Just Bought h22a cb7 Need Help / my comp check #'s & I need a knk sens harness

[chris_brains]

Hello everyone,

I'm poppin my cherry with this post, let me tell you whats up...

I appreciate your time in advance, so thank you!

I just picked up a 90 Accord Coupe with an H22A swap a couple days ago and now I'm fixing it up and getting it roadworthy. Whoever did my swap was a hack and now I'm going through the car and cleaning up the last owners mistakes. For starters, the distributor & parts of the ecu were wired up by twisting wires together and electrical tape

I bought this front end damaged 1990 Accord DX Coupe for $1200 with tokico blue struts, clean title, 230k chassis mi, konig 16's, and a h22a with aftermarket lsd.

Heres its problems, as I mentioned many things on this car are horribly installed, I have spent the last three days fixing the previous two owners mistakes and turning it into a real car (that means taking out all of the ORANGE GLOSS ENAMEL! painted interior pieces and painting them flat black (until I can find clean oem replacements)) properly wiring everything up / and installing a new bump support / rad supp / headlights / hood / grill / and radiator...

Anyhoo, when I got the car It ran like shit (the guy I got it from said it's throwing a cel for tps) idled at 2500rpms and felt like shit when I drove it home, if i gave it full throttle it bogged out, since I got it home I replaced the plugs as well as ran a compression check which came out as follows:

200 190 135 200
4 3 2 1

I squirted oil into #2 and brought it up to 195 so I have bad rings in that cyl (right?). After running the comp check (and checking the fuel filter) the engine now dips and won't idle even at all it just constantly 'hunts' - I think the TPS is bad.... If you give the car approx 35% throttle or more it is fine, less and it jerks and splutters all over the place.

After setting the TPS (it was at .52) back down to .45 & hooking up the vtec / oil press / intake air sens it brought the idle down to 1000-1500 rpms (constantly jumping remember)

I should mention that none of the swap / vtec wiring was hooked up so I hooked up everything but the knock sensor which brings me to one of the main goals of this post, my knock sensor has no pigtail so what model year & car type can I find a corresponding harness off of so I can finish getting it hooked up. Just by hooking up the three out of four wires (oil press, vtec, air) the car feels A LOT better and has MUCH MORE POWER I will check the cel codes tomorrow (just found the resources on the board to check it out)

So I just wanted to get some experienced tuners input as where to go from here, as of now my to-do list is:

1.) check cel codes
2.) get tps
3.) get knock sensor harness (dont know where though...)
4.) replace valve cover gasket and Front Main Seal
5.) replace p/s pump (it makes a horrible groaning noise, belt adj didnt help)

anything else I should do?

thank you all so much for taking the time to read this

Chris 'Brains'

[mayberry]

if your getting a tps CEL then replace that. you seem like a reasonably knowledgable person. and your on the right track. good luck and lets see pics.

[NoSloCB7]

Sounds like you know what you are talking about...It seems your H22 is heading for a rebuild with the 135 compression...good luck and let us know if you need anything else.....

[iamanonymous]

my ps pump makes a slight groan sometimes too. i guess it just depends on how loud it is.....

[BustedLX]

The reason your engine is idle hunting is more then likely a vacum leak. Look all over the engine for disconnected vacum lines and cap them. Then recheck your idle.

As for the TPS it should be set at idle between .45 volts - .51 or so so anywhere in that range is acceptab le however it will vary from engine to engine, you need to ensure you have no vacum leaks or else you won't be able to set it properly.

As long as the TPS moves threw the complete voltage range .45- 4 volts then your sensor is ok.

I wouldn't worry about the compression just yet. Get the engine wierd properly and idling correctly then move on to the next step. Try not to overwhelm yourself with to many problems at once.

Edit: Use a shielded wire for the knock sensor.. it doesn't really matter what kind as long as it's a shielded wire. Ground the shielding for the wire to either the black/red or brown/black wires at the ECU.

Add fluid to the PS pump and cut the wheel left to right rapidly and repeatedly threw out the full range. The pump might just need to be bled. It will take around 500 miles of driving though to get completely bled.

Remember to check compression with none of the plugs in and the throttle blade at WOT. Also do a compression test with the engine cold and then the engine warm. That will help you better determine the source of the problem. The problem could be in the top end and not the bottom if there even is one so don't think the worst yet.

[HondaFan81]

Remember to check compression with none of the plugs in and the throttle blade at WOT. Also do a compression test with the engine cold and then the engine warm. That will help you better determine the source of the problem. The problem could be in the top end and not the bottom if there even is one so don't think the worst yet.

I have a few ideas as to why you would want to check compression warm & cold, but could you elaborate more on this BustedLX? Thanks.

[souldoubt]

let me do some digging i think i've got a spare pigtail.i'll check after work.

[BustedLX]

I have a few ideas as to why you would want to check compression warm & cold, but could you elaborate more on this BustedLX? Thanks.

Metals expand at different rates. At cold the engine could give you an in accurate reading but warm the rings should be properly seated and the compression reading will be more acurate.

I have noticed that engines that compression drops when the engine is hot/warm tends to be problems in the head. I had an engine with a bad valve job once that at cold the compression was even and the engine started and ran great till operating temperature. At operating temperature it would miss, run like shit, and be very hard to start. When I checked compression hot it was all out of wack, turns out the machine shop fucked the head up. Last time I used them.

[chris_brains]

thanks alot guys, I really appreciate all the advice, heres how my day went....

thank god for sunny bay area weather today...

I sprayed the d/s / hood / & rear flat black (still have to do roof & p/s - I ran out of paint)

I checked codes and.... no more tps code, I guess it was just off

the codes I was throwing were 14 (fiv right?) 22 (oil press)

so I wiggled the oil press harness and pushed it in, cleared that code up and....

I GOT A PIECE OF SOME SWEET VTEC ASS!!!!!!!!!!



WOOHOO!!!!

...since knk isnt hooked up I just ran to 6k, man, that shit is loud! Loud in a pleasant wonderful type way, ya digg? I had a d16z6 eg but man, it just isnt vtec till you have 2 cams, thas for damn sure

it was only after the test drive that the knk code came up, I already read the fiv write-up so now I just need a pigtail / shielded wire and t.b. rebuild kit and then I should be cool right?

After the test run I had some oil smoke (from front main leaking onto the exhaust) so I really need to do the front main seal....

Heres what I'm thinking in terms of my low compression....

I'm going to try it again with all plugs out and wot (cause I always forget to do wot), the last check I did with the 3 plugs in at a time, Im going to check it cold and warmed up (thanks for the tip)

If its rings heres my 'plan of attack'

Drop the crossmember (which shouldn't have any load on it right?)

Unbolt header, Drop the oil pan & oil pump pickup, unbolt the #2 rod cap, slide the piston to the top of the cylinder and back down & around the crankshaft (will probably have the rotate eng by hand) check the cylinder for taper and if its good, run a hone through it, put new rings on the piston and throw it back together....

Now, is it possible to do all that? In theory I don't see why not but I thought I'd ask cause I've never done it before like that so....

until next time.....

Thx a million
~Brains

[chris_brains]

sig test......

[BustedLX]

There more then likely will be a lip on the sleeve at the top so the psiton won't come out the top.

[chris_brains]

There more then likely will be a lip on the sleeve at the top so the psiton won't come out the top.

I was talking about dropping it out the bottom of the crankcase, would there be a lip at the bottom of the cylinder? please let me know if this is what you mean, cause, I'm counting on being able to fix my motor this way so please let me kno

thx again
~brains

[chiaboi_AcCorD]

hey u bought that cb7 from modesto off of tis asian guy and the license plate is from louisiana or something like that right? the car is red with black bumber am i correct? it has euro tail lights and it's a coupe? if yes i think i know which accord ur talking about, i was about to buy it too but the owner told me that it had lsd and it didn't instead it was running of an USDM h22a1 tranning.

[NoSloCB7]

Your not going to be able to pull it from the bottom....the enigne is going to have to come out

[chris_brains]

hey u bought that cb7 from modesto off of tis asian guy and the license plate is from louisiana or something like that right? the car is red with black bumber am i correct? it has euro tail lights and it's a coupe? if yes i think i know which accord ur talking about, i was about to buy it too but the owner told me that it had lsd and it didn't instead it was running of an USDM h22a1 tranning.

that would be the one, I already got it running pretty good it sure was a pile.... he also said it had a new act clutch well thats ok....... his buddy left a p13 ecu in there and well..... its mine now