civic won't start

my civic was running rough, felt like it was running 3 cylinders, so to
test which wasn't firing, i was advised to pull the plug wires one at a
time with the engine running, and if it kept going, that was the bad
cylinder. well, pulled the first plug wire, it died. started the car
again, pulled the second, it died, then the car never started again.

pulled the motor, turns out a valve was blown, missing a large chunk on
one side, so after all valves replaced, new gaskets, new rings, and a
new alternator, the motor was put back in. engine cranks over and over,
but won't start.

all plugs have spark, all cylinders have compression, and timing is
correct (not 100% sure). the cylinders are getting gas, and the intake
is opening. everything appears ok, so i'm beginning to think that a
fuse or relay is blown, or something is shorted from when i pulled the
plug wires before the rebuild.

I'd love to hear that it's possibly a fuse or relay, but if nothing
rings a bell with anyone, i'll go over the timing for the 3rd time i
suppose...

 

all plugs have spark,

Sounds like everything is there for it to fire.

But then you wouldn't be getting spark, right? Fuel pump is working, since
you say that fuel is going in.

The timing is the only thing in question at this point. Are you sure that
it's correct? You don't say what years, so does it have distrubutor? Is #1
cylinder at TDC when rotor is at wire #1? If it's solid state, there is a
chance that the computer is fubar and not firing when it should. Timing
would really need to be bad to not fire up at all.

Have you tried spraying starting fluid into the intake and turning over?

Does it fire at all? Anything sound like it's trying to fire up?

 

Isn't it true that all cars will start and run without the computer?
Mine is supposed to. They go into some sort of fall back mode which
will get you home with lower fuel efficiency and higher emissions.

I'd remove the spark plugs and wipe them dry. If the engine is getting
both fuel and spark the problem could be the air-fuel mixture, spark
timing, or valve timing. My car has a carburettor and automatic choke
which can be fooled by hand. I don't know how it might be done with a
fuel injection system. The valve timing is governed by the timing belt
connecting the crank shaft and cam shaft. The spark timing is governed
by the distrubutor which also runs off the cam shaft. So it's important
that the timing belt is on right. As the other poster wrote, the
distributor rotor has to point to the #1 cylinder spark plug when when
the engine is in TDC (top dead centre) position on the compression
stroke.

Hope that's not too basic. Afraid my knowledge is limited to pretty
basic stuff.

 

My vote is on the timing... The engine has two top dead centers, one on
the compression stroke when the valves are closed and one on the exhaust
stroke.

You can put your finger into #1 sparkplug hole and feel for compression
as you turn the engine over by hand with a wrench on the crank pulley or
something. As the crank comes up to the timing mark, you will feel the
compression under your finger.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
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Plug wires to the right plugs?

 

I fear the ignition coil was zapped
(http://tegger.com/hondafaq/startproblems.html#badcoil - the picture is from
my son's car when he used the starter to turn the engine without the coil
going anywhere). The test you described is from the olden days when ignition
coils didn't handle the amount of power they do now. Many modern coils can't
handle it, and that definitely goes for Hondas.

Mike

 

Didnt see this suggestion in the previous posts:

If I remember right it IS possible to install the distributor 180
degrees off. Check and make sure the dist. rotor is pointing to #1 when
on the compression stroke at TDC.

-SP

 

Yep... A common mistake. OTOH, being a mere 15-20 degrees off can
cause you heartburn too..

JT