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Logic defying non-starting - fixed!

Engine/Gearbox questions and discussion
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vanzep
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Post by vanzep » Wed Aug 12, 2015 9:24 am

Thats good news :)
you can buy the ignition module - i think eurocarparts are selling them for around £20 or kawa has a few old dizzy parts for sale ;)
1996-2000 1993 EG9 Blue Civic 1.6 Vti - Traded in against the BB4
2000-2019 1994 2WS BB4 Milano Red JDM Prelude Si VTEC LSD

2015 on > 1991 4WS BB1 Phantom Pearl Grey JDM Prelude Si VTEC LSD
2021 ON > 1998 2WS BB6 White Pearl JDM Prelude Si VTEC

alinton
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Post by alinton » Sun Aug 23, 2015 10:29 am

So it was the distributor, but not the ignition module. Most likely the cam position sensor - I was getting spark but not at the right time. When trying to start the car would cough occasionally as a spark happened to occur in roughly the right time.

The position sensor doesn't seem replaceable, and not really wanting to risk paying 60 quid for a second hand one which might fail tomorrow, I got a brand new distributor from a crowd called UAD, on EBay, for £85. Perfect.

There's a bloke down the road from me who does tuning on cars for drifting and rallying. I got him to do the timing (he has a computer which connects to the Lude's diagnostic port and reads errors and sets various things - you really have to put the ecu into a particular mode to do the timing) and he revealed that he used to work on these engines a lot, knows them inside out.

Interestingly, it turns out that in order to get my car to perform ok, the timing needs to be advanced too far. He says people often used to do this as a quick and dirty way of increasing low torque, but at the expense of higher rev torque, if other things were limiting the performance. It's not the right thing to do.

He says a couple of hours' work on it, setting tappets, clearing breathers, tuning etc will make huge improvements, and is going to do it for me next week.

Can't wait for the results!
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'96 BB4.

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vanzep
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Post by vanzep » Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:22 am

yep you have to jump the service connector to do the timing - i guess thats what your mechanic is referring to ;)
let us know how it runs after he has done the clearances etc
1996-2000 1993 EG9 Blue Civic 1.6 Vti - Traded in against the BB4
2000-2019 1994 2WS BB4 Milano Red JDM Prelude Si VTEC LSD

2015 on > 1991 4WS BB1 Phantom Pearl Grey JDM Prelude Si VTEC LSD
2021 ON > 1998 2WS BB6 White Pearl JDM Prelude Si VTEC

alinton
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Post by alinton » Sun Aug 23, 2015 8:38 pm

Well, he didn't jump it, he had his computer plugged into it, and it asked him for the VIN, then was telling him to do various things, like press the brake pedal, turn engine off, turn ign on, start engine etc. It came up with a few logged faults, timing out of range for example.

Then he was able to put the engine into a mode to set the timing, by entering a command on the computer.

I drive the car today - with the timing set at the required amount it was very sluggish. On his instruction i advanced it a little and then it performed well, but obviously not right as the timing was then advanced beyond what it should be.

I'll certainly report back after the job is done.
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alinton
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Post by alinton » Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:44 am

Well my expert had the car for a day, he reset the tappets which he said were all over the place, looking like someone had been at them previously who didn't know what they were doing.

He also cleaned out breathers, fixed a vacuum leak, set timing, set idle speed. He said there was a lot of oily sludge in the top of the engine, the result he thinks of using cheap oil of the wrong viscosity.

He also replaced the seals at the bottom of the plug wells that had gone, and allowed 2 of the plug wells to fill with oil.

The result? The car pulls much better at low and high revs, previously it was good at low revs because a previous owner had advanced the timing too much, to the detriment of high revs. When the vtec cuts in there's much more of a jolt to the back!

And the engine sounds much smoother.

My next job is a new exhaust, I knew it was blowing a bit but he says one could strain cabbage through it!

And a decat at the same time, I think.

Nice results!
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'96 BB4.

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wurlycorner
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Post by wurlycorner » Sun Aug 30, 2015 11:27 am

Good to hear.
It's amazing the difference that properly setting up the basics on an engine will make 8-)

Sold my de-cat, but still have a (LOUD!) exhaust available ;)

alinton
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Post by alinton » Sun Aug 30, 2015 12:47 pm

Indeed, especially when I was relatively happy with the performance before! Oh, the innocence of ignorance!

Details of exhaust please!
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'96 BB4.

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