New to Forum; '94 Integra 4-dr w/ B20B swap... CARB-legal Intake?

elysianite

New Member
Sorry sorry sorry.... been caught up.

So here's the latest... Didn't get the intake on over that weekend... life happened and I wasn't able to get it on until last week. Over the weekend I took the car in to get some things done. Two of them are related to the BAR test, and the rest were just bothering me.

The two related to BAR (besides the intake, which went on in the typical manner... much more of a pain in the a$$ than I had hoped) were to get the timing checked and the fans working (the later wasn't critical to the Ref passing the car, but I didn't want it overheating again during the test.

Said the timing was okay (though, I brought it back later and one of the guys admitted that they checked the belt, but not the dizzy... so they did that later and mentioned that my timing was quite retarded... or sorry, "special." More on this later.

Also:
got the clutch adjusted and fluid flushed (WAY better now... a lot more travel, feels new)
oil leak fixed
coolant leak fixed
loose fan fixed (didn't know this was a problem before)

The car felt great when i got it back, but I noticed the same problem I had noticed before, which was when I would cruise at highway speeds for a while (once the car warmed up) then would go uphill, maintaining the speed, something would trigger in the cars computer or something that would bump the car out of tune. I think this is why the Ref saw my timing out of whack with the timing light on the belt when the shop saw it as being fine... I think it was in this "off" mode with the ref, but was normal at the shop.

Anyway, I brought it back and this is when they saw that the timing was off with the Dizzy.
Drove off and it ended up triggering again, but more drastically... WAY out of tune.

So now, technically the timing is "good", but it runs like crap once it has been running long enough to switch into that "safe mode" or whatever it is.

I have my second BAR appt this coming Thurs. and am not sure what to do. Perhaps I can pass the visual and get the tag, then work on the smog after... or do I just try to get it working the best I can and just explain that the timing will appear off, but get documentation from the shop that I had it looked into.

My fear: I'm thinking this is all the result of the car using the wrong ECU... though I could be WAY off. Any thoughts? How much would the correct ECU be for this car... is it even different?

Thanks! I'll try ti give more frequent updates from now on.
 

elysianite

New Member
Ah... another key point I forgot to mention was that yesterday, when I was on my way uphill on the highway (typically where it falls out of tune) it really changed drastically and the check engine light went on and stayed on. I expect it will clear itself and be gone when I start it this morning, because it did this once before. Anyone got anything on this?
 

elysianite

New Member
Got to work without it going out of tune or the check engine light coming back on... hopefully it will click into it's strange-mode on my way over to the mechanic so that he can assess the situation... and so he doesn't think I'm crazy, because, of course it never does it when I am available to take the car to him!
 

NeroCB7

Honda Lover
Tokyo_Drift said:
Cop wont know what the difference between a B18 and a B20 is lol, and if they do, there gonna be a honda fan
Click to expand...
southern cali cops do know what a modified car is and if you swap a motor you better have proof that motor isnt stolen even if you have a modified exhuast theres a reason for a cop to stop you the thing is it sucks to live in cali if you have a dd modified car EVERYTHING MUST BE CARB LEGAL
 


elysianite

New Member
Yeah, right now everything is CARB legal and I got the car to start running strange before I took it to the mechanic... though it took a few laps around San Diego first!

Anyway, he drove it and figured, though the check light wasn't on, there would be some codes stored. He was right. The first (obviously had to have at least ONE of these) was an O2.
Second was actually along the lines of what I was thinking was the issue. It was lean burning, probably because the MAF was not reading enough pressure in the intake... though I don't quite understand this since I replaced it with the stock unit... perhaps I should have disconnected battery and restart the ECU? Not sure.

Anyway, I left it there so they will be working on it all day tomorrow while I'm at work. Just pray they can find a real solution for me before my BAR appt on Thursday! Wish me luck.
 

elysianite

New Member
Had to cancel appointment because (don't know if anyone saw my new thread) my distrib is bad and the mechanic is trying to charge me a ridic amount for a replacement... so I'll have to wait until I can find a decently priced replacement and resched... really bummed though. I felt like this was going to really happen already!
 

poordc2

New Member
well dont give up bro cause if you can bard a b20, do you even know how much it would cost on the streets....cause i have never heard of a bard b20 ever.....cause you can do a b20 vtec and cops cant say shit cause on the bard sticker it only says b20, b18, b16 or whatever motor you have so get it bard so i can do mine too:twisted:
 


elysianite

New Member
Yeah, well I'm a bit worse for the wear, but I'm far from giving up... which is more than I can say for my gf... she's long over it, haha! Anyway, I was looking for a OBD1 Distributor until this morning, because I know that the ecu and everything is all set up for OBD1... however, this morning I called the mechanic to confirm. He told me that the distrib he pulled was pinned for OBD2.

So of course I abandon my search for an OBD1 and look for 2. I find one locally for a decent price and buy it... leaving work early and recruiting my girl to help cart me around. Barely get to the shop before everyone took off. He takes a look and compared...

Son of a BITCH! It was freakin OBD1 all along! He dropped the ball... he said he could do some mods, using parts from the old dizzy to make it work, but bloody hell man, I thought I could trust that he actually looked at the shit before confirming the wrong part... I should have just flipped a coin... could have had a better outcome.

Anyway, so yet another night of looking for the right part... if not, then screw it, let him try to make a Frankendizzy.
 

elysianite

New Member
Found one through a member... he's up in LA so I have a friend that will be visiting this weekend bringing it to me now. Can't wait to see if it fixes that strange tuning problem and check-engine. Obviously can't go into the BAR test with any of that shit going on.

I miss my car!
 

elysianite

New Member
Got the new dizzy on there and it still ran funny. Took it to pieces and took the shaft out of the "new-to-me" dizzy (which was the only bad part of my old Dizzy) and put it in my old one. Now it runs fine. Going to pick it up this evening... wish me luck! How do I determine what ECU I have... I'm sure if I encounter any more issues, this will be the next place to look.

Thanks!
 

elysianite

New Member
Car STILL clicks over into "limp mode." Driving me freakin nuts!

It's May now and, since I only have an April extension sticker, I've got to focus on smog and not getting it BARed.

So hopefully I can get that taken care of relatively cheaply...

However, just to get a feel for the problem, I called a high-rated Honda/Acura specialist in the area and he said that it sounded like my ECU, but, since the car is not factory at all, he wouldn't even want to mess with it because it could be too hard to diagnose... said could be wiring, ECU; many things leading my fuel system to think something is not right.

Think I need to find a place that does swaps here that has a LOT of experience and see if they can figure it out. A friend mentioned that before doing anything drastic, that I should swap out the "sender" (sending unit...?) on the head. I guess he had that issue before; dumping a bunch of money into an ECU, etc. and finding later that it was that sender that was a couple of bucks to replace.
 

elysianite

New Member
Alright, so smog extension is expired now... even though i know I'm going to fail, I made another BAR appointment for tomorrow... also, btw, they said that instead of calling (which takes forever) you can email them at barappointments@foundationccc.org

However, I tried emailing them there and it bounced back multiple times. When i got through by phone I confirmed the email and said it should work...? Whatever...

So I completed all his recommendations... I just hope it doesn't switch over into "limp mode" during the smog portion. So visually it will be fine, but I have a strong feeling, even after correcting the timing that the car will be failing the NOX portion like last time.

Oh well, gotta at least try. If I fail then it's off to either a Gold Shield station (heard there was a good one in Miramar) or perhaps a reputable smog/repair place.

Wish me luck! The app. is tomorrow.
 

elysianite

New Member
So yeah, failed with flying colors. At least now it's not considered a "gross polluter", so there was some improvement since the timing got fixed.

For those trying to BAR their cars... DON"T GO TO MIRAMAR COLLEGE. Not a fan of the Ref there. Not going back regardless of how much more convenient it is for me to go to that location.

I could tell right off he was not there to help me, be a bud; no, he was there to pull any non-compliant cars off the road and that's all.

I understand this side of it, but if he could just be a little helpful and not make assumptions he could promote his cause much better. I am actually a bit of a tree-hugger; sorry guys, but even I was in a mood to strangle baby-seals after meeting with this ass. He took my keys, told me to wait in the waiting room and took off, pulling my car around. I went around the side to take a look and warn him that the car had overheated last time during the test and to we weary. He said "that's fine, but you'll have to vacate the area and go back to the waiting room."

Even after this warning he overheated my car. Anyway, passed the visual, but failed the smog, of course. Asked for a recommendation, said take it somewhere and have them diagnose it. Man, this guys supposed to be a seasoned mechanic and he can't even help me out with a little advice on how to clean my car up? Also said he could never give me a label regardless of how clean it was because of the B20B. That guy is super by-the-book.

Took the car back to the mechanic to see why the fan he allegedly fixed wasn't doing the job. Still working on getting that limp-mode thing ironed out too. But I've gotta get this thing smogged... tag extension is expired; I'm bait.

Think I need a new cat, then I'll go back to either Southwestern or Cuyamaca.
 
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