91 crx si w/ b16 swap, having problems. PLEASE HELP

[jedmo91crxsi]

i have a 91 crx si with a jdm b16a1 swap thats been giving my sometrouble lately, and i was wondering if anybody might be able to give me an idea of what might be the problem or problems.

Anyways, here are the problems....

first off, when i try to start the car, it sometimes wont start right away, like it takes a minute to fire up, where as it used to fire right up all the time. it does this when it's cold and hasnt ran for a bit,

secondly, when started and while just idling, it will surge and never stays at a steady rpm, usually goes from like 600 to about 1500 rpm's or so.

thirdly...it tends to run hot, well, the temp will go from normal to almost in the red then back down to normal to barely above half back to normal back up to the red sometimes stay there for a few min then back down to norm... i'm not too sure, but to me it seems that sometimes if its close to the red and i rev it up some for a sec it will cool back down... i dont know what's goin on...

fourth... sometimes it will smoke from the exaust, a white kind of smoke and smell like antifreeze, the heater inside the car also smells of antifreeze, so yeah...

and finally... the vtec does not work anymore, no clue why or if any of the other things have anything to do with it...

if anybody might have any ideas as to what might cause these sorts of things, i'd really appreciate it if you could help me out..

[hondacivic99sivtec]

vtec is not working because your in limp mode (cel, safety mode) the smoke, what color is it? the idle, check your vaccum lines, and your sensors.

[AudioGuy93DelSol]

The unstable temp is probably due to a half full coolant system. If you just filled the radiator up while the car was off, the block was probably empty. Open your radiator cap when your car is cold and off, start it and let it warm up. Fill it untill it starts to overflow.

[jedmo91crxsi]

ok... limp mode?? what's that and how do i get it out of it...

as for the idle problem, someone told me it might be the iacv or something, how do i check that?

and like i said, the smoke is white, when it does come out, and it smells like antifreeze, so im thinking maybe the head gasket is going out, which could also be part of my overheating probelm?, cuz yeah,and yes the fan does come on.. also the heat coming out of the vents smells a little like antifreeze...

would a bad head gasket cause idle surging??? just wondering...

[jedmo91crxsi]

as for the surging, i think i figured that out, it was vaccuum lines hooked up that werent ever hooked up before..... vtec still does not come on and temp still acts crazy, how about a thermostat sticking, could that cause that bad of temp unstableness???? im still thinking maybe a bad head gasket... what about the vtec though, even if i get the head gasket replaced and what not so that stops, how do i get the vtec to work??

[hondacivic99sivtec]

have you done a compression test?


try this

[jedmo91crxsi]

ok... i figured out that the ecu was throwing cel for the oil pressure switch, i thought jdm ecu's didint look for that?? oh well, i got to looking around and found that the pressure switch wasnt hooked up, so all i did is ground out the lead from the ecu for the oil pressure switch and now the vtec works awesomely... still throws cel, but idk... and for the temp craziness, i took the radiator cap off and started the car and let it run a while like that to let it bleed any air pockets it might have out... now it seems to be fine, so thanks for your input everyone