95_Civic_4dr

I've been trying to get a new camshaft to work with my D16Z6. Last night I had everything installed and tried doing the ignition timing. I was having trouble setting the ignition timing before and one of my buddy's told me I had to jump the service connector or w/e on these cars by the passenger kick panel (this I was never taught to do but I gave it a shot). What he didn't tell me was that I was supposed to jump the connector after the car reached operating temperature, I did it before operating temp.
With the connector jumped and the engine stone cold I started it up, everything was perfectly fine for a good few minutes then she started to stutter and died on me. I tried starting it one more time and she just barely ran then died immediately.

I pulled the plugs and looked in, everything was soaked in fuel and I know for fact it's fuel cause it has an extremely strong fuel odor. I let it sit overnight and tried starting again this morning, she started barely then bogged down and died.

Cold, the compression is about 125psi even across the board. Normally she's around 155-160psi across warmed up.

I read on here that so much fuel will dissolve the oil on the cylinder walls and cause compression loss, one fix was to get some oil down into the cylinders. I tried putting only a little bit of oil in but I can't get it actually on the walls, it just sits on top of the piston.

Any ideas on how to dry it up?
Did I possibly fry my ECU by doing what I did?

Former User

Is there bright white spark at all four spark plugs?

95_Civic_4dr

Yeah, I grounded one of the plugs and it's getting a good spark. I also got all new plugs since the old were all black and just soaked in fuel.

Former User

Do all four plugs have bright white spark?

95_Civic_4dr

Yeah all 4 are white, kind of has a light bluish tint to it too.

Former User

Check the mechanical timing.

95_Civic_4dr

I checked the valve timing a few times before posting on here, everything seems good to go. I'm not at home right now but when I get there I'll go over the valve timing again just to be sure.

How does jumping the service connector effect the ignition timing? Or what exactly does it cause the ECU to do? Since I jumped it at a cold start up, could that have anything to do with maybe causing it to just dump fuel in since cold engines need a richer mixture?

MONEY888

Change out that oil cause its fouled from the fuel and get yourself a good fuel pressureregulator and a fuel gage too go along with it .

Former User

Jumping the service connector prevents the ECU from adjusting the ignition timing, thereby allowing you to set the base ignition timing. I don't think this is necessarily related to your problem. As you have both spark and fuel, the next step is to check the mechanical timing to see whether the timing belt jumped a tooth or two. The compression should be good enough to start the engine.

werteg

If you search the internet for washed out cylinder it will tell you to use automatic transmission fluid "about enough to keep the entire surface of the piston wet and wash the walls" and drop the fluid into the spark plug holes after you take all the spark plugs out and unplug all the fuel injectors and crank the engine and let the ATF wash the walls with all it's detergents "engine oil doesn't have this amount of detergent". After that just connect everything and give the engine some throttle to make sure it starts the first time without getting anymore gas in there and after started it will smoke for about 6 minutes or more and that will fix you up. You may easily find that your engine oil is contaminated with fuel and that you will have to do a engine oil removal and replace. This all worked for me when my cylinders where washed down with fuel and had little to no compression. Basicly I was leaving the spark plugs out over night to get it started but I know you can't wait over night and besides the cylinder walls have to get cleaned.

werteg

Hey umm don't put more ATF fluid in your cylinders then your clearence of piston to head since fluids are not compressible "like brake fluid and coolant" and this proceedure can damage your engine if you put too much ATF in there. ?? wait a minute? if you have no spark plugs in then you will just spray it everywhere. Well anyways my teacher said it will damage the engine so anyways. Just put enough to get the job done, like 2 table spoons. Just remeber you are trying to raise compression and wash the cylinder walls. So keep trying until you get it right.

95_Civic_4dr

Alright I'll give the ATF a try too when I get back. I just don't know how much to add being that there's fuel everywhere plus the engine oil I already added earlier.

werteg

Yup it can easily look like a mess so just remeber how oil burns on the manifold and you shouldent be worried. it will burn clean instead of building up. Don't forget to unplug the injectors hehe.. I have seen that happen befor.

95_Civic_4dr

Checked the mechanical timing again, it's all spot on.
I'll be trying the ATF tomorrow when I can get a ride, since this is a manual I don't exactly keep ATF around.

One other thing, I should of mentioned it earlier but I never thought of it. I've always pretty much ran 89 (mid-grade) fuel in this car since day 1 and it's never posed a problem. Maybe the 89 is too high of a grade and I should drain all the fuel and add 87?

werteg

Yeah just use whatever fuel the owners manual calls for. If it's jdm ecu you would want whatever they use. USDM SOHC engines use the low grade fuel. I had washed out cylinders for the first time about a month ago after I changed my head and head gasket. With a headgasket failure and pour compression it took alot to start the engine befor I replaced the parts so I had contaminated oil and everything. You will notice that it starts a little and if that is the case just repeat steps until you can atleast burn all the ATF out and change the oil if it smells or looks contaminated with fuel.

Former User

Post pictures of the cam and crank set at TDC1.

And what camshaft did you install?

werteg

Yeah try to make sure everything is good and normal, you will know if valve timing is off a tooth, it is pretty obvious. And besides the fuel and spark you should be good to go with a conclusion that you have washed out cylinders.

Former User

IMHO, 125 PSI straight across is not a good fit with flooded cylinders.

95_Civic_4dr

I've been going out and cranking her over with the starter every once in awhile and adding small amounts of oil when I do.
She's now raised to 135-140psi across. There's no puddles on top of the pistons and the fuel odor isn't as strong anymore.

Edit: I also want to note that I've had this cam in a couple times before, I just can't get it to work right. The very first time I had the cam in it worked for about a day. Then my distributor rotor's screw backed out and tore up the inside of my distributor so I replaced it with a new one. Since then I get a CKP CEL everytime with this cam (I have yet to get far enough to set the timing) and now it flooded with fuel.
Should I drain the 89 fuel and go down to 87 before I try starting it up again?

Edit 2: Do these OBD 1 ECU's have the flooded thing where if I hold the pedal down all the way while cranking it either reduces or cut's off the fuel injectors? '95 EX

Competition/Zex 59300

I tried my best with the pictures but my camera decided to quit working, so here's some cell pics.




I circled the 7 o'clock mark and the TDC marks since these pics are a bit blurry.



And rotor pointing to #1. (If anyone notices the spring missing from the coil, I have it safe and sound)

werteg

Well the cam looks lined up but dang I don't know your pulley all that well. My d15b7 has a tdc mark that is further clockwise of the timing marks and is all alone. Yours looks like it has two sets of three marks. Can you tell us what year and engine code the pulley is?

95_Civic_4dr

No idea, there's really no identification marks on the pulley from what I can see. Would they be behind the pulley?
But basically the two marks lined up in the pic are the TDC marks (idk why there's 2) and then ahead CCW there are the 3 marks for ignition timing. I believe the center mark is 16 degree's BTDC, the one more CCW is 18 degrees BTDC, and the line closest to the TDC marks is 14 degrees BTDC.

werteg

You can see my pulley in the above image. There is a white mark all alone and that is the TDC that needs to be lined up to set tdc with the valve train. I don't want to waste your time but if you have good compression i think your ok. Anyone else seen this pulley befor? On mine I set the ignition timing with the one and only red mark on the crank pulley. I don't see why they would want to display bottom dead center.

95_Civic_4dr

That diagrams actually pretty close to mine, just I have 2 marks for TDC and I'm not sure why. I'm guessing it just may have something to do with adjusting the mechanical timing a couple degrees but idk, someone with better knowledge of the D16Z6 could explain maybe.

werteg

Well that's not too bad then, If there is only 2 sets of 3 marks and you think the the ones most clock wise are the TDC marks then that sounds right since the ignition timing marks would be further counter-clockwise. I think you are good with the cause that it is washed down cylinders.

95_Civic_4dr

Well, I tried starting her but no luck. She did get a little further than anything before.

Held it at WOT and cranked the engine over, it turned over immediately but started chugging and sounded like a really messed up diesel for a good 10 seconds then finally died and a cloud of gray smoke went everywhere. I pretty much stopped there.

I'm not sure if I should just keep cranking it and hope it eventually runs, pull the plugs crank it and let it sit a little more, or shoot more oil down the cylinders and start cranking again. Idk.

Looking down the spark plug holes, it still looks soaking wet in the cylinders...I almost feel like I should just pull the head and dry it all myself, and I just had the head off only a few days ago
Should I drain the tank and fuel lines of the 89 and put 87 in?