my thoughts on the tri-flow II cam and other junk

[Vector]

well, 4 days of waiting, i finally recieved my cam yesterday. being eager to put it in while i was still at work, i waited patiently only to find out that i was working a 10 hour shift(Nooooo...). anyways i got to my garage after, put it in, took me about 3 hours with all the adjusting a tweaking to make sure it was done properly.

after driving around last night and today to work(i took the highway today) i must say that i'm somewhat impressed. i kinda expected more out of it but it feels much stronger than the stock cam after 3000rpm, and doesnt bog after 6000, which is going to be nice for 1sr gear autocross courses. i'm not entirely sure about this either, but from a stand still when i accelerate it also seems like i can get through 1st and 2nd alot quicker, but the acceleration does not feel like its there(kinda like how when you get used to a car, you dont really feel the pull anymore after a while).

at idle the car now is alittle rough, but i like it. has more of a air rushing sound from the muffler that i just put on, so i think this might be a sign of restriction(grrrrrr).

my mods now consist of.
88 DX HB

a20a1 converted to EFI wiring is custom/standalone
tach controlled secondaries and dizzy advance
autometer vac, air/fuel guages.
accel supercoil yellow
stage II tri-flow (ground for EFI)
pacesetter header(port matched)/straight to muffler
89 a20a4 intake(polished) w/custom SRI
drop springs, tokico blues
ex-i sway bars
minor interior weight reductions

i also have been hearing about this 4th gen map sensor, but my a/f is already sitting in the stoich area, the map sensor will richen my engine, but will it give me anymore power?

well, theres my thoughts. i rate it 4/5

[MessyHonda]

its good to know. do you have an adjustable cam gear?....oh yeah didyou end up paying 180 for stage 2 right?

[sinisterfuzzy]

what all does your standalone consist of, and how much did you whole efi set-up cost?

[Vector]

its good to know. do you have an adjustable cam gear?....oh yeah didyou end up paying 180 for stage 2 right?

no no adj cam gear, havent decided yet if that will help me. if it will then i will get one, yea i paid 180, plus if i wear stickers on the car i get 5year warranty with it to aparently.

[Vector]

what all does your standalone consist of, and how much did you whole efi set-up cost?

basically butchered the wiring out of the doner car, made it so that its ecu->engine, and ofcourse power but i wanted to keep it independant so if i need to do any modifcations to it down the road it will be easy. not to mention installation was a breeze sept for the fuel lines!!!!

also, i have no emissions, ac, or auto trans,so i dont really have a black box either, i took it apart and i took a couple electronic air valves out for my secondaries and dizzy, i kept the vac charge canister, becuase its needed to close the secondaries and certain rpms if there is no vaccuum and same with adv timing. i use a relay off the tach light to adj when i want timing to adv and secondaries to open.

[A20A1]

The carbed AS valve would have supplied vacuum from the exhaust so you could pretty much use it at any RPM the AS valve was active... though on the stock 3G it stopped around 3,600 rpm, I'd say it would work at any rpm though.

Also bleeding the AS vacuum to open the secondaries earlier if you wanted to would not cause a vacuum leak because exhuast vacuum is independant of manifold vacuum.

Also you might be able to run other vacuum needy parts off AS vacuum to cut back on possible vacuum leaks to the manifold.

Just a thought.


I'd say the cam gear would be your next mod.

Oh what muffler do you have?

[FyreDaug]

Cool, hows power below 3000 though? Stage 2 is supposed to pick up around 3, but does it take it away from the bottom end? Im still deciding on a cam for the kart

[2ndGenGuy]

So you did the Colt Tri-Flow then? Not sure if there's another tri-flow cam out there or not. I thought someone else did it too. I talked to the Colt guy on the phone and he said that he thinks the Honda cams are some of the best out there. And told me the same thing about the warranty if I run a sticker on my car. Pretty cool.

Have you tried running your car past 6,000RPM? Because the power band is supposed to be 3,500 - 7,000 right? I'm just curious if it will still pull up to 7,000RPM because on a built engine I think that extra RPM range would be great for autocross track time, seeing as how you might not have to shift so much. Especially if you get shorter gears like a Prelude transmission, you might get better acceleration and can keep your time between shift equal... What are your thoughts?

[Vector]

Cool, hows power below 3000 though? Stage 2 is supposed to pick up around 3, but does it take it away from the bottom end? Im still deciding on a cam for the kart

dont really notice any loss under 3k, the main thing about the cam thats nice, is from 3-7k its a constant pull, still getting used to that.

update: i did drive to my bosses place which is almost uphill all the way, i did notice i had more power climbing the hill, so i think i gained some decent tq going to this cam as well.

its fast reving it to the limiter, another thing i noticed is that when i was accelerating i was playing with the throttle alittle, and after a certain point of pushing the pedal down(mines about 3/4 to the floor when i did this) is that it doesnt really accelerate any harder than if i were to slam it to the floor.

so i think there is a restriction somewhere, probably my intake of all things.

[AccordEpicenter]

its probably the intake manifold/throttle body if you have done at least a catback

[Vector]

its probably the intake manifold/throttle body if you have done at least a catback

no cat, resonator, just straight back to the muffler

would a b18 intake manifold benifit anything, i know where to get one and cheap

[Oldblueaccord]

dont really notice any loss under 3k, the main thing about the cam thats nice, is from 3-7k its a constant pull, still getting used to that.
update: i did drive to my bosses place which is almost uphill all the way, i did notice i had more power climbing the hill, so i think i gained some decent tq going to this cam as well.
its fast reving it to the limiter, another thing i noticed is that when i was accelerating i was playing with the throttle alittle, and after a certain point of pushing the pedal down(mines about 3/4 to the floor when i did this) is that it doesnt really accelerate any harder than if i were to slam it to the floor.
so i think there is a restriction somewhere, probably my intake of all things.

Stick you head under the dash and look how your gas padel works and write back what you observe. Honda has a little trick under there that may surprise you. I have an 88 lxi so maybe my efi cars a little differant.


wp

[AccordEpicenter]

ls intake manifold portmatched with a 58mm or 60mm tb will feel a little stronger in the upper rpm range especially with that shitty 88-89 intake manifold, it flows like ass

[B16KILLA]

ls intake manifold portmatched with a 58mm or 60mm tb will feel a little stronger in the upper rpm range especially with that shitty 88-89 intake manifold, it flows like ass

i agree, I have a ls manifold (not installed). I beleive it is WAY better than this shithunkometal they give us and call it a intake manifold. The runners are more straight and a lil wider to get a lil more cfm outta it. All over I think it's thee best manifold for the a20 because it shares the same rpm range unlike the b16 manifold.

edit: just my .02 though

ninja edit

[bobafett]

i dont know the details on WHY, but apparently b16/b18C5 fits easier than any other b's... but im sure they are very close to the same amount of work.

[Vector]

Stick you head under the dash and look how your gas padel works and write back what you observe. Honda has a little trick under there that may surprise you. I have an 88 lxi so maybe my efi cars a little differant.
wp

i changed my throttle cable when i did my efi conversion, i didnt really notice anything special. all i can say is that was kinda a pain in the ass to change.

pedal - > cable -> intake.

ls intake manifold portmatched with a 58mm or 60mm tb will feel a little stronger in the upper rpm range especially with that shitty 88-89 intake manifold, it flows like ass

so the tb off a ls b18a1 intake would fit on the accord intake mani?

[AccordEpicenter]

no youll have to use the LS intake manifold and throttle body, the TB alone will not fit on an accord intake mani, and even if it did youd have to port the hell out of the stock intake manifold to get it to even fit, and even then its still gonna flow like ass, the major restriction is the manifold itself

[Vector]

ok, i will probably have to get the intake mani off a diferent b18 then since most of the holes for the studs are all in diferent spots(does not look like the b16 one)

[AccordEpicenter]

all you need is the bottom holes to line up, then you drill the top ones. I used a B16A/B18C5 type AEBS Typhoon intake mani and it was pretty straightforward.

[Vector]

all you need is the bottom holes to line up, then you drill the top ones. I used a B16A/B18C5 type AEBS Typhoon intake mani and it was pretty straightforward.

hokay, so the b18a1 intake should work just fine if i redrill top holes, ok i will do that once i head back to the wrecking yard.

also i've been readin the section about spark plugs, and i'm using ngk-r plugs that i found in the head i usedpulled for my efi conversion. they were very clean so i figured, what the hell, give them a shot when i put the cam in. i now find out they have a resistor(dont know to much about plugs here), should i go back to my boschs plats?(i will eventually get some ngk-v's).

[AccordEpicenter]

stick with NGK V power plugs. Pretty much any plug you get for this car will be a resistor type plug. A non resistor plug will cause soo much interference with the electrical noise it causes that the ecu and other on board electronics might not work correctly (think of your Radio etc too) Ive had best sucess in engine performance and driveability with NGK plugs hands down, and find no performance advantage running platinums no matter how many electrodes they have (or any plug of the week for that matter) so stick to what works. I run them in the turbo accord in a 2 step colder heat range (stock ignition too, no missfire issues whatsoever)

[Vector]

the only thing in the car that it could posible mess with is the ecu since i have no other electronics at the moment, i stuck the bosch plugs back in for now and it seems to have alittle more oomph to it, so i will leave them in till october(last race of the season) then the engine comes out and a rebuilt in goes in.

[rjudgey]

Get a Adjsutable FPR, slightly bigger injectors, and then try the 4G 2.2 map sensor see if that helps.

[Vector]

Get a Adjsutable FPR, slightly bigger injectors, and then try the 4G 2.2 map sensor see if that helps.

the fpr is on the list, as far as the injectors go, i took some out of a 93 with a f22 in it, and brought them to a guy intown that cleans and flows them. other thing i'm going to do is change my fuel pump one that offers more PSI.

in the end i'm still undecided on what i'm doing with the engine. a guy that runs a small wrecking yard offered a running b20 dohc from a 89 prelude si with a cable tranny for 50 bucks. i can only imagine the amount of work it would take to get that in my car. i'm sure i could do it in a month or 2 if i just get off my lazy ass and actually did somthing rather than just think about it.

[rjudgey]

I have non resistor plugs in mine from bosch and Nology and they all work fantastically better idle and more pull, less emissions too, i have them in a PGMFI B20A seems okay thought they were causing issues but turned out after putting in some resistor plugs that it was something else causing the problem, but since changing a few things and adding 4G map sensor seems to have sorted itself out. Also run them on my Twin DCOE ET1 engine and i wouldn't use anything else except maybe splitfire, everyother plug i've used other that non resistor or splitfire i get noticeable drop in top rpm power and also idles really rough from the over fuelling from the carbs. Had the Hot wires modules which is what came with the resistorless plugs to be honest the plugs did more that the modules although they did really improve MPG but i wasn't after mpg increase. Although if you do slalom or auto X hot wires might work as the lowe end power was phenominal it just killed the engine rev higher for some reason might have been jetting issue or timing issue but could never work it out was easier to take them off and just run the plugs.