h22a swap, p13 ecu problems..please help

I have a 92 si and I just finished a putting a jdm 95 vtec motor in. I used the distributor and intake manifold off the si, but put the vtec fuel injectors in the si intake manifold. I also used the si wireharness and I know I wont be able to use vtec yet. My problem is when I hook up my jdm p13 ecu to this setup the car will not run properly. It revs but wants to bog down and is not driveable. When I hook the p14 si ecu up the car runs fine, no vtec of course. I tryed running straight wire to the vtec cylonoid and the vtec oil pressure sensor and then to the ecu to have vtec wired but I still have the same problem with how the car runs. Is my p13 ecu bad?? Or do I not have something hooked up?? Please help.

I'm not 100% sure, but the thing that raises the red flag for me is using the H23 distributor on the H22 motor.

Did you swap the fuel rails and lines from the Si to the h22a? The intake manifold on the Si and VTEC are pretty much identical, so you didn't really need to use the Si's. Also, in addition to the two wires to the pressure sensor and solenoid, you need to run a ground wire to the engine block. It's the wire on the pressure switch.

(Oh, and you do have to use the h23 dizzy.. and also need an external coil bracket)

Im sorry, i made a mistake, i am using the h22a intake but I am using the si injectors, but they are the same anyway. I did ground the black wire coming out of the pressure sensor also. What is the "h23 dizzy" and an external coil bracket ,and would this cause the motor to act the way it does with the h22 ecu?

I think by dizzy, he means distributor. An external coil bracket would be for an external coil.

ok, i will try switching distributors to see if that works. my heater hose tore lastnight so I got some work to do anyway.

ok, i will try switching distributors to see if that works. my heater hose tore lastnight so I got some work to do anyway.

Ace said to use the H23 distributor.. isn't that what you have in there already?

yeah, but thats not working, i tryed the h22 distributor today but it must have a bad internal coil because the car wont turn over, i tryed with both ecu's.

I found today that usdm h22 motors have the same distributor as the usdm h23 motors (external coil). But the jdm h22 motors have a completely different distributor. It has an internal coil. You probably already now this. Sorry, i'm new. Since I have a jdm h22 motor with a jdm p13 ecu it seems like I would have to have the jdm distributor with the internal coil. This would probably solve my problem with why my car wont run properly with the usdm h23 distributor on this setup. Please tell me what you think, and I appreciate all the help so far. Thanks.

CORRECTION...This will probably solve my problem with why my car wont run properly with the the p13 ecu on this setup.

Sorry about not being around. Anyhow, yes, that's right; the JDM h22a has an internal coil. To make it work, you must use the h23a distributor with the h23a external ignition coil and an external bracket.

I got my brackets from here:
http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/auto/jsp/mws/prddisplay.jsp?inputstate=5&catcgry1=Prelude&catcgry2=1993&catcgry3=2DR+SIVTEC&catcgry4=KA5MT&catcgry5=IGNITION+COIL

I have the h23 distributor and external coil. They are both hooked up right now, but I dont have the bracket. I dont see how not having a bracket could cause the p13 ecu to not function properly.

You're right, the bracket just holds down the coil.

Wait a sec, I read your first post again... You made a circuit from the VTEC solenoid to the pressure sensor, and then to the ECU? And where specifically did you connect the wire to the ECU?

I think that's your problem right there. The solenoid and sensor wires must come individually to the ECU, and connect to their respective pins. The black ground wire completes the circuit.

I ran the vtec solenoid wire straight to the A4 slot on the ecu, and the green wire from the pressure sensor to d6 slot on ecu, and the black wire from the pressure sensor to a bolt on the motor to ground it off. but i had problems with the p13 before i hooked all this up. with the p13 ecu hooked up the car will rev, but revs very hesitive, and seems to overload, not driveable.

Hmm, then you've got me. I have no idea. If all else fails, try it with another p13, but I realize this isn't very practical.

ok, thanks for the help, i do that.

[QUOTE=schackai]I have a 92 si and I just finished a putting a jdm 95 vtec motor in. I used the distributor and intake manifold off the si, but put the vtec fuel injectors in the si intake manifold. I also used the si wireharness and I know I wont be able to use vtec yet. My problem is when I hook up my jdm p13 ecu to this setup the car will not run properly. It revs but wants to bog down and is not driveable. When I hook the p14 si ecu up the car runs fine, no vtec of course. I tryed running straight wire to the vtec cylonoid and the vtec oil pressure sensor and then to the ecu to have vtec wired but I still have the same problem with how the car runs. Is my p13 ecu bad?? Or do I not have something hooked up?? Please help.

Hi I see that you received a lot of responses. Have you solved your problem? If not we had to overcome similar problems and resolved them through a few hours of dilligent wire tracings. We had a 1992 SI which was an automatic with a H23 and did a 1995 JDM swap. WE used the JDM distributor and the JDM engine wiring harness with the 1992 SI underdash wiring harness. We had identical problems but she ran great with the H22a distributor and the P14 ECU without the VTEC working. But once we figured out where we went wrong she huals but now with the VTEC kiccking in @5200 and smokes Mustang GTs.

It appears you have several issues so lets address them one at a time. The VTEC is an easy one so lets first address the rough running with the proper P13ECU. DO NOT USE YOUR P14 ECU. Is your check engine light on and stays on when you turn the ignition key on? If yes, find the 2 wire service check connector( found behind under center console close to the radio)? Turn your ignition key off and jump these 2 wires and if you do not get your check engine light to blink...the ecu is probably in the backup mode. Turn the ignition switch off and remove the 10 amp radio fuse found underhood fuse/relaybox. By removing the radio fuse for 10 seconds it resets your ecu. Put the fuse back in and remove the jumper wire on the service connector.

Turn your key on(you have to start engine this time) what is your engine light doing now? If light goes off after 5 seconds than you are good to go if it stays on turn off engine than jump the service connector again turn on the ignition without starting and see if it gives you a series of blinks that are interpreted into DTC ( diagnostic trouble codes) there are many sites that contain what the short and long blinks mean. But is sounds like you have a tech manual that helped you figure out the ecu pinouts for the VTEC.

If you get no blinks and light stays on solid than start your engine and loosen your 3 distributor bolts so you can adjust the advance timing on your distributor. From the sounds of it you might have the ecu wired incorrectly for automatically advancing the timing. Turn your distributor within the restricted bolt slots and manually rev your engine and see if you gain improvement in idle and up to 5000 rpms. If you dont see a change go the opposite way with the distributor adjustment. If you see major running performance than you know it is the ecu or the wiring that controls the ignition timing control or ignition control module.

There are several orange wires coming into your ecu and coming from your SI underdash wiring harness. These can be confused easily. One orange wire is your cylinder position sensor ECU pin B11 and the other is vehicle speed sensor Pin B10There is also 2 wires coming from your SI wiring harness that are identical in color I believe it is Yellow Green stripe or the opposite. Check your distributor and see if you have a Yellow Green wire going into it. If yes check your wiring harness underdash and see if you have more than one of these color wires coming out of your wiring harness. If yes, reconnect the one connected to the ecu to the one that has nothing connected to it. Yellow Green splits off into your ECU pin number A21 and A22. If this is connected correctly
than you no longer have to advance the timing manually.

If this information is helpful than you can thank the Tuners at GTC MotorSports located in the deep south party city of New Orleans9 locally pronounced Nawlins) If not you are welcome to email me or call me at 504-296-5710 or beaudeg@bellsouth.net

I also have a 92 si manual trans, and recently swapped in a jdm h22a, and i'm having the exact same problem with ecu's. the swap is pretty much according to aceshigh info including the wiring of the vtec solenoid (A4) and pressure sensor (D6, and black wire to Ground) (ps. thanks for that ace). Just like the original poster, the car runs great with the p14 (minus vtec capabilities, and I get an engine light when i hit around 40mph - perhaps related to my egr but that's a different story) HOWEVER the car runs quite poorly with the p13, with an engine light coming on immediatley. I (luckily) had *3* p13 ecu's at my disposal, however i was getting the same results with all 3, which has lead me to believe something else is the problem. I'm' hoping to have this figured in the next couple of days and the guys at the shop that have been helping me seem pretty knowledgeable... if/when it's figured i'll try to explain the solution here a bit better. In the meanwhile if any of you have any suggestions, or ideas i'm all ears, i've printed out the reply that is above this one about manual timing advance, in hopes it might be something along those lines. If the original poster has since figured out the problem i'm all ears (:

thanks

bump...

thought some of you might be interested in where i'm at with this...


as it turns out (or is looking to turn out) the shop that did the initial swap has royally *expletive* me...it's amazing how many things they've screwed up...(from trying to give me my car back with the p14 *geez that's a real hard one to figure out guys*, to not even running the wires for the vtec initally *geez why isn't this solenoid wired in*.. problems I had to sort out over time with them..) oh and their worst boo boo, trying to release the car without changing the timing belt - while charging me for a brand new one!!! (it began to get eaten in front of them while they were running the car for me..)

then there was the p14 rejecting p13 problem...

the other *much better* shop (they do a lot of swaps) that had the car had managed to swap out o2 sensors to see if that was the prob, and fixed an egr leak that was giving the engine light. Furthermore, not only were they able to test 3 ecu's on the car, but they then threw the p13 i was attempting to use in another vtec prelude to make sure there was indeed nothing wrong with it. they were a little stumped - assuming of course that the work done by the other shop was correct.

I was convinced myself that fuel in some way must have been a problem, because the p14 proved their was no prob with Air or Spark, hell it drove around fine (in hind sight probably a bit lean, but the p14 probably liked the fuel/air mix it was giving itself) and the way the car bogged down with rpms above idle with the p13 suggested some mismatch in fuel delivery...
anyways meanwhile I was thinking that the other *bad* shop must have screwed something else up (deductive reasoning i guess), and I remember I had told them to change the fuel rail from the h23a (cuz of the RHD) - well guess what ?? they changed the INJECTORS too, so my h22a was running on the 240cc injectors!! now the worst part.. so i had blindly robbed some parts off my old h23a (yah i'm a pack rat like that) including snagging my old intake manifold, headers, manual timing tensioner etc.. so I anxiously got home today expecting that the PROPER 345cc injectors would be with the manifold i snagged and i could swap them out and be done.. guess what? surprise surprise they are *missing* I've phoned the shop and demanded they *find* them.. but something tells me i'm up the dirty creek and that i'll be unfortunatley making an injector purchase soon ):

I don't want to rant and rave about shoddy mechanics, but I never thought i would have to "micromanage" this project as much as I did, hell i would have swapped the engine myself - if my car had only made it back onto the island, as I have a mechanical background myself (different but still). If anything though, or if any of you are going to be doing this swap be sure to go thru mechanics that are reputated for doing swaps - even though it's an easy swap - some bonehead with a wrench can and will f** it up for you! (I learned this the hardway) I'm personally just glad my new/used h22a has survived their idiocy this far.

btw if anyone has any h22a injectors (;

yeah, but thats not working, i tryed the h22 distributor today but it must have a bad internal coil because the car wont turn over, i tryed with both ecu's.
h23a comes with an external coil and the h22 has internal i think u just have to put the black and yellow wires of the plug from ur h23 coil together so it works and the other wire is not use.

h23a comes with an external coil and the h22 has internal i think u just have to put the black and yellow wires of the plug from ur h23 coil together so it works and the other wire is not use.

Hopefully after nearly two years Ludeguy has already fixed his car.:screwy:

I ran the vtec solenoid wire straight to the A4 slot on the ecu, and the green wire from the pressure sensor to d6 slot on ecu, and the black wire from the pressure sensor to a bolt on the motor to ground it off. but i had problems with the p13 before i hooked all this up. with the p13 ecu hooked up the car will rev, but revs very hesitive, and seems to overload, not driveable.

contact rywire, spare about 200$ dollars use everything from h22a but also depends what you are swapping into. I shipped my 90 accord dx, shipped the accord harness and my h22a engine harness to Rywire when it came back installed to my motor then did the swap the car started like it was meant to be. www.Rywire.com

Please check post dates before posting, this is a 4 year old topic.