Okay, finished breaking in my rebuilt motor and everything runs fine except that the vtec is not working at all. After checking and rechecking the wiring we couldn't find any solution. So the other day I blew my head gasket and while we were replacing it I noticed that one of the dowels on the center cam holder cap was missing.(Probably at the machine shop with all my other missing parts) Could this possibly be the reason that the motor isn't switching over to vtec?

 

well I would check the electricl part of it before looking into the mechanical part of the VTEC system..... unhook the VTEC wire from the solinoid and attach a multimeter or if your being cheap hook up a light and drive at where the VTEC should usually kick in (ie 5500 RPM) and see if it lights up..... next if thats not the problem...... hook up the solinoid to a 12V power source and see if it clicks .... if both check out good it would be mechanical.....YOu may be missing a lost motion assembly on your head

 

Are you throwing any codes?

 

If you're missing the dowel pin, which goes under the center cam cover your VTEC will not turn on. If the machine shop lost it, you'll have to get a new one as well as the oring that goes around it. What the dowel and O ring do is hold oil pressure for vtec. Obviously if you have neither, you're not gonna get VTEC cuz there's no oil pressure. Even if you had the dowel and no oring you wouldn't get vtec. Look in your FSM for the part numbers.

 

And if you're not holding enough oil pressure for, won't the CEL come on?

 

When I rev it up past 5800rpm, where vtec is set, the check engine light comes on, but it won't throw codes when I try to check. There is no LED on my ECU so I'm not sure how to check there either. I ordered the dowel from Acura yesterday, but I guess I need to go back and order the o-ring as well since they probably won't come together. Anyways, once those come I'll put them in and see what happens.

 

That CEL is from the lack of oil pressure, not enough to engage vtec.

 

Good luck with your ish, hope it works.

 

This is how you check CEL codes:
http://www.c-speedracing.com/faq/06.html

 

Just tried using that method to check for the codes and it didn't work. My friend even tried who already knew that method and he couldn't get it to work either. Once the check light comes on while the motor is running it will stay on until the car is shut off. We tried with the car still running and with it off, even though the light isn't on with the key at the IGN position.

Got my dowel the other day but it turned out to be the wrong one so I went back and got the right one and the o-ring. Going to install it right now and see if I have any luck. Thanks for the responses