Hello Everyone, I just registered on this site and hopefully I can get some help with my problem. I own a 1991 Civic Si and have a JDM B16A1 XSI engine in it. I have had this car for about four years and two years ago I had the AEM computer installed. The head is completely done over with Skunk 2 goodies. The block on the other hand is stock. This was a daily driver when it was working properly, It has been sitting for about 1 1/2 years. It got to the point where I was dumping lots of money into this car and figured it was time for a break. Before I had the computer installed, I was using a ZDYNE which I really liked but wanted more. I should mention that after I installed the AEM, the car crapped out 2 weeks later. All of the tuning and work done with the AEM was done by Aggressive Motorsport in New Jersey. These guys really seemed to know what they were doing and I was impressed. I want to put a B20 block in with high compression but at the time I was sick of dumping money into it. But if it is something stupid then I would like to get some time out of the current block before I replace it. Now that the itch is back, (honestly it never left), I want to get it back on the road. The car will start with a lot of cranking it over, but when it is running and you hit the gas, it starts to pop as if I had the staging set up on the Ecu, which I dont. Sometimes it stays running and sometimes it doesn't. There is no out of the ordinary sound coming from the engine what so ever. Basically, I'm wondering if anyone has had a problem with these AEM computers once they are tuned? I need to get it towed to my mechanic, and have a compression check done, but I believe that it is something stupid and compression is fine. The problem started on the highway at about 45 mph, I kicked it down into second and got the extra 10 mph out of the gear and when I shifted into third it all started. It would hesitate, and then it would rip for about 2k rpm, and then hesitate again. And when I say hesitate, I mean like pop, pop, pop, vrooooooom, pop, pop, pop, vroom until I would go into the next gear and do it all over again. At first I thought I might have bent a valve, but like I said before the car will idle and does not smoke excessively at idle either. I really would love to have Aggressive look at it again but it is so far away. My mechanic is good, but he doesn't know how to tune w/ laptop. I also have had a new Jasper Stage 2 w/LSD that I have been waiting to install since this problem occurred in the first place. I love this car and would never sell it, but this is very frustrating. Another question of mine is where on the East Coast is the best place to bring my girl. Sorry this is so long, but any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.....................

 

When was the last time a tuneup was done on it? It doesn't sound to me like the ECU is the problem. It sounds like a problem with the ignition or fuel system.

 

Well I got my civic running again. I first checked to make sure that I was getting fuel, which I was, then I checked for spark and it was there, but very weak. I ultimately decided to go back to obd0 instead of obd1. Once the distributor and computer were changed out, the car fired over without skipping a beat. Now I have an AEM computer that I'm not using, kind of an expensive part to just have in the garage doing nothing with. So I guess now I have a reason to build my B20/B18C turbo. lol Thanks again for your advice, its nice to know I have a place to turn when I hit a detour. By the way, the compression was very impressive, average of 190 per cylinder. One was slightly higher, and one slightly lower, the other two were roughly the same. I am smiling form ear to ear..............Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!