Major Power Loss Issue

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bakerderek0

Up a Creek...
Hi all,
I bought a Civic EG hatch w/ B16A swap 5spd. The motor was said to be rebuilt 500 miles before I purchased it. It is also supposed to be bored out to a 1.8L. The car has a full tuck on the wires. What a nightmare that has been for the last 4 weekends. Checking wire condition and soldering/ heat shrinking all twisted and taped connections on engine and main harness. The valve cover gasket was leaking oil inside of a spark plug cavity. Replaced valve cover gasket, spark plugs, spark plug wires, air filter, thermostat, battery. Here's my issue: The car has no power! I mean it barely wants to move. It boggs down majorly in first gear with the accelerator fully pressed. There is also a strong fuel odor outside the car, like its running very rich on fuel(possibly something to do with running premium?). I only have one CEL, which is the knock sensor that is not hooked up. I'm sure its something simple, I just don't know where to start, any advice will be very appreciated.
 
I plan on purchasing a timing light after work today and going through the timing. I understand that I should check my cam timing before starting the crankshaft timing? All I know about cam timing is I need to remove the #1 plug. Does anyone know how to check the cam timing? I thought if the crankshaft timing was correct, your cam timing would be too? I'm also going to replace the distributor rotor before I start. Any help is very appreciated.
 
your cam timing and crank timing are not two different things, they are the same thing. where your crank sits in relation to the cams is called your mechanical timing. if you were to loosen your distributor and move that either direction you would be adjusting your ignition timing. you can use a timing light if you wish to set ignition timing but you don't use it to set mechanical timing.

i'm not sure why your car is running like poop but checking your timing would be a good start. also it would probably be a good idea to get the knock sensor hooked up. lastly, the only way your engine is a 1.8 liter is if it was stroked. so if someone told you they bored it to 1.8l, they lied to you.

anywhoo, this is how you should have everything lined up

00sib16a2timing.jpg
 
Turned out to be the spark plug wires were in wrong position, which explains the strong fuel odor and power loss. adjusting idle down to 800 from 2000 now. There sure is alot of valve ticking coming from the head.
 
Pardon my threadjack and noobness, but do LMA noises only come from VTEC engines?

I looked on the thread posted above and I reconize the LMA's, I just re-did my D16Z6 head and I see they're on top, it looks easy if they go.


And bakerderek0, I'd love to see some pictures of the EG w/B16 if possible. :)
 
The loud valve noise is very similar to the LMA noises I heard in the video. I'm going to dig more into that thread later. Today, I plan to diagnose my erratic idle and attempt to check all the timing. Thanks for the idea, I have a good feeling that it is LMA, but hopefully my timing is off?

Glassheadlights - Here's a pic of the engine bay. All of the work you see was done by the previous owner, except the sparkplug wiring and air filter. The whole car is painted that pheonix yellow color.

jgvj015.jpg
 
The car likes to stall out at a red light when come to a stop and also changes idle speeds between 500-2000rpms. While focusing on the erratic idle, my first test was on the TPS. All I get is a constant .08 volts being sent to the ecu, with full throttle and closed throttle. So, I'm looking at ordering a new one on monday. Hopefully that will fix the problem. There are 3 wires on the sensor, I tested the middle one for voltage, I don't know what the other wires are, so I could only check the wire to the ecu and it is fine. I assume one is a ground.
 
For future searches: On your TPS(Throttle Position Sensor) plug. The center wire(red/black) is the ecu signal wire. Blue/Yellow wire is the positive.Green/Blue is negative/ground.
 
Here's my issue. I'm am trying to check my ignition timing, but I do not have a timing belt cover. So no pointer. Is my only option to set the ignition timing by ear? or is there something else I can use as the pointer? I just bought the damn timing light.
 
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