Civic EG

Sooo I just bought a 95 EX right.

Seems like the v-tec solenoid (sp?) is a little rusty, which seems common for these old cars, but all my friends say that you should be able to hear v-tec kick in, and I think I can hear it but I'm not sure.

Should I be able to distinctly hear it, because my exhaust is pretty loud and I was thinking maybe that was just covering it...

Anywho, what I'm getting at is... should I maybe get a new v-tec solenoid, and if so, if it isn't working, would that be causing me to lose some power?

Thanx in advance.

I could feel my vTAK more than I can hear it.. (d16z6 too..) .. I cant really hear it... I think its more of dohc motors you can hear the vTAK!... thats my 2 pennies worth...

Sohc Vtec is not as loud because vtec lobes are only on the intake valves, due to lack of space.

You really shouldn't be able to hear it or feel it. If you can then chances are that you've screwed up the factory calibration in some way.

how would the factory calibration get messed up by chance? My d16z6 just has i/h/e..... everything else is untouched O.o

Yeah... I'm at a loss. I didn't think I should be able to hear it either but everyone had to tell me I was wrong over and over at the car meet last night so me = confused, haha. We shall see.

you can try taking it off and cleaning it if you want, but as mentioned you'll never hear/feel it on a SOHC like you would on a B16.

I can hear mine engage sometimes, but I sure as hell cant feel it.

Ive never heard mine, its shite

biretsu89 wrote:how would the factory calibration get messed up by chance? My d16z6 just has i/h/e..... everything else is untouched O.o

Changing the VE of the engine ie changing the intake pipe, throttle body, intake manifold, valves, cam, pistons, exhaust, or adding a turbo; in such a way that the power band shifts so that you have a big loss in power before VTEC engagement and a big power gain immediately after.

The best way to "feel" VTEC is to engage it too soon by reprogramming the ECU. Power dips sharply for a few hundred RPM and then suddenly surges. Some "chip tuners" do this purposely.

Remember, the power that you feel is torque, not horsepower. All OEM's try to tune the engine for a flat torque curve. Honda designed their cams so that just as torque begins to drop off in the high RPM's, VTEC engages and picks it back up again until redline. Horsepower is different. It starts at nothing and climbs all the way to your max hp and then begins to fall.

You can feel VTEC on the twin cam engines because it's such a big and sudden power difference (both the intake and the exhaust change their lift, timing, and duration resulting in more overlap). Later Honda came out with iVTEC which is completely seemless yet even more powerful than the B and H series motors.

Thanx guys. Appreciate it tons. I think I'm just gonna try and clean the solenoid and see how that works out but I'm thinking that's it.

Ohhh and btw before I forget, does anyone know what the operating voltage for the solenoid is??

suspendedHatch wrote:

biretsu89 wrote:how would the factory calibration get messed up by chance? My d16z6 just has i/h/e..... everything else is untouched O.o

Changing the VE of the engine ie changing the intake pipe, throttle body, intake manifold, valves, cam, pistons, exhaust, or adding a turbo; in such a way that the power band shifts so that you have a big loss in power before VTEC engagement and a big power gain immediately after.

The best way to "feel" VTEC is to engage it too soon by reprogramming the ECU. Power dips sharply for a few hundred RPM and then suddenly surges. Some "chip tuners" do this purposely.

Remember, the power that you feel is torque, not horsepower. All OEM's try to tune the engine for a flat torque curve. Honda designed their cams so that just as torque begins to drop off in the high RPM's, VTEC engages and picks it back up again until redline. Horsepower is different. It starts at nothing and climbs all the way to your max hp and then begins to fall.

You can feel VTEC on the twin cam engines because it's such a big and sudden power difference (both the intake and the exhaust change their lift, timing, and duration resulting in more overlap). Later Honda came out with iVTEC which is completely seemless yet even more powerful than the B and H series motors.

Really good info there, cheers!

Heatherly wrote:Thanx guys. Appreciate it tons. I think I'm just gonna try and clean the solenoid and see how that works out but I'm thinking that's it.

Ohhh and btw before I forget, does anyone know what the operating voltage for the solenoid is??

12 volts of course! But what does that matter?

A solenoid is just an on/off switch. VTEC is built into the cam lobes. Besides the solenoid you have the lost motion assembly that controls the physical switching of VTEC.

Oh yeah I know, I was just going to check the plug, make sure the wiring for it is still good.

suspendedHatch wrote:You really shouldn't be able to hear it or feel it. If you can then chances are that you've screwed up the factory calibration in some way.

I have the same motor and I can hear/feel vtec just fine. At least in my car you can tell when it kicks in.