well I know what youre talking about with a "weak" vtec, a lot of ther SOHC vtecs are a lot more mild and you do not feel the gains in a lot of them. But he has a 5th gen lude, which you should definitely be able to feel/hear it, by the way, ludeman, do you have an intake or anything else that would enable you to hear vtec? like drift said, if the ecu knows that the solenoid is not operating it will throw a vtec malfunction code....