Mini-me Swap - Need Help

[lumpenst]

Hi guys, i've ran into a problem and this will be quite difficult to explain for me but here it goes...

I am using a d16z6 head on my d14z2 for my mini-me setup. Last month i've started with doing the obd1 conversion first. I used a p06 converted to p28 from xenocron. As my car is obd2b i didn't need to change my dizzy for the conversion. Later i did the d16z6 manifold with 2 wire iacv swap. All has been working well upto now.

Today i put my z6 head on using the cam gear of my p2a head which i think is the exact same as z6, a 103 teeth timing belt, new water pump and head gasket 12251-p2j-004. All things torqued down nicely.

When i started the car wouldn't idle and died. Then i increased the idle by tightening the throttle cable so that i could check ignition timing with a strobe. My stock dizzy is not a direct fit to head and i needed to grind off some of the bolting hole on it. Strobe shows that ignition timing is ok.

There was a very slight rattling (not a knock like rattling from a siezed bearing) coming from inside the head cover. When i took the head cover off, i found out that 2 of the 4 vtec lobe rocker arms to have turned upside down and were not in between the two non-vtec rocker arms. One of the two pins that had to be in the rocker arms was outside sitting in the oil. I placed them back to their holes and put the vtec rocker arms where they should be. Started the car back up and the slight rattle sound is still there and the car can't idle and i need to give some throttle still.

What also bugs me is that at idle my car would sit around -0.7bar vacuum and now its somewhere near -0.5bar.

I'm thinking the cam timing may be the problem which doesn't let engine breathe nicely at low rev or something can be wrong with the assembly of the rocker arms or the valve adjustments are off...

I don't know which route to go for throubleshooting any help will be appreciated!

[lumpenst]

just opened the valve cover againg to find out the 2 vtec rocker arms are upside down again... Any ideas?

[Law_]

No sorry, too technical for me. Rattling should be from valve clearance, needing to be adjusted...

[mynameisowen]

Are you sure you have assembled the valvetrain correctly? Was the Z6 engine running before you removed the head and swapped onto yours?

[cad civic mechanic]

check your rocker arm clearences according to hanes manual proceeures, sounds to me the arms are floating making noise, sounds like too big a clearence

[marty40]

i think the in between values for said valve clearances are 0.008 for inlet and 0.010 for exhaust. in inches. of the top of my head so dont quote me

[lumpenst]

Sohc vtec engines have never been imported to my country but only 5-6 cylinder heads have entered upto now. The head i own was owned by some guy who had it only for two weeks. I guess i was either scammed or the guy had no clue about the head because it doesn't have the vtec stopper/girdle on the valvetrain assembly. I had sent the head to a rectifier to get the head reconditioned with new valve seals and etc. The shop didnt even realise that something was missing in the head because we dont get to see these heads around here. Anyways bladerk from this forum who lives in TR has found the girdle and shipped it to me today. I hope i will be able assemble the valvetrain in a few days. Thanks to everyone for the help

[lumpenst]

The missing part of the valvetrain arrived yesterday very thanks to bladerk. The car runs fine atm but i havent wired the vtec solenoid yet. Though the idle problem still persists. I'm going to be checking iacv wiring and the bin file

[mynameisowen]

Im glad it wasnt a big problem, good news man. Hope you get it fixed soon, let us know how it went. Maybe consider writing an article on how you did the mini me

[lumpenst]

Vtec is working at last! The Vtec pressure switch came out to be not working so i did the bypass trick. Car needs to be tuned which i'll be doing in the days to come. The car can idle fine atm but it is abit shaky at rpms lower than ~1200. Not sure what's causing that, might the cam timing though, as it's different than the stock p2a head. If i can get my hands on a cheap adjustable cam gear i'll definately try it to solve the shaky idling.