VTi-R Integra problems

[Chronos]

Hey all,

For the past 2 months i've been searching for a nice VTi-R Integra to buy. I've seen countless examples, all of which seem to show a common property. They all piss out smoke above ~4000rpm. Now this smoke is greyish in colour, and is not evident at idle. Is this smoke in fact burnt oil, Showing evidence of worn piston rings? Or am i a fool and have been miss-diagnosing?

I'm starting to doubt myself, as every Integra that i've seen has this problem. Is this a common occurrence in these cars? Taking into account that they have travelled ~140,000km and are ~9 years old. Does the B18C2 require a rebuild at 150,000km like the B18C7?

If in fact this is oil burning, then a rebuild is the only solution. How much will rebuilding a B18C2 cost me (if done professionally, at say Hanny's)?

I know a leak-down or compression tests are the only real way to analyse piston ring condition, but this is simply not possible when car shopping. Is there another common fault in these cars which would cause them to blow smoke? Something to suggest that the rings are fine. Is there something i've missed? Or are all VTi-R Integras thrashed to death?

I don't know what else to do. I've been off the road since the 1st of Feb. I'm getting tired of looking again and again at thrashed Integras. Can someone please help me?

Thanks everyone.

:(

[McChook]

besides the fact most Integra ViRs have been driven hard, all VTEC equipped honda engines piss out smoke at 4000rpm and beyond.. The ECU richens up the mixture, for safety mostly at 400rpm, and dumps a lot of extra fuel into the engine to keep it safe.

[Chronos]

How much smoke are we talking? The Teg i saw today was venting enough smoke to be seen through the rear view mirror.

If it was running rich, shouldn't i be expecting black smoke, not greyish smoke?

Ive run ITR's and VTi-R Civics in the past, but they didnt seem to produce heaps of smoke like these cars do.

:|

[McChook]

Hmm, should be black smoke, thick and smelly...

Try and take one to a mechanic and get a diagnosis. Could easily be rings.

Last one I test drive didn't pump out the smoke to the extent that I could see it.... However they do dump out quite a lot - Preludes and ITRs being the worst.

As I said earlier, most of the 'teg VTiRs around have been driven like they were meant to be driven - hard and fast.

[Ironfist]

I know when i first got my teg it was blowing black smoke when i booted it, but now i rarely see any black smoke in the rear view.

It's with any fast car nearly. You can't expect a car not to have been booted a few times... you get what you pay for... don't want one thrashed? buy a brand new one.

Engine rebuild? i'm pretty sure you don't have to do one

[Chronos]

Ok thats good to know. *wipes forehead* "few".

Theres this one car i saw today near my house that was pissing out smoke as soon as it was at WOT. I would like to take it to a mechanic, but i dont know a good one in the area. Does anyone know a good Honda mechanic, even a good all round mechanic, in the Sutherland Shire? My mechanic is at Smithfield, so i dont think the owner of this car would be too impressed if i drove it there for an inspection.

Thanks guys.

[McChook]

Ah, more Shire folk huh.. didn;t wanna take my word for it either aye....

Ultra tune Menai, talk to Nick (I THINK)

[R08813]

evan cox isnt a bad mechanic either (kirrawee) next to southcoast suspension

[Chronos]

Ah, more Shire folk huh.. didn;t wanna take my word for it either aye....

Ultra tune Menai, talk to Nick (I THINK)

lol i belive you! It's just i don't trust myself. It's hard trying to spot the difference between black and blue smoke in your rear view mirror whilst at ~7000rpm! :D

A mechanic sounds good. I would like to have a second opinion before i go ahead and fork over alot of hard earnt cash. A little piece of mind. I know Nick from Menai Ultra Tune, good bloke. He's the mechanic for dad's car. But Menai is a little too far from this point of sale (Miranda). I'll try Evan Cox or maybe even Ultra Tune at Miranda.

One of these Ultra Tune places or even Evan Cox should be fine if i showed up there and asked them to take a look at the car? Do they usually do this kind of thing? Sorry, but this is a first for me.

Once again, thank you everyone who's posted. I don't know what i'd do without the guidance i've recived here on OzHonda.

Cheers :)

[McChook]

No hassle from me

Ultra Tune Miranda isn't bad apparently...

I guess a quick drop off and ceck wouldn't be a problem - time is money though

[A'PEXi]

theres one in the fs section for like 14k?

[Breeze]

Sometimes it is the opposite. If the car has been babied around a fair bit there is often a fair bit of soot and crap sitting in the exhaust and even some build up in the combustion chambers. A quick fang with the massive exhaust velocities reached in a vtec engined car generally blows out all these cobwebs. As noted here they do run rich up top also. They can blow out a lot of crap though

The other thing is, take a phillips head screwdriver with you, pull off the intake hose at the T/B, crack open the throttle and stick in your finger. Almost every B or H series motor even with relatively few kms will have a thick lining of black goey oily sludge from blowby. When you get up them, some of this is washed off the intake ports, back of intake valves and from around the injector area.

Basically don't worry too much about it unless it is really bad (ie happens lots when you are free reving).

[Chronos]

Sweet, that's made things pretty clear. Thanks Breeze :)

Oh yeah, i took that VTi-R to the local Ultra Tune, and they said it was consuming oil pretty badly :(

Looks like i just have to keep looking around.

Thanks again everyone :D

[coladuna]

my prelude blows out black smoke too when it's revved.
I guess it's the same with every Hondas with VTEC engine.

[fueltank]

Ok thats good to know. *wipes forehead* "few".

Theres this one car i saw today near my house that was pissing out smoke as soon as it was at WOT. I would like to take it to a mechanic, but i dont know a good one in the area. Does anyone know a good Honda mechanic, even a good all round mechanic, in the Sutherland Shire? My mechanic is at Smithfield, so i dont think the owner of this car would be too impressed if i drove it there for an inspection.

Thanks guys.

If you are serious about the car then just tell the seller that you will buy it if YOUR mechanic @ Smithfield checks the car over and gives it the ok.

If anything minor is found to be wrong then knock 'em down on the price or ask them to fix it before you buy (they might fix it dodgey so beware)

[joneblaze]

Ok thats good to know. *wipes forehead* "few".

Theres this one car i saw today near my house that was pissing out smoke as soon as it was at WOT. I would like to take it to a mechanic, but i dont know a good one in the area. Does anyone know a good Honda mechanic, even a good all round mechanic, in the Sutherland Shire? My mechanic is at Smithfield, so i dont think the owner of this car would be too impressed if i drove it there for an inspection.

Thanks guys.

If you are serious about the car then just tell the seller that you will buy it if YOUR mechanic @ Smithfield checks the car over and gives it the ok.

If anything minor is found to be wrong then knock 'em down on the price or ask them to fix it before you buy (they might fix it dodgey so beware)

Agreed. I've done the same thing twice (and trekked two Integras out to Smithfield :)), and so has my friend. If you're really keen on this car, but aren't sure as to its condition, have it checked out by an expert. Let the seller know you are extremely interested, and if they have nothing to hide (and actually want to sell their car ;)) they should have no problems with it.

[fried]

Hey all,

For the past 2 months i've been searching for a nice VTi-R Integra to buy. I've seen countless examples, all of which seem to show a common property. They all piss out smoke above ~4000rpm. Now this smoke is greyish in colour, and is not evident at idle. Is this smoke in fact burnt oil, Showing evidence of worn piston rings? Or am i a fool and have been miss-diagnosing?

I'm starting to doubt myself, as every Integra that i've seen has this problem. Is this a common occurrence in these cars? Taking into account that they have travelled ~140,000km and are ~9 years old. Does the B18C2 require a rebuild at 150,000km like the B18C7?

If in fact this is oil burning, then a rebuild is the only solution. How much will rebuilding a B18C2 cost me (if done professionally, at say Hanny's)?

I know a leak-down or compression tests are the only real way to analyse piston ring condition, but this is simply not possible when car shopping. Is there another common fault in these cars which would cause them to blow smoke? Something to suggest that the rings are fine. Is there something i've missed? Or are all VTi-R Integras thrashed to death?

I don't know what else to do. I've been off the road since the 1st of Feb. I'm getting tired of looking again and again at thrashed Integras. Can someone please help me?

Thanks everyone.

:(

kekeke professionally? at hannys?

i just thought that was funny. i love my hannys! i love robert!!! id take my car there ANYDAY of the week.... kekekeke

ANYWAYS.... u looking for newer model vtirs? or older ones? whats ur budget?

i dont know about the newer ones (obd2- maybe they are newer so less obvious smoke problems) but mine never really kicked out smoke unless i gave it a boot, and only then when i shifted it would really smoke. but thats because, as we've already established, they are running rich.

obviously, the only way to be sure, is to get a vehicle checked out and all. like an inspection. worth your money i say.

[Homer]

Hey guys
I've also checked out a couple of dc2 vti-r's for sale and i'm wondering what other things/problems that i should be looking out for?

Also for example, what major repairs do they need or should have been done by now?

[Fattony]

Clutch masters sometimes shit them selves.

With regards to the smoke issue, if i drive my car sensibly (i.e change gear at 3krpm) and then give it a boot i find that only at night with headlights behind you you can see that something is comming out the exhaust. Though if i trash the hell out of it, i dont really notice it.

[Flash_Gordon]

Hey guys
I've also checked out a couple of dc2 vti-r's for sale and i'm wondering what other things/problems that i should be looking out for?

Also for example, what major repairs do they need or should have been done by now?

not that you are likely seeing it doesnt rain much but apparently a lot of tegs end up with leaks in the rubber seals around the windows, sun roof and rear lights. I dunno if this is common on this forum but i know a few people have had problems with it over at honda-tech to the point that they wrote a tutorial of what to check and how to fix it.

[djgarv]

i think pretty much every car blows smoke when u fang it hard like that

this is slightly off topic and i don't mean to change the thread but i have a question that probably isn't worth starting a new thread for...

i used to drive an accord vti...my brother has driven his friends' s2000s and ek vtirs...when you engage vtec on those cars the revs jump heaps and the car goes nuts. i just bought a dc2 vtir and i never tested the vtec in that when i bought it (just assumed it was ok). i'm told that in a dc2 it revs up faster in a more linear way so there's no "jolt" when vtec kicks in...and that is what happens in my car - just wanted to check that this was right. but yeah when i take it fast to 7000rpm i get some smoke too

[quangsta]

yerrr its not a huge jolt...when vtec kicks in its very linear, for me anyway...another thing to check out for when buying dc2 is the input shaft and input shaft bearing..this stuff is found inside the clutch and what you do is idle the car turn off all sounds and just step on the clutch once the clutch is to the floor the car will sound smooth if when you let go and the car sounds louder or has like a grinding kinda noise then its mostly likely the imput shaft...quote in melb 900bux to fix thats just to fix the input shaft, the for a full bearing change parts alone wil cost u 900...dont be afraid though coz it is supposedly a very common porblem with hondas...and when i checked 4/5 dc2 had the problem so yerr....
peace outside

[tinkerbell]

i bought a black 98 VTiR about 6 months ago, it doesnt blow smoke and she is over 160000km.

i race it at Wakefield and it didnt miss a beat all day (untill i wore the pads out!) i beat most of the Integra Type R's (DC2 + DC5) that were racing (i had HKS cat-back, Cusco coil-overs and Toyo RA1's )

on my car i have noticed that the clutch master cyl is leaking slightly, i replaced the rear engine mount (it was farked!), the side ones are looking tired, the aerial was farked ($600 for new one), the wheel bearing was gone too, but appart from that it was in good condition - even though it had been thrashed by the owner.

(he told me he thrashed it and that it loved it!)

i dont thrash it now, but even when i give it a bit - no smoke.

my gearbox is fine too :)

maybe i got lucky :D :D :D

[CMI70Y]

Yeh in ma dc2 ders a leak 4rm d fkn sunroof n cums in n leaks a little bit on each front seats!Only really cums in wen its pooring raining tho!Its annoying as where culd i go get d@ resealed n chekd 2 get fixd cuz its annoying!

[Lepperfish]

Does the B18C2 require a rebuild at 150,000km like the B18C7?


:(


I wasnt aware that the dc2r required a rebuild at 150,000kms.. ?????????? :confused:

[Lepperfish]

I wasnt aware that the dc2r required a rebuild at 150,000kms.. ?????????? :confused:


Can anyone eloborate on this pls?

[tinkerbell]

depends how it was run-in and how it was serviced, and how much track work it has done ;)

[ginganggooly]

i've thrashed my car harder than anyone i know since i first got my car, way back in 2001. 68k km when i bought it- it now has 208k km. i wouldn't worry about the smoke, mine did it from day one on WOT. the motor had a leakdown and compression test done just past 200,000 and was given a perfect bill of health. i do my oil changes every 5k km and thats as far as i go with maintenance.

the motor isn't the weak link in this car, it's the other bits and pieces that'll die on you... engine mounts, bushings, bearings belts and all the other stuff that goes bad with abuse.
here's a little list- two clutches, one master cylinder, ignitor module, ingnition coil, radiator top tank, fuel pump, main relay, window rail rubbers, antenna, cd stacker, three sets of disc rotors, countless pads, and other little things here and there. still, not bad when you consider the age and history of the vehicle.

did you actually pay 600 bucks for an antenna?

[tinkerbell]

no freaking way $600 - just used it to bargain the guy down :D

hontoys are good to me ;)

BTW - my B18C2 does not smoke AT ALL (except the tyres LOL!)

((FWIW - i did notice that it DOES have a tow cable attachment in the boot, and part of the rear bumper is cut in the middle - methinks the car was first bought by a middle aged man, maybe having a midlife crises - hence the VTiR with bodykit, soooo maaayyybe he didnt thrash it and maybe it was run in properly???))

but how knows?