ok after reading all this...
i highly doubt your hitting any detonation thresholds...
the autometer guage is not an accurate source for a/f...
seeing as you think its working for you, tell me what your a/f ratio is...
bet you cant.

so how is that an accurate guage?

but anyways thats besides the point.
in your post you said it "skipped" timing...
if you skipped a few teeth then your valves came in contact with the pistons..
9 times out of 10 you bent a few valves giving you some chatter and a loss of compression which is why you cant rev past 4k, and its running like ass you say...
the valves are not creating a seal and combustion isnt taking place like it is supose to.
do a compression check and a leak down test.
then pull the head, replace the valves that are bent, replace the valve guides and seals if needed on the bent units as well... and enjoy your car again.

if you cant do any of those, take it to a reputable machine shop that specializes in rebuilding heads... or you can contact me and maybe we can work out a deal to get this thing back up and running.
my brand new race head dropped a valve in number 3...
car ran like total ass, fouled every plug in a matter of seconds.


and the after math

see the valve hanging down on number 3? (3rd from the left, the only one with 1 valve just sunk down)...
that was the root of all evil right there for me.
no compression in 3, caused random misfires from hell, fouled all my plugs, couldnt get it to rev past 2500 let alone 4k...
good luck with finding your issue

like Dougs Machine Shop...
he specializes in head work.

 

Thanks everyone for the help, PROBLEM SOLVED! It ended up being the cat clogged just as fc735 said. As far as the detonation goes, I DO know what it sounds like, and it was definately detonating...why the cat caused this I don't know. She runs perfectly with no exhaust.

In reply to 1.8T3t04e, I realize that the autometer guage is not all that acurate, but it can give you a general idea as to whether you're running PIG RICH or DEADLY LEAN, and that's all I was saying. Thanks for your suggestions, I'm still going to make sure all my valves are OK even though everything seems to be operating smoothly.

I really appreciate everyones suggestions and help. Thank you all.

 

see...i help honda owners out on occasion


as long as they are not complete fucktards.

 

hahaha I hear that. Thanks again.

 

nm