please bare with me....this may seem long. awhile back, i posted up questions regarding whether or not i had rod knocking etc, well, everything checked out fine. i took it to approximately 12 mechanics and machine shops in the bay area, all of them said it was good, Jeremy and Wayne from Redzone, lawerence at DSR, blacktrax, dnr, prostreet, EPM(amarel parts and machine), robs auto machine, clarks, victory machine, etc just to name a few. on top of that, i still took off the oil pan and checked for shavings and what not!!!! all turned out good. well anyways, i recently went to switch out my gsr cams to skunk stage 2. in the process i bent only one intake valve( i know it's odd) while hand cranking it, and learned my lesson to never do that again. got that replaced after about 2 weeks, mainly waiting on parts and the lazy *** cylinder head shop that i will never ever go to again!. got everything bolted up and headed to the dyno. before going to the dyno, i did a compression test, got 240 psi on all four cylinders, with a cold motor. the results of the dyno, look below

[IMG] http://i66.photobucket.com/alb...n.jpg [/IMG]

lawerence told me not bad, considering i still had ac and ps and stock injectors. he told me i should be over 200 whp easily without ac/ps and mainly with higher injectors. my updated setup, as follows

CYLINDER HEAD:
1996 ACURA INTEGRA VTEC
DPR STAGE 5 PORT AND POLISH
OMNI FLAT FACED VALVES
BLOX TITANIUM RETAINERS
SKUNK DUAL VALVE SPRINGS
SKUNK STAGE 2 CAMSHAFTS
PEAK PERFORMANCE CAM GEARS "Toda replicas"
PRO-FAB HEADER “SMSP REPLICA”
PORTED GSR MANIFOLD WITHOUT SECONDARIES
GSR PORTED THROTTLE BODY-68MM
K&N HIGH FLOW AIR FILTER
HONDATA INTAKE MANIFOLD GASKET
ARP HEADSTUDS
OEM 3 LAYER HEADGASKET
HOMEMADE 2.5 INCH TEST PIPE
STOCK FUEL INJECTORS 240CC
STOCK GSR FUEL RAIL

BLOCK:
1995 ACURA GSR NON-SLEEVED- 81.50MM
JE 12:5:1 PISTONS
GSR RODS WITH ARP ROD BOLTS
GSR CRANK
ACL BEARINGS

TRANSMISSION:
B-SERIES LSD
ACT 6 PUCK NON-SPRUNG
ACT EXTREME PRESSURE PLATE
TODA LIGHTWEIGHT FLYWHEEL

Tuned with p28/hondata s200

NOW TO THE BAD PART!!!!!!! after the tuning session, only about an hour, lawerence finished up reinstalling my ecu and got ready to fire up the engine and drive it down from the dyno, IT WOULDNT FRIGGIN START!!!! here's a short run down of the time line, got on dyno at 1030 am, finished tuning at around 1130 am, 1130am to about 130pm!!!!! lawerence and 3 other techs tried to figure out what the hell on earth happened!!! they checked everything, i mean EVERYTHING, fuel pressure, fuel, spark, rotor, injectors, fuses, switching dizzys, and ecus even tried starter fluid, and it all didnt work!! so then, they thought i slipped timing, but nope, i was dead on, followed by camshafts breaking, took the valve cover off, everything is fine. so then.....utimately, they figured it out, they did a compression test, 0 psi. then followed by a leak down test. the results, all intake valves were done. for that moment i thought i broke a ringland, but they told me my pistons were holding up terrific. so ultimately, the car wouldnt crank up because i bent all intake valves. but here's the part that is odd. during the process of installing my head, i clayed the motor correctly in vtec with the skunk stage 2 cams. i went with the wildest settings, fully advanced intake, and fully retarded on exhaust. and nothing hit when i cranked it by hand this time. i had .050 clearence on intake and .020 on exhaust. so i told lawerence this and he said he wouldnt even go that extreme on the cam gears. all in all, they charged me only for the tuning, which is complete, and not the extra 3 hours they spent diagnosing the problem after. I GIVE MAD PROPS TO DSR, I HAVE HELLA RESPECT FOR THEM, GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE. i recommend them to anybody. however, i am now at the crossroads with cars. i am really tired of wrenching day in and out. i work a full time job, so i only have weekends to work on my car. borrowing peoples cars and hitching rides is starting to be a burden on others while my car was out. i told myself, if this **** blows up, im putting in the towel. i've gotten plenty of feed back from friends and family, giving mad props on building this entire motor by myself, without prior education. before i started, not even a year ago, all i knew was to change oil, spark plugs, etc, general crap, never would i invision building a motor with just the aide of a helms. i did everything on my own, except the machining of the head and block. all the guys at dsr told me, just swap out the intake valves and your good to go, cause im already tuned! but honestly.....im lost, depressed, emptied wallet, filled with despair.....i think this was the last straw for me....my options now, 1, pull the head fix it and be done, 2 swap old motor back in, 3 sell it as is to anyone. well, i apologize for making this, this long, but i just needed to vent...im so pissed right now, like suicidal pissed! this keeps replaying in my head, how everything ran fine on the dyno(5 runs) and awaiting to drive her home!. peace out fellow ht.

 

Wow, sorry to hear that. I'm just getting started building my first motor and I can amagine how tuff it must be after all that hard work. Look at the bright side though, its just the valves, at least your bottom end isn't fvcked. Good luck man, hope you get it worked out soon

 

hey thanks for the encouraging support Banned in D.C. , i wish you the best of luck with your build too. Just do alot of reading, research and when in doubt, ask questions. the honda tech community has proven itself to be a great source of information, pretty much everything on here has been covered. so take your time, have fun

 

man,ur this far. might as well just replace the intake valves and call it good. it would b a waste to just throw ur time and money away like that. stick with man!

 

i feel your pain, when i blew my motor 2 months ago, i was ready to throw in the towel because before that it gave me a few problems already. but now im back with a new build and hoping for the best. i think u should replace the valves and see how it goes, wouldn't be worth spending all this time and money to just sell the car.