any chance that it's pinging?

I'm not ruling out that it's completely normal. I don't think any vtec car from honda has ever had this low an amount of induction noise.

 

Maybe. One way to test this will be to put higehr octane gas in and see if the problem goes away. I may try this on my next fillup.

 

its not pinging, there are several parts in the vtec system that have a slight amount of play in them, mainly the fact that the lobes that run off the high lift cam have no valve lash adjustment. this is because in order for the VTEC system to engage smoothly there has to be a small amount of play between the primary rockers , the pin that connects them to the secondary rockers and the fact that the secondary rockers have to float along the high lift lobes with nothing more than a retainer spring under them to keep them in contact with the lobes.

trust me the sound you hear above 6K rpm is normal. there is nothing wrong with it. i know how annoying it can be and it sounds kinda bad and to be honest i have even thought about doing a valve adjustment myself.
when i had my 98 prelude type SH i used to do a valve lash adjustment about every 7500-1500 miles. i can tell you that even with that old system after a valve adjustment the valve train is noticably quiter.
there is usually a range honda reccommends for the valve lash. for example i think i recall my prelude exhaust valves were to be .18mm + or - .03mm this means they can be as much as .21mm or as little as .15mm i always tried to get as close to .15mm as i could to keep them as close to tolerance as possible. if you make them too tight you can burn a valve or if nothing else it will leak and you will loose compression, get backfires ect.. usually with a honda though you can go a little on the tight side with no ill effects.
anyway taking up a little slack in the valve lash will usually quiet down a VTEC engine to a good degree. if i ever get round to it ill adjust mine and let you guys know the results unless you feel up to it yourself.
i dont kow about the new VTES engines like ours but i had to buy a special valve lash adjustment tool from snapon that makes the job a lot easier. you can do it the old fashioned way if you want to with a wrench and screwdriver.

 

This doesn't sound like something I would want to do myself. But let us know if it works.

 

its not nearly as hard as you think. i havnt taken the time to take the valve cover off or even look under there. i know there is some plastic trim over the engine but assuming that is easy to take off removing the valve cover is easy. usually on a honda motor the gasket is a rubber one specially designed to allow the valve cover to be removed and reinstalled with no leaks.

you usually take your valve lash measurement between the rocker and the cam lobe. you just have to hand turn the engine 1/2 revolution at a time to work on each cylender in the fireing order sequence. it takes about 4 minutes per cylender to make the adjustment.

 

Bass Mechanic,
Where you located? I have a '97 Prelude I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a Valve adjustment today.

Wimpy

 

i just updated my profile

i live in colorado. i could talk you through it over the phone if you want to pay for the call. its not that hard.

 

Started to experience this rattle tonite... the sound is more like a "rushing water in a pipe" sound...its weird....and it's pretty consistent....every time it hits vtec, the sound starts.....dunno if it's coincidence, but it started right after I filled up the gas tank...

 

the sound will come and go, the reason is that when the engine is hot the valves will expand (metal expands when heated)
the valve clearence is determined by the manufacturer so that when the valve reaches a predetermined temperature the gap between the valve stem and the rocker will still be great enough that the valve still wont be pushed open when its supposed to remain closed.
when the engine is colder the noise will be more noticable because there is more gap between these parts.
honda chooses to use solid lifters located in the rocker that can be adjusted rather than hydrolic lifters many other manufacturers use. hydrolic lifters use the engine oil in a small free floating lifter that will self adjust these clearences by means of allowing oil to be trapped inside the lifter.
the problem is that these lifters add weight to the valve train and can be the result of floating a valve at high rpm (not good) honda chooses to keep the valve train light weight and simple as possible to the engines can withstand higher RPM and use lighter valve springs which also requires less effort to turn the camshaft.

 

It can't be pinging. There's not enough time for that to even happen at 6000+ RPM. Pinging happens most easily at low RPMs, high temps and big throttle openings (high intake manifold pressure).

 

I have just noticed this sound as well. It sounds bad, but if it's ok with the bass man it's ok with me.

 

I have only <3000 miles on the odometer....is that sitll normal?

 

Have you read the thread?

 

the vtec rattle is very noticable in my tsx. it is also present in the rsx-s i got to drive once. i notice the vtec rattle much more in the rsx-s than the tsx. i guess this is normal, but still... buzzzzzzzzz. it does sound good after a while though.

 

There is an article showing how to adjust valve clearances at vtec.net. They show how to adjust the valves on an RSX-S and have a lots of pictures showing each step. Maybe this will help some of you who are brave enough to tinker around under the hood.

http://www.vtec.net/articles/view-article?article_id=143824&page_number=3

 

15000 + miles and i have never heard that yet im hoping i dont

 

I've got 6500 miles on my car and I just noticed this for the first time, and only because I read this thread and was listening for it very closely. Even then, I couldn't have differentiated the sound from engine/road/wind noise if it weren't for the way one TSXer described the sound -- "like water rushing through the passenger side dash area"

In my opinion, it's kind of a cool sound, especially now that I know what it is. I even showed it off to my girlfriend

 

http://www.acura-tsx.com/forums/show...cratching+vtec

There you go. I've had this problem for a long, long time... Tinky, something you'll figure out is that it ONLY comes when its raining outside or the road is wet.... I cant explain it.

Best of luck solving this, keep me informed!

J.