My CRX, with its blazing D16A6, has an extremely notchy power band. It's most apparent in 2nd and 3rd gear, simply cuz 1st gear is too torquey to notice and the others aren't torque enough.

Anyway, if I hold my foot at any point on the throttle so that the car has enough fuel to start accelerating, I can really feel each point where the cam makes more power. like...at 3,000 RPM, it pulls a little, then as soon as it hits 4k, it pulls noticably harder, and then when it gets to 4,500, it jumps just a little more, and so on. It'll keep having those little power surges up to about 5,500RPM, where I guess the power band starts to flatten out. It isn't like a bucking motion that lurches the car, it's just a noticably stronger acceleration the instant it hits a certain RPM.

Is this normal? Does anyone else notice a really notchy power band in their stock Honda? Not that it's a bad thing, or at least I hope it's not. Any input? Thanks

 

Do you have an aftermarket camshaft? Cause I noticed in my car, it pulls hard from the git all the way to redline.

 

haven't noticed that on my D16A6 with bolt ons.

 

engine is totally factory stock, including intake/header. I dunno, maybe it's just an old more (182k miles). I'm gonna send the injectors in for cleaning and balancing pretty soon, that may help.

 

Take it to a dyno and run it. It never hurts to have a baseline to compare to later, plus you get to see your powerband... printed on paper.

 

yea, do you think its possible you are running too rich or lean at certain spots along the powerband?

 

I'd look at your cam timing - are you sure it's where it should be?
Valve lash can affect things too, but maybe not so dramatically like in your case. My D16Z6 has a flat torque band from 2300 to 6800 - don't notice any dips or peaks, even when VTEC comes in. I had a problem running RC injectors (converted lucas disc type 240cc) - they gave me all sorts of lean spots in the midrange especially before VTEC. I think this had something to do with the spraypattern.

 

ok, to answer all questions:

yes, the cam timing is exactly where it should be. I did the timing belt myself, and used a timing light to verify that the timing was accurate.

valve lash is done also by me, every 10k miles or so, sometimes more often as I hear it starting to tick.

YES, I'm quite sure it's probably running rich and/or lean in places, the injectors are ancient (282k miles on em), the throttle body is filthy (needs a cleaning), and each of the 4 spark plugs looks different. So, that's probably a big part of it.

Anyone have a rough cost of dyno time? I know everyone talks about it, but it never occurred to me to test my bone stock lil CRX.

 

I went to Rosen autosport here in Richmond with the RX-7, they charged $35 for a run... but I think that was group rate. It is good to have a baseline so you know where you started and how far you've come with swaps/mods.

 

I'd check little things first (as always.)