So Sunday I had an oil leak. Monday I traced it down to my vtec solenoid, to the infamous upper gasket that you can't buy anywhere, it is revealed by removing 3 bolts from the top cover. Well I did some searching and apperently the only fix is to buy a new/used solenoid with a good gasket or going ghetto and using liquid gasket maker. Well I had the liquid gasket maker in my garage already so I decided to try it before i bought a solenoid. I left my old gasket on there and put liquid gasket maker around it (through the outside so it wouldn't get in the way of the oil path) and I added oil to top it off, well it stopped the oil leak but my vtec doesn't work now, could it be that my solenoid went bad? Or maybe the gasket maker plugged the solenoid? What does the car feel like when the vtec doesn't work? My car doesn't make the vtec sound after 6k and from 7to9k (ap1) it revs very slowly almost like it bogging, I didn't even attempt to make it to 9k I stopped at 8k. Does anyone have any ideas what it could be? Thanks for any input!

 

Oh and now that I remember I also took out this small bronze cylinder looking thing from under the solenoid cap but I put it back in, I just wanted to see what it was. If that has anything to do with it.

 

Disassemble the work you did and make sure, like you suggested, that the gasket maker didn't plug up oil path. If not and all looks good, then id suspect its the VTEC solenoid itself...

I had my VTEC take a shit on me and didn't engage at all in 1st gear for a while. The motor just reved to 9K with no VTEC engagement in first gear. If you don't hear the VTEC engage or feel the valves open up then its not working properly. I reset my ECU and all went back to normal...

 

Good call, I will check other gears tomorrow on my way to work and then open up the vtec again after work to check out the gasket. Is it okay if I drive the car like it is with the vtec not working? Driving normal at around 3k no vtec. I hate driving my truck to work, its almost $20 a day just for gas on the truck to get to work and back

 

How do you adjust ECU?

 

Problem resolved. Opened up the solenoid top and my liquid gasket maker plugged the hole on the oil path, I took out the plug and make an exact copy of my original gasket with gasket paper and I set it in the grooves and then put in my original gasket over that and bolted it down, the purpose of the gasket paper was to elevate my original gasket a little to get a good seal, so far no oil leaking and vtec is good. May I also add that its crazy how much you can forget how vtec feels and sounds in 3 days, I fell in love with ny s all over again

 

Great work!!!

 

Well you cant adjust it, but you do need to reflash it in some cases when you go FI. You can reset the ECU by pulling the fuse. But I just disconnected the battery and waited a few minutes. Thing is if you are going to go the battery route you need your radio code. And, there is a process when it comes to resetting the ECU. The car has to relearn the idle, etc. There are many threads on that just search around...