hf civic swap almost stalls when cold

[MakDiesel]

update on my "clunk". It now seems to be coming from the driver's side shock, possibly the axle. Everytime I run over uneven road it makes this noise, turning doesn't seem to matter much, although I hear it sometimes when I press in the clutch to slow to a stop...it also appears that side axle is occasionally rubbing something (clean lines/grooves vs. the rest of the dirty ol' axle) maybe the LCA? If only I could hire a englis-speaking trained gremlin w/ an earpiece to ride underneath my car as I drive it along patchy country back roads then I could get on w/ my grill block! Mak

[Gary Palmer]

Originally Posted by budomove

In all fairness Ben, there are only 83k on the b1, and it acts like a new engine in any other context. Glad to see you settled in at school, and looks like you've met your match.

I am driving an 89 wagovan, which is functionally similar to a DX. The problem your having is largely just because your engine is cold and your loading it up pretty heavily, because of the HF gearing. If your going to run in higher gear's at those low speed's, at best you have to be extremely light on the gas pedal and even at that, if your rpm's get to low, your going to get buck, kick and snort, which isn't good for anything.

I'd just run it in a lower gear until it's warmed up and take it very easy on the throttle. I've got a tach on my car and I've been really surprized at how low I can go on the rpm, before it start's to balk. It will however balk, at some point. Essentially it's a question of asking for to much torgue from the engine, at to low of an engine speed. The engine put's out varying torgue, as the engine turns and the pistons go up and down. At higher rpm's, it is running fast enough it doesn't show up as noticable. At lower rpm's and higher throttle position, it start's to complain.

[Gary Palmer]

Originally Posted by MakDiesel

update on my "clunk". It now seems to be coming from the driver's side shock, possibly the axle. Everytime I run over uneven road it makes this noise, turning doesn't seem to matter much, although I hear it sometimes when I press in the clutch to slow to a stop...it also appears that side axle is occasionally rubbing something (clean lines/grooves vs. the rest of the dirty ol' axle) maybe the LCA? If only I could hire a englis-speaking trained gremlin w/ an earpiece to ride underneath my car as I drive it along patchy country back roads then I could get on w/ my grill block! Mak

Mak: Does it make the sound more when your accelerating or slowing down, or is it more when your going over bump's. If it's bump's, your shock or attachment are probably getting loose. If it's when accelerating or decelerating, then it's probably the lower control arm bushing's. In either case, it doesn't sound like it's the halfshaft.

[FormulaTwo]

I had this same problem

It is your throttle position sensor!!!!!

you probably dont need a new one, you probably just need to adjust it

[budomove]

formulatwo, you think I should adjust MY tps?

[MakDiesel]

Originally Posted by Gary Palmer

Mak: Does it make the sound more when your accelerating or slowing down, or is it more when your going over bump's. If it's bump's, your shock or attachment are probably getting loose. If it's when accelerating or decelerating, then it's probably the lower control arm bushing's. In either case, it doesn't sound like it's the halfshaft.

It happens either way, at almost any decent speed (constant or otherwise), but bumps and dips aggravate it. I checked the axle-to-LCA clearance yesterday to make sure it was good and noticed my driver's side shock tower has something defintely amiss. Instead of being in the center and low, it's skewed heavily to the front and appears higher than the other side. What causes/remedies this? I'll take a pic sometime. Mak

[GasSavers_Ryland]

the other main differnce between what SVOboy has, and what you have, is that he is running MPFI and you are running DPFI, or throttle body injection, correct? and you have to remember that a cold engine is going to run richer, and when you lug an engine it further enriches the mix, and if you have an old engine that is in need of a tune up, less the perfect spark plugs, or a dirty injector, you might be lugging your car to the point that it is spitting raw fuel out the tail pipe.

[budomove]

ryland, thanks for your input. you think the dpfi is causing the lugging and/or you think it will contribute to higher fuel consumption with a cold engine?

[GasSavers_Ryland]

No, driving 35mph in 5th with an HF tranny is causeing the lugging, and the DPFI isn't helping to cover it up as well as MPFI would in an engine that has lousey low end tourqe.
Throttle body injection is a reasonably crude form of fuel injection, the throttle body on your car looks sort of like a carburator would, only it has two big fuel injectors on the side of it insted of lots of little brass jets inside like a carburator, I've only worked on one a little, and my shop manual for it is still on lone... so I can't look up exactly how it works, but from what I know about honda fuel injection (and fuel injection in general) when the engine is cold it will enrichen the air fuel mix as much as 8:1 (ideal 14.2:1 or something close to that) but then you also have a fuel presure regulator that is controled by engine vaccum, so when you step on the accelorator pedal and manifold vaccum increases it rases the fuel presure to the injector, alowing it to inject more fuel, you also have a throttle possision sensor (TPS) that can tell that you pressed the accelarator pedal down, and tells the injector to stay open even longer, and the engine isn't warmed up, so the o2 sensor is most likely not operatating yet (is it even a two wire o2 sensor?) so the computer controling the fuel injection is just running it's preset programing as to how the engine should be running.
so when you add an engine like that to a transmision that is desined for an engine with a more complex fuel injection system, and more low end tourqe, I'm rather suprized that you are having as few problems as you are, if I were you I would try running a tank where you are driving 35mph in 3rd gear, 40-45mph in 4th, and wait untill you are going 50-55mph to shift in to 5th, (unless you have something like a very long flat or slight down hill slope) and I'm going to bet that you see your car not only running better, but that your mileage goes up as well.

[budomove]

does sound crude. makes me want a z1 with mpfi. i will run that tank next week!