Bad hesitation b16a2

lowanslow

New Member
Hi there new to the site and looking some help/advice on this issue.

Car info -
92 eg6 civic
B16a2
Ek9 intake manifold
Ek9 cams
Integra airbox
Chipped p30 ecu

I Bought this car and it's was spot on driving it home and on vtec etc until the other night. I took the air box lid off the car and when driving felt the car was holding back and vtec wasn't as sharp, felt like it was hesitant. I put the airbox lid back on to see if it cured it but to no avail. Still feels quite hesitant and not as sharp as if the car is holding back quite badly.

I decided to check the plugs on the car and found the plug holes cylinder 1&2 had a fair amount of oil round them and also the plugs when removed. I cleaned the plugs and the oil from round the plug holes and refit. This still didn't seem to fix it, in fact it seemed to be worse. Car is ok driving softly I.e not revving too hard but when attempting to accelerate hard to go onto vtec the car holds back badly, worse around the 4000/4500 rpm range just before vtec comes on.

I will be doing a rocker gasket along with all other seals, oil and filter and a full spark plug service along with ht leads to try and help fix this

Any other help/advice would be great


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lowanslow

New Member
No cel

Changed plugs and rocker gasket tonight. Still running badly. Car will drive gently but when you put the foot down it struggles and starts to misfire and die


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5SpeedEJ6

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Well I'm not an expert when it comes to engine diagnosing compared to other members here, but I'm pretty sure oil in your plugs is NOT a good sign. Thought I cannot tell you specifically how to fix this, I can vouch that it's not supposed to be this way.
 


daperez13

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- do a compression test on all four cylinders
- check your oil level and oil pressure
- check for timing
- remove your catalytic converter if possible and check to make sure it's not clogged
- check vtec solenoid
 

lowanslow

New Member

This is the current issue. Car Starts and runs and will drive gently but as soon as you try to Rev it it bogs down as you can see in the video. I have also cleaned the points in the distributor.


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whitesedan

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5+ Year Member
Are you positive the car is tuned and not running on a base map?

I would check:
Check and Test the TPS sensors
Check MAP Sensor
Check the o2 Sensor

Check your ECU and see if you have J1 jumped. if you remove this, it will put the ECU back to stock map.
 

lowanslow

New Member
Are you positive the car is tuned and not running on a base map?

I would check:
Check and Test the TPS sensors
Check MAP Sensor
Check the o2 Sensor

Check your ECU and see if you have J1 jumped. if you remove this, it will put the ECU back to stock map.

To be totally honest no. The the seller said the car had a p28 ecu. After removing it I found its a p30.

To test them just do a simple voltage check or is there any other tests I can do?

J1 jumped?


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whitesedan

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To be totally honest no. The the seller said the car had a p28 ecu. After removing it I found its a p30.

To test them just do a simple voltage check or is there any other tests I can do?

J1 jumped?


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Voltage test on TPS by probing harness, you would have to look up for MAP and o2 sensor.

Best bet is to search and download the service manual for your engine for testing procedures.

edit:
forgot to address J1, if you cut/break connection on j1, your ECU will bypass tune/chip and return to factory map.
link: http://www.hamotorsports.com/jdm-ecu-socketing-instructions.html
 

HeX

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This is obviously not a DIY thread so I moved it to the "Off Topic" section until you provide your vehicle info, which should be added into your first post yet is nowhere in this thread so far. Please make a better effort to include basic vehicle info and choose the correct sections to post. You're only working against yourself doing otherwise.
 

lowanslow

New Member
This is obviously not a DIY thread so I moved it to the "Off Topic" section until you provide your vehicle info, which should be added into your first post yet is nowhere in this thread so far. Please make a better effort to include basic vehicle info and chose the correct sections to post. You're only working against yourself doing otherwise.
Apologies. New to the site. Have updated the thread correctly. Hope it's better now.


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HeX

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I agree with the others that it sounds like your ECU isnt tuned properly. Has your mileage been poor as well?
 

XpL0d3r

I had a Civic once.
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Oil around the plugs isn't good. I'd check VC gasket. You could be getting blowby coming from the cylinders which would indicate worn O rings, which you can check by doing a compression test. Or your valve guides / seals are worm so oil leaks into the compression chamber.

Where was the oil on the spark plugs when you pulled them?
 

lowanslow

New Member
Oil around the plugs isn't good. I'd check VC gasket. You could be getting blowby coming from the cylinders which would indicate worn O rings, which you can check by doing a compression test. Or your valve guides / seals are worm so oil leaks into the compression chamber.

Where was the oil on the spark plugs when you pulled them?
The oil round the spark plugs was due to the oring seals for the spark plug wells being so hard and useless the weren't sealing correctly. Plus it look like previous owner had split oil on top of the rocker cover and it had run down the well under the plug lead.

Will do a compression test over weekend but can't see it being bad as the car ran perfect on the drive home (40+ mile drive) and every night last week I drove it. It's only been since Saturday when I removed the airbox lid it's started to play about


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lowanslow

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I agree with the others that it sounds like your ECU isnt tuned properly. Has your mileage been poor as well?
To be honest I'm swaying towards an ecu issue as well. Because I was told by previous owner it had a p28 ecu to find it was a p30. So it could be dodgy. Mileage hasn't been overly bad. I drove it hard the first few days I had it but driving it normally it's been ok.


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XpL0d3r

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So your plugs are all good now, no more oil on them? That's good.

P28 and P30 ECU's are basically identical, if you have it chipped / tuned then ECU type wouldn't matter. Of course that doesn't mean there isn't an issue with it, but I doubt the ECU would suddenly get a problem if you'd been driving it previously. Any idea what it's tuned on?
 

lowanslow

New Member
So your plugs are all good now, no more oil on them? That's good.

P28 and P30 ECU's are basically identical, if you have it chipped / tuned then ECU type wouldn't matter. Of course that doesn't mean there isn't an issue with it, but I doubt the ECU would suddenly get a problem if you'd been driving it previously. Any idea what it's tuned on?

Yeah I replaced them with denso iridium ones and changed the plug leads out. Also washed out the plug wells of all oil. To be honest I've no idea what way the ecu is tuned. I take it there is no way of telling apart from plugging it in?


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HeX

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Yeah I replaced them with denso iridium ones and changed the plug leads out...
I feel the need to warn you about those Densos. I tried them recently and did not like at all how they felt at higher RPMs. I posted about it in my build thread. I drove for 260 or so straight miles on them in one trip. I hated the feel because it felt like my engine sputtered or misfired a little, so when I arrived where I was going I swapped back in my used NGKs and the issuesxwere gone when I drove back another 300 or so.
 

Diana Nam

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check the reads of your tps sensor car tends to bog if your tps isn't reading right when you press the gas pedal should read 5v or close to it with the throttle full opened. also did you open the ecu cover and checked to see if its chipped. you can remove the chip and it will revert back to stock map don't need to mess with any components on the circuit board, unless your good at soldering things and working with circuit board, p30 came out of a rare Del sol vtec model. it is equiped with knock sensor was specifically made for b16a engines
 
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lowanslow

New Member
Update. Took it to a Honda specialist tonight. He is also stumped.

Tried a different ecu, throttle body with tps sensor and activated tps when revving car. Checked vac lines as well.

Next move is to check fuel filter and fuel pump


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