MAP for a test. All problems solved, consistent idle, smooth stong power, boosts hard.

*** QUESTION 1) I am using those pinch connectors to T off my factory wires to the 3 Bar MAP. Should I soder them instead? ***

So we took the car out for a few romps. The first few it ran like a champ but the last time I launched it some felt totally wrong. I didn't hear anything pop/break/detonate etc. But now it runs like it's only hitting on 3 cylinders, like when you take a plug wire off and try to drive your car. The dead cylinder causes a resonace or vibration and you can hear it not firing. Checked the timiing and it's still dead on, no smoke/blown by, no pinging/knocking, no water in the oil or vice versa.......It was 8:00 by this time.

QUESTION 2) WTF is wrong now, ugh !

This afternoon i'm going to start by re-doing a compression test, worst case I burnt a valve or blew a cylinder things can only get better from there. I did one last monday trying to figue out why the car was idling, not boosting as well, and feeling over-all ****ty. That test yielded 185,180,180,180. Pretty much perfect compression for a B18A/B. I'm hoping it still has this copmression.

Next it'll be onto the ignition....A good possiblity is that the dizzy is f'd up. Maybe the ignitor, could be as simple as the rotor button needing changing.*fingers crossed*

Help me out with any insight guys, because this really sucks.......damn Honda


[Modified by Speed PHreak, 5:44 PM 3/11/2002]

 

As far as the first question goes, definitely solder those wires. I used to have a civic with the Greddy SOHC turbo kit. I was using there black box and they gave you those t connectors too. I headaches trying to debug, at times it wouldn't want to start or stay running, and that was my daily driver. I soldered them up and that took away all my problems. So I would definitely say the 15 minutes it will take to solder them up is well worth the time.

 

Also, has the head been milled any?

 

yes ill second that. anytime you can solder a wire do it. a butt connector or pinch connector dosent give a good connection.
and the map sensor, make SURE it fits in the IM correctly. is there a rubber O ring so you can get a ttal airtight seal?(this would be for my b16, if im totally off on your LS i apologise)

 

BADCX: Thanx for clearing that up on the MAP sensor. And NO the head hasn't been milled any, 'cept for a "decking" when I had a valve job done. That just insures that the head is flat/true all the way across.

KAMiN: Thanx for the second opinion, tha MAP sensor is connected to the motor with a rubber vaccume hose...I thoguh it was this way on all Honda's? Then again I could be way off on your B16.....



[Modified by Speed PHreak, 5:43 PM 3/11/2002]

 

If your head has been milled or the block has been decked, you have changed the height around. You may need to advance your cam gears, both intake and exhaust, to get back to stock-ish. how much was the block decked?

 

Bleh, the head was decked and the block was left alone. Here are the results from last night..........

After a compression test yeilding 180 across the board, I breathed a sigh of relief....then a moan of confusion. So I once again removed the plugs and checked them. # 1,3,4 were a dark brown color(boarder line excessively rich) and #2 was wet with fuel. "Well there is the problem, no spark on #2.", I thought to myself.

So a procede to disassemble the distibutor once again. I check/redo my connectors for my MSD box, test the ignitor pack, replace the rotor button, and re-assemble the distibutor. Try to start it up, still runs like crap. So I leave it running and walk around to the engine, put my ear down and listen for anything out of the ordinary. I took me a minute but I heard what sounded like an electric clicking or arcing noise. So I began to inspect, push, pull etc on everything around the general vacinity of the dizzy/MSD 6AL/MSD coil....After 5 mins of poking and shuffling wires look for a loose/frayed connection I gave up and rest my hand on the I/C piping. Amazingly the motor started to run right, so I lifted pressure off and it ran poorly again...WTF?

I looked at the plug wires and it turns out that my BOV was touching the boot on the #2 spark plug wire causing a current to form b/t the two, which was the cause of my problems. I tried to twist the plug wire away from the BOV and got summarily shocked so I twisted the BOV 1/8 of a turn to gain more clearance b/t the two and called it a night.....Car runs like a top now.

Thanx for the help guys

 

Wow...all that work, and the main problem was the spark plug boot touching the BOV! LOL! Good to hear you got it fixed.

 

when you started to say that one was wet but the others were just fine I new it had to do with the spark to that one. I was going to guess that it was a spark plug wire problem.

Alls well that ends well!