Cascade Crew

Sellmanb · Member Joined: 30 Nov 2004 Posts: 727 Location: Tigard, OR

My friend just got a 1989 Honda Accord LXI Fuel injected. It drives fine when you ease into the gas, but if you feather it a little it gets louder, but does not move, and the RPM gauge doesnt go up as fast as I'd suspect it should. It happens both open and closed loop, so I know it's not a sensor that is only in operation in open loop like O2's.

Gas mileage also sucks, best he got on a 250 mile trip was 16MPG all freeway.

So far we've replaced the fuel filter, the fuel injectors (with junkyard ones and new O-rings), spark plugs, plug wires, dizzy cap, rotor, tranny fluid, engine oil and filter, antifreeze (just cuz it looked bad), did a 2 step fuel injection cleaning, gutted the cat (also ran the car w/no exhaust after the y-pipe, throttle responce was better, but power was still not there)

So far we've just replaced normal wear items, hoping it was just neglect that brought the problem. Now since we've replaced most the common wear items, I am sure it's gotta be something else.

My best educated guess is either:

Fuel pump
or
MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure) Sensor.

There is no schrader valve or anywhere for me to test fuel pressure unfortunately, because I have a fuel pressure gauge that I'm dying to use and rule out the fuel pump.

Is there a way to test MAP sensors?

Does anyone else have any ideas as to what it may be?

Thanks,

Bobby

chevymad · Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2005 7:53 pm Post subject:

Simplest way to test a map... plug in a different one. Could be a fuel pump issue but Honda is one of the few cars that I dont change many pumps in. I'm wondering if the cam timing is off a tooth on the belt? Many of these get put together a tooth off and things just run doggy or worse.

Sellmanb · Member Joined: 30 Nov 2004 Posts: 727 Location: Tigard, OR

I'll pull a couple MAP sensors from junkyard cars and see where that leads me then.

There's a sticker on the timing cover that says the timing belt was replaced at 90,000. It's at 175k now, obviously due again.

We tried to set the timing, but soon realized there was no bolt to move the distributor.

Would weak valve springs cause such a problem? The bad performance would probably fit in there, but not gas mileage, right?

I'll ixnay on the fuel pump idea. I dont particularly want to do that swap hah.

mrpopo573 · Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:59 am Post subject:

Sellmanb · Member Joined: 30 Nov 2004 Posts: 727 Location: Tigard, OR

Is there any way to check the cam timing (minus a piston stop or whatever they're called) without taking off the whole cover? I'm guessing not. lol

chevymad · Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 8:34 pm Post subject:

You only need to take off the upper cover. Sometimes you can sneak it out from under the valve cover, other times you need to loosen the valve cover. You'll need to look at a manual to make sure what marks you have to line up. I usually use a mirror to see the cam marks. They're hard to tell if they're perfectly on unless you see then straight on. The crank mark is either on the flywheel or the balancer. Honda did both. Not sure which way yours is.

Sellmanb · Member Joined: 30 Nov 2004 Posts: 727 Location: Tigard, OR

Thanks! I'll check it out as soon as I can get a hold of the car.