I don't think VTEC is engauging? (sp?)

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Citizen_Insane

Citizen_Insane

Senior Member
I can't hear vtec engauge even when I'm way past the engaugement point on my b16. I have enough oil, my car is warmed up, my ECU isn't thowing any codes, and I'm going at least 20 mph. Why the hell doesn't it work? I can't hear or feel any sudden changes when I hit 5500 rpm (or past).

Any ideas?
 
hmm i think mine starting doing that when my distributor f-d up, i dont remember for sure though

are you backfiring or have an erratic idle anything like that?
 
you would know if vtec is engaging. check the solenoid and see if its working correctly, then check all the wiring. re check your oil, I dont know how many people have come in to the shop I work at and complain that their vtec isnt working, then I tell them to check their oil, and they find thats their problem. also the screen on the vtec solenoid could be dirty, so you could check/ clean that.
 
So just pull out the solenoid and clean it?

btw- the vtec has never worked since the swap, and the oil has always been full. I checked it just the other day.

No, my idle is fine. Starts at 1500 rpm when i start it cold and then it drops to 800 rpm after a min. No backfireing, although after crusing for a while at a constant rpm it has REALLY bad throttle response like something is choking it. It was worse when I was running header only, but I figured it was just lack of back preassure.
 
Also if your speed senor is not pluged into your transmisson your vtec will not enguage ...that was my problem. Also the thing with your distributor if your rpm gauge is erratic at times then you wont be getting vtec cause of the distributor....but more than likely your vtec solenoid needs cleaning.....if it was a swap i would clean it.
 
are you using a stock ecu? no codes ever, not after driving for awhile? sure you have your wiring right?, heres some mechanical stuff to check, first hook the vtec solenoid up to a switch and when you give it power, it should click, if not bad solenoid, also try to engauge vtec using the switch, drive and hit it at 5200, ok now if that does work, do all of ths together cause you only want to do it once: pull off the valve cover and take off the cam caps, under the middle #3 cam cap there should be an oil jet in the little hole, make sure it is there, there also should be two under the cam cap closest to the cam gears, if there is a hole, but no little jet in there, that could be the problem, now the fun things to check, the oil jets on the rocker arms on the LMAs, to get to these you have to pull out the LMAs and check each one individually, if one is missing, vtec will not work, to pull out the lmas you gonna need to pull the head, the motor, or pull a mount and jack up one side of her to get the proper angle to get the LMA out, also remove the battery and anything else in the way...ask some questions if you need more help
 
I checked the oil and the screen inside the solenoid. Both were fine. I have no irratic idle so I doubt that its the dizzy.

b16crx - what should I wire the solenoid to? is it ok to just connect the one wire going into it to the + battery terminal (or will it burn out if I don't go through the whole wireing system)?
 
yeah that should be ok just to test it, to see if it clicks or not, or just splice into any constant on ignition power, im not sure of the colors, i just poke around with an electrical tester when i need one, btw, what pin location did you wire the solenoid into, id double check your vtec soleniod and oil pressure sensor wiring...
 
Its wired to A8 like it should be. I used this: http://tjshondas.20m.com/b16awire.html as my guide.......

But I'll double check the wiring again. Thanks for the help :D

[edit] if it makes any difference, I'm running a pw0 ecu. I asked for a pr3, but I didnt get one. Oh well. figured that could make a difference [/edit]
 
the wiring is the same for pr3's and pw0's. just take ur vtec solenoid wire and touch it to the battery terminal, and if it clicks, it is working. you might want to check the vtec pressure sensor, and if that checks out, try another ecu.
 
also trying switching up the ecu's with a buddies if its convieinent
 
I'm the only person I know in town with an OBD0 swap. Infact, I'm the only person in my 50,000 person town that has done a swap by themselves. So...finding another ECU is going to be hard.
 
ohh yeah, I believe all the oil pressure sensors are the same, so swapping those obd doesn't matter, I i think both B and D and maybe H are the same, but not sure...
 
I checked my solenoid, it works just fine. I don't know how to check the OP sensor. Someone earlier said that if the VSS wasn't hooked up then it wouldn't work. Well....my b16 tranny came with an electronic VSS and I removed it, because when it was on I couldn't get the spedo cable to connect. Could this be the problem? If so, how can I hook it up so that It'll work? The vss came with an OBD1 plug (grey with white internals) and I cannot connect that to my ecu or my gauge cluster.
 
yeah thats the problem, if you could get the right plug you could just repin the wires, i guess you could so a splicing hack job, not sure about the conversion on those though, but thats most likely the problem
 
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