ok.....


so here is the update....

i got a new vtec solenoid gasket... the car the first 2 WOT runs after cut out... but then afterwards was fine and went into boost.... i did notice that the A/F's were much richer at redline, but the car still made power... but the car would occasionally break up... especially the past few days... but the one time it didnt break up, i raced an evo through 2nd to third and destroyed him...

today i was hunting down the wiring issue with my car and why it wasnt registering coolant temperatures... it has a modifry...


i foudn that the ground that was supposed to be on the back of the head was actually attached to the firewall... so to get at that bolt i took off teh valve cover...

i get the cover off and look at the cams.... where the cams hit the rockers there seems to have worn off the machining lines and parts of them are shinier the parts that don't seem to be hitting the rockers... i then look down below the cams and see one of the vtec pins that get pushed through the rocker arms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

first off, have i done damage to the cams by having the car vtec without one of the pins in? Also, i was planning on taking apart the rocker arms tomorrow morning and try and get that pin back in... Does anyone have a electronic printout of the helms manual i could have a look at for the removal of the rocker arms? and when i line up the cams to remove them, i move the cam pulley to where those two lines meet up? or does having the timing chain tensioner in make the pulley not accurate? is it where those two white dots are on the cams that i need to realign them when i reinstall them? i know this might not make a lot of sense, but any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Your running your car with one of the pins missing

 

i am not running the car now that i know one of the pins is missing... i would never have known if i hadnt looked under the valve cover...

a vtec solenoid and a new set of plugs are on their way as well... but it seems i hve found the problem...

 

is there anyway of getting the pin back into the rocker arm without having to remove the rocker assembly?

also, i have been reading the manual and it says i need to loosen all adjustement screws prior to removing the cams and rocker arms... this means that i need to do a valve adjustment when i reinstall them? is there anyway of leaving the valves how they have been adjusted when taking the rocker arms off?

any response would be greatly appreciated

 

hey guys,

just wondered if anyone had any helpful info!

 

honestly, you can do this. but it isnt for the faint of heart. so if you had someone else do the job that got you to this point, you have to ask yourself, do i lack the confidence to do this? if so, have someone OTHER than who just F*^CKED up your car fix this.
I will help you if i can, even if i have to fax you pages from the factory shop manual.
all you have to do, is pull the valve cover. put the motor at TDC (look at balancer). look at the cams, youll see the marks (scribes) on the cam gears, they should line up with the edge of the head. (VC sealing surface). pull the timing chain tensioner. (this is where youll be stuck, you need the pin tool to hold the tct once you compress it per factory procedure). now zip tie the sprocket to the chain and remove the one bolt that holds it on. careful not to drop the spacer into the motor. now take off the cams and youll be ready to pull the rockers. the trick here, that wasnt used when the assembly was reinstalled, is to push hard on both ends, both as you remove, and as you reinstall the entire rocker assembly. this will put them in a bind, not allowing the rockers to move. IF they move, thats when the pins fall out. you need to stand them on end. and then move all the rockers apart one at a time (they are in 3's youll see one for each valve, VTEC in the center) and see if the pins are in place for each set. then youll find the one, maybe a few more that the pins are missing from. hope that there is no damage, and that none of the pins went down into the motor. that should get you on the road. if you have any issues at all, call me. i dont mind helping people.
702-506-3287. laters good luck. and get some coin back from who did this, cause they didnt know or care what they were doing.. no solenoid gasket??? cmon. that is unacceptable. dave

 

I had a stuck pin and honestly, took less than an hour to take the cams out, lube and reinstall/verify all the the pins were working and drive away..... Looks to be a much more daunting task than it is, but without having to deal with a timing belt on these cams, it's really not too bad.....

 

First before you start taking things apart take a pictutre of the pin.
Your description of the pin isn't very good and it might even be in the normal position.

The rocker arms being shinier in a certain spot is normal. The cams make contact with the rocker arms at the same point over and over again and they do not necessarily touch the entire surface of the rocker arm.

You said "they" finished up the headgasket install.... take it back to "them" and make "them" fix your car

 

Please man let us know what happens, because i have the same problem, after turbo (+headgasket+headstuds) install, my vtec is not working. We have tried everything. Tomorrow i'm puting OEM injectors and ECU and run the car NA. If vtec still doesn't work, we are opening the motor again to see if they have done an improper install of the headgasket

 

Just my 02 cents here, but I recently rebuilt my head, new headgasket etc. upon installation, I did not use air to blow through the vtec system on the rockers as per the manual. All my pins were installed but vtec was still not engaging properly. Upon disassembly, I found several of the pins were stuck in place, and I had to use a magnet (a very strong magnet) to get them out. I cleaned them, and dipped them in motor oil before reinstalling and put it back together. Voila... That was all it was.