I guess this thread was inevitable…
Keep in mind I’ve spent time searching this site, other honda sites, google, etc on this issue.
I want to know if you can chime in on specifically what is happening here.
Long story short, I am restoring a 92 GSR and I have replaced a lot of things. The car is bogging around 3K or so, doesnt matter what gear I am in.
Here is the work I’ve done:
New distributor
New wires
New plugs
New battery
Cleaned IACV
Cleaned FITV
New battery terminals
Valve cover gasket
Engine timing changed
When the car is in neutral, if I give it gas and hold it, the RPM will fluctuate. It idles fine, for the most part it drives fine. If I take it out of gear it will drop to 800RPM or so. No low idle issues.
When the timing was changed, he said the distributor should be in the middle, but he had to move it all the way towards the firewall just to get it into spec. When I drove it home it was fine. No bogging or power loss, real smooth. After I cleaned the valve listed above, reset the ECU and slightly increased my idle, it is bogging again, around 3K. The mechanic mentioned the timing belt might be stretched because the distributor should be in the middle. Never heard of that, and wanted to get another opinion because I am not setup to change a T-belt just yet and I do not want to drop $500 at the shop. Thoughts?
Help me get this B17 back on the road again! I need to get rid of the power loss so I can try to get it smogged.
It is definitely your timing…my car had the same problem. I would get a second opinion as well though.
Not sure what is meant by distributor being in the middle… there is a slightly different position for the point contact to the coil unit on an ODB0 & ODC1 distributor… the ODB0 (90-91) distributor has the point in the middle of the cap and should look llike it is in the middle when installed with no rotation on the distributor. on an ODB1 car this would cause this exact issue as you describe it and throw timing off by a couple degrees ( just enough to cause your issue ) and seem like rotating the Distributor all the way in a one direction “almost” fixes the issue.
A true OEM or OE ODB1 Distributor should have the point that goes to the coil about 5 degrees offset from center towards the back of the engine bay with 0 rotation on the unit… this would apply to all 92-93 models.
I see you are local so if you need some help I have a timing light etc & can give you a hand if you like. A lot of what I am discussing here I learned by trying to replace my OEM distributor with a “OE” ebay TD-23u which was basically the ODB1 distributor layout with an ODB0 plug on it… threw my timing off just enough that I would hit dead acceleration areas like you mentioned.
You can also check the timing belt for being worn, but it does have a tensioner for a reason… - to compensate for “Stretching” may be more like your belt skipped a tooth on one of the cams… Check that with the cover off that TDC marks are pointing up & the 2 arrows point directly at each other… I have been reading about several folks unning into this latter issue lately.
Maybe I have the wrong distributor? I bought a OE TD44U off of ebay that had the B17 listed as a compatible vehicle. I thought as long as it was an OBDI unit I would be fine.
When he said middle. I think he was referring to the distributor being a 0 degrees, but instead it is towards the back of the engine. I might go out and take a look, it didnt seem like it was all the way towards the back.
I might have mentioned it, but this car is a theft recovery. I got in touch with the last owner and he said he changed the timing belt before it was stolen, not sure why he would lie. I always thought if something was wrong with the belt it would happen at random RPM, it is pretty consistent at 3K or so.
I might take you up on that timing light unless you think a picture can shed some light on this…
[QUOTE=djzachtyler;2291814]Not sure what is meant by distributor being in the middle… there is a slightly different position for the point contact to the coil unit on an ODB0 & ODC1 distributor… the ODB0 (90-91) distributor has the point in the middle of the cap and should look llike it is in the middle when installed with no rotation on the distributor. on an ODB1 car this would cause this exact issue as you describe it and throw timing off by a couple degrees ( just enough to cause your issue ) and seem like rotating the Distributor all the way in a one direction “almost” fixes the issue.
A true OEM or OE ODB1 Distributor should have the point that goes to the coil about 5 degrees offset from center towards the back of the engine bay with 0 rotation on the unit… this would apply to all 92-93 models.
I see you are local so if you need some help I have a timing light etc & can give you a hand if you like. A lot of what I am discussing here I learned by trying to replace my OEM distributor with a “OE” ebay TD-23u which was basically the ODB1 distributor layout with an ODB0 plug on it… threw my timing off just enough that I would hit dead acceleration areas like you mentioned.
You can also check the timing belt for being worn, but it does have a tensioner for a reason… - to compensate for “Stretching” may be more like your belt skipped a tooth on one of the cams… Check that with the cover off that TDC marks are pointing up & the 2 arrows point directly at each other… I have been reading about several folks unning into this latter issue lately.[/QUOTE]
I am pretty sure I have the right distributor, it has the same tilt that you mentioned. It is a TD-44U. However, I did go with one of the cheap ebay units. I wonder if I have to shell out $250 plus for a legit unit. I took off the valve cover and everything looked good. Is there anything else I can check?
Could it be the tps sensor? I got out my multimeter but I could not shove the lead Into the red wire to save my life. Instead I took some speaker wire and shoved it in the middle hole of the connector, plugged the sensor back up turned the key to the 2 position and it read .31 and 4.31 with the throttle open. I just pulled the gold part back by the throttle cable since I was alone. Should I adjust it to .5 or buy a new tps? Or did my shady testing strategy throw my reading off? This is my first time using one of these, but it seems simple.
Igniter? Same part in the distributor housing? If so, maybe that was it. I bought another distributor (not an ebay unit) and the problem is gone. Thanks for all the help!
I would recommend checking your TPS. Make sure you have it calibrated properly. If the ignition system is functioning correctly it’s more than likely signaling that tells the engine what’s happening. I would also recommend seafoaming the injectors to make sure you don’t have some that are so so flow. And lastly replace the fuel filter while you’re at it.
-teggyguy
[QUOTE=teggyguy;2296807]I would recommend checking your TPS. Make sure you have it calibrated properly. If the ignition system is functioning correctly it’s more than likely signaling that tells the engine what’s happening. I would also recommend seafoaming the injectors to make sure you don’t have some that are so so flow. And lastly replace the fuel filter while you’re at it.
-teggyguy[/QUOTE]
I do not think you read the post carefully, I checked the TPS and posted the results on here. As of today, the problem is gone, I had a bad distributor. Unless it is going to be an intermittent thing and come back…