gearbox

iTrader: (95)

Okay everyone,

There is a long story about this and everything that happened. I want to give a big thanks to civicstreetrcr and his buddy for putting the head on. I mostly watched in disbelief while they did everything I'm not even gonna try and tell you what they did--it involves so much work and time.

Anyway, here is me driving down super early on Saturday. I only got a few hours sleep.



Here is a shot of the old exhaust ports. They look so tiny! Basically everything on the car had to come off before they could get to the head and swap all the manifold stuff, cams, vtec soleniod, etc.



Here is a shot of the bay with head exposed. You can see the cams on top.



Now see those studs sticking out near the exhaust ports? Yeah--DH forgot to put them on the new head they sent. So we had to get some vise grips, PB blaster lube, and a blow torch to finally force them off the old head. In the process, it scored the surface pretty bad. So hopefully I won't need the old head anyway.

Here's a pic of everything taken out. So finally you can see the pistons.



We were shocked with how much carbon buildup there was on the valves and pistons. So that chevron techron fuel system cleaner is useless. Here's a pic AFTER they tried to clean the pistons off with brake cleaner. Still wouldn't come off completely. Before there was a thick layer all over.



I just picked up some greased lightning fuel system cleaner to hopefully help this. It says you only need it every year because it's so concentrated. Supposed to clean entire fuel system and improve mpg and hp. Looks really good.



Okay, now for the biggest problem of the night. So once the head, cam gear, and header was put on, we tried to test it. Car started up fine and the engine was sounding good. But wait! We hear a loud clunking noise coming from the belts area. They tracked it to the AEM cam gear, and we tried to lube up the belts and stuff. So finally we're like let's put the stock cam gear back on and see what happens. They had to take off the valve cover and coils again to remove it. After removing the screw, the stupid cam gear would not pull out! Worse yet, the screws holding the cam gear together had dug into the plastic shield on the mounting location. So after about a half hour of prying and pulling with a screwdriver, it came off. Not only did that AEM cam gear not fit in right, it also was rubbing! I wanted to throw that junk in the trash. That stupid thing set the whole install back over an hour.So we went to put the stock one back in--it slipped in with no problem. So after getting everything together, I headed back home.

I was so tired coming back and didn't really get to test it out. All I can say was over 65mph everything got alot louder. I took it up to 90mph and it was pulling nicely. Today I've been driving around a little and keeping the rpms low. Under 3k rpms, it seems just like stock. That means there's no loss in low end that I can feel. Also feels like the car picks up better from a start. Driving so it shifts below 4krpms still gives a good amount of power. Once vtec kicks in, it gets louder and pulls better (mostly intake is heard).

Overall, I would say it's working good so far. I think it's gonna get better once the ecu adjusts and I use that fuel system cleaner. I also have to get that vtec controler tuned sometime. I really need to drive it some more around familiar areas to see what improved. All I can say is the car feels different--it runs smoother and better than ever. I'll report back later with more info.

K20me

iTrader: (9)

congratulations man! take it to the track now!

Ershall

iTrader: (4)

That's good, at least it's not a total loss then.

lid6662

Sweet good to hear. Just got drive it alot tonite so ur ecu learns the mod and bam more power !

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

Here is a final engine bay shot. Thanks to doubledeuce2k2 for fipk and ricergribbs for the header.

Oh and I have an automatic if you're wondering. Header and gasket are port-matched to the exhaust ports on the head.

chocobo15_2000

iTrader: (6)

looks good man!! nice and clean!!

chocobo15_2000

iTrader: (6)

andh where'd u get the greased lightning fuel system cleaner?

Quijano187

iTrader: (1)

overall do you feel happy with the job and money that you spend? All the pics where nice. hopefully everything goes fine. please let us know when ecu adjusts. I think it take about two tanks. you should feel sometime type of change.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

Fuel system cleaner I got from advance auto parts. I have a feeling it will work.

I drove around some more and it feels good mostly. Some nice midrange gain, but there are spots in the curve where power will fluctuate. So I think either the injectors may be clogged a little, or it might be running lean.

Auto tranny feels like it slips sometimes, but it shifts faster for the most part. Maybe because it's hot out today. Oh well, extended warranty time if anything happens

And no, I don't think it was worth the $1500 for everything. It's nice to have, but not worth it. Maybe after tuning it will feel even better.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

I just tried the fuel system cleaner, so hopefully that will clean the injectors and give more fuel. It was really hot in the engine bay, so I'm gonna go drive at night to see if there's any better gain.

Does anyone have ideas about how I can get everything working better? Obviously the cam gear didn't work out, but I still have VAFCII. I've heard that it doesn't add enough fuel though. What else would help?

reddawnman

Gear, just curious as to what kind of gas (Brand) you use, and what Oil and how long between changes you go. How many miles on the car? That's a LOT of fouling and it makes me wonder if all the maintenance etc that I've been doing is for naught.

I've heard they sell BG-44K at the stealership and that is what does the "best" job on fouling, but I'm not sure. If techron doesn't help at all... geez, guess its time to try something new.

Sounds like the head was a PITA, but I'll bet once the ECU gets trained It'll dyno about 15 horses or so. 1500 for 15 horses, however, doesn't sound like it's worth it to me either, especially with all the problems you had with DH.

Good luck!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

Dude that pic you see is after we cleaned them up. It was ALOT worse. I used to use 87 gas, but now I'm switching to 89 just to be safe for the higher compression. I'll let you guys know how that new cleaner works. Oil changes I always do at the dealer every 3k/3months. Car is almost 24k miles, so I guess it's getting old.

The head was an insane amount of work. I could never do it. Basically everything came off except the strut bar

reddawnman

Daaaammmmn. Well, I use 87 octane and change every 3 on the filter and 6 on the oil (I use redline Syn). I just shoved the 20 Oz "SUV and large car size" techron concentrate in my tank, so hopefully that'll help it get better. I feel a big difference actaully, but I'll bet it's not helping nearly as much as it should. Next thing I try will be the BG-44K.

Thanks for the input. BTW how often did you put the techron in your system and what mileage did you start?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

I used to use techron gas all the time for the first 10k. Then I added techron every3k miles. It is completely useless. I should have taken a pic before to show how bad the carbon was. Techron does not work. If this greased lightning doesn't help, I may try the Honda stuff.

kezay

iTrader: (2)

Get it on a dyno and lets get some numbers!!

reddawnman

Thanks for the info. First thing tuesday I'm going to my stealership and getting some BG-44K, don't care what it costs. If that was your "After" I'll be my before looks pretty hideous, but I dont wanna take off my head to find out. It could be driving style, too though. When I take my car past 90-100 its short bursts only.

canadian2k1si

iTrader: (5)

Hey Gearbox, good to hear the head is in & working, I still have to install mine. I have an AEM cam gear to install too, any reccomendations on how to make it work better in the first place, or should I just get another type of adjustable cam for this setup? I need to have a cam gear, because I plan on retarding my timing about 2Deg because I will be using a different camshaft, one of the DH-Racing reground ones for a turbo setup.

I also have the Custom Intake Manifold & 74mm Throttle Body to install too.

Besides the CAM gear and header bolts, was the swap basically straight forward? Any problems swapping the camshaft from one to the other?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

The AEM cam gear is garbage. If you somehow get it on, it will rub and mess everything up. Then good luck taking it off again. Mine is working just fine with the stock cam gear. Oh wait but you said you're running a new cam, so I don't know. I guess any other brand would work.

If you know what you're doing with the swap, then it should go smoothly. Everything must come out to get the head off. Cam swap was fairly simple for them I guess.

Just make sure you have the 10 new head bolts, new gaskets for intake and exhaust ports and the head itself, and a donut gasket for the bottom of the header. Oh and you should port match the exhaust manifold and gasket to match the DH ports. Otherwise you could get inversion of gases back into the engine (bad).

But yeah. The two big problems we ran into were trying to get the studs off the old head and onto the new one. That and the stupid cam gear that we were all pissed about. Bad AEM!

canadian2k1si

iTrader: (5)

Cool, thanks.

I think I have everything, but I am dissapointed about the AEM cam gear, what differences would others make, don't they all have the same dimentions, or are they all different. Any recomndations on what cam gear to use then?

Civryder02

who did your head work gearbox ? DH ?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

Yeah, it's the DH head. And now I'm not so sure about it. I drove it alot tonight and it was okay. It gets really noisy even with the fipk intake, so I put the stock one back on just now. Most of the power I felt is gone, and it feels like stock again. I don't know, but maybe it was just the intake I was feeling. I'm really getting pissed about this whole thing and spending so much money for hardly any gains.

And now something is buzzing/rattling as the gears shift for a second. Don't know what it is. I'll have to see what happens and maybe put the intake back on. But then it's gonna be noisy again. Man this car kills me sometimes. I'm ready to give up because all these things I do never give any gain.

ImportRacer2123

iTrader: (13)

Nitrous trust me it works i have the timeslip of a 15.7 A/T

canadian2k1si

iTrader: (5)

Perhaps you need more air/fuel into the head - like using a bigger TB & an Intake manifold.

obguam

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the report. I suggest you consult an all motor tuning specialist to figure out how best to maximize gains from what you have. Then dyno.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

Well I put the fipk back on and gained some power back. The stock intake caused losses all over the rpm band. Even low end got better with the K&N.

And what do you guys think the buzzing is when it shifts. Sounds like something is vibrating. What else can be done to tune this setup?

orso

iTrader: (1)

well since everything got louder with the head i am going to say that it could be from air resonance in the head. you like when you change your intake and it gets louder. something like that could be happening, or is it buzzing all the time?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

Just for a second, and usually during shifts. Sounds like something's vibrating loose. I remember driving yesterday when I heard something fall out of the engine bay. Probably just a loose screw or something. But the noise was still there before that.

Also, the fipk intake sounds different. And it looks like oil is dripping. So I'm gonna try and clean the filter, too.

So what else can I do to improve this setup? Feels like something is missing, like maybe exhaust or something. But pickup feels good from a stop. The intake really helps alot.

canadian2k1si

iTrader: (5)

Good to hear you got the power back from the intake, but that loose screw falling from the engine bay is strange? Have you checked where it could have come from?

Do you have a full 2.5" cat back exhaust to match up with your ported header? A ported head is great for more air to flow, but if the air is restricted before & after the head, you won't see near the gains as it is capable of. Ever think of getting an intake manifold and larger TB, and some bigger injectors so you can get the full advantage out of that ported head?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

Intake mani is super hard to swap and most likely the head will have to come off again. Maybe a bored tb may help. Exhaust is stock except for rear section. I can't find bigger injectors that will fit, although that would really help if I could. Might be looking for a catback exhaust in the sale forums. Just don't want too much noise.

hustlelikem0fo

iTrader: (10)

Props to Civicster and his freind who helped you out. I really respect people who are willing to sacrifice their time to help out someone. Gongrats on the head gear and once again props to civicster and his friend for helping you out.