I'm calling it a night after dropping in a JDM B18C motor into my GSR. I had a hell of a time figuring out a simple problem which took half the day. It turned out that the tranny ground wasn't connected. I went through all these procedures and such. Thought it was the PGM-FI relay and finally tried to manually turn the starter but wouldn't so it hit me. So anyway I got that taken care of but when I went to start it, the motor turned over fine and sounded right but would just sputter at the turn of the key like it was going to start then just cranks with no go no matter how long I hold the key. We tried a few things and one thing that made the motor actually start was my friend holding his hand over the throttle body covering the intake air hole and the motor just started up right away and ran cleanly. He removed his hand about 10 seconds later and it just revved down and turned off again. I would recheck the vacume lines but it's just too late right now so I wanted to ask see if anyone can give me some advice for tomorrow. Few things to know are both the primary and secondary o2 sensors weren't hooked up but I figure the motor would still start but would just throw a CEL. Second thing is the fuel in there is like 7 months old. I thought of changing it but was too late so it's something for tomorrow. After the motor started that one time. I got 2 codes. I looked them up and they were the primary and secondary o2 so nothing else seems to be showing up as bad. I'm thinking the problem is the fuel being old and was exposed for quite some time as well. vacuum lines being my second guess at the problem. Anything else I should know? Could it have a compression problem?
trouble starting motor
- Thread starter seephor
- Start date
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projectxspeed
Senior Member
Never atempt to troubleshoout until you complete your swap. You have the right ideas. Here's the order that I would try to solve the problem:
- Hook up both o2 sensors, try to start it
- Next double check the vaccum lines
- Finally change the fuel
- Hook up both o2 sensors, try to start it
- Next double check the vaccum lines
- Finally change the fuel
projectxspeed
Senior Member
That's well and good, but a detailed description of the problem is expected, not rewarded. And yes you are post-whoring.
Post-Whoring = Saying something without directly adding anything positive or relative to the current discussion.
Post-Whoring = Saying something without directly adding anything positive or relative to the current discussion.
civiclxb16
Senior Member
lol
I got a grin from ear to ear. Well guys thanks for all the info you provided. Last night when I got the first whiff of the fuel, I knew it didn't smell right. I just had a gutt feeling. This morning I woke up and empied out the tank. I thought there was one or two gallons but that thing was draining for a good 4 to 5 minutes. I ran the garden hose under it :bo: I just hope the neighbors don't find a mystereous smell in the air and call authorities. So anyway. next thing i did was purge the lines by holding a container under the fuel filter and continually turning the key in the ON position which runs the pump for about 2 seconds. At that point I knew the fuel was bad due to the brownish color which looked like diesel. I then filled it up with 3 gallons of 91 and cranked her a good 2 to 3 times and she just game to life. It ran like a rolex watch. waited for the fans to come on and just shut her off. It has been a long journey for me with this swap and anyone who says "just swap it, everything is the same" doesn't include the million small things that need to correct for a motor to run. Especially on these honda motors where there are 30 sensors. To update you guys, My 97 turboed GSR was stolen july 04. They recovered it about a month later with the motor and every mod missing. But intereor was untouched. The insurance offered to sell it back to me and I took the offer. Ever since about august 04 I've been putting it back together. I bought a JDM front clip basically. It came with the motor, axels, linkage, wire harness, struts, knuckles, rack and pinion etc... There were a few challenges that I faced with the JDM motor. Yes it was a B18C 2001 motor which they claim is OBD2 but does not really meet the standards of a USDM 2001 B18C1. First thing I needed to do was change the wire harness on the motor. The connectors on the motor was revered from left to right since everything is reversed on the SIR (right driven). I scored a harness off ebay for about 40 bucks. That down, The USDM B18C1 has the CKF (crankshaft fluctuation) sensor which is on the oil pump. The JDM oil pump isn't designed for it so I had to buy a USDM oil pump with the CKF sensor on it and swap it. Another thing missing on the JDM motor is the EVAP purge solenoid (emissions junk) The mounting holes on the intake mani on the JDM motor weren't tapped so I had tap them and get myself a purge solenoid valve. With that done the only other thing that motor is missing compared to its USDM brother is the VTEC pressure switch. I didn't need to get one because theres a hack which you basically just tap the vtec solenoid valuve into the pressure switch wire since those two components see the same signal (0V below 5K rpm, 12V above). So at this point the motor was ready to be dropped in which happened yesterday. My goal is to have this motor registered and make it be california smog legal. Even though the compression on the JDM motor is a bit higher which would produce more NOX, with a good cat and some fuel additives on smog day should get you passed. The more important thing is visual insepction which I got down pretty good. Nothing looks out of place and everything looks bone stock (not for long of course). So Another few bolt on and such and I'll have the car at the smog station getting it passed. It has been a long journey but well worth it and rewarding say the least. It was all worth it when I heard the motor run. Thanks again for the help. forward any questions to me if u wish since I've memoriezed each sensor and which pin the sensor hooks up to on the ecu Similar threads
