mccordelectric

Greetings all. First of all let me start off by telling you people that I am a Journeyman Mechanic(Truck Mechanic) by trade and have been over 20 years. I do have plenty exp working on all types of cars also. But this car has got me fricken cross eyed. Here is the situation. My friend bought this thing for his kid. The fan was not kicking on and the kid overheated it pretty bad and blew the head gas. So he brings it to my house(lucky me). I pulled it apart and dropped the head off at machine shop. They pressure tested it(was good) and machined it. I picked it up and a gasket kit. I put it together, everything went as it should. I also gave it a complete tune up and replaced the fan switch. I checked the timing belt rotating the engine the correct direction several times and locked down the tensioner and rotated it again to check it again. All ok. The next morning I came down to the garage, double checked things, topped off the coolant and fired it up. It started immediately and sounded great. It ran for about 5 minutes at which time it made a strange sound and died. Tried to start, no start and it was cranking very fast like broken timing belt. looked at belt, was on there. I had my friend crank it over with the plugs out and I held a screw driver handle against plug holes because my comp tester was at work. no comp #4 for sure, felt low on #1 and #3 but hard to say. checked timing belt, to my surprise it was now one tooth off. F***! So I pulled the head off again to find both exhaust valves on #4 bent. Cant figure this out, ok maybe I fu**** up, but not something that happens too often. Lets assume I did. I got 2 exhaust valves, replaced them and checked the others out closely, looks good. Got another top end kit, reassembled with the utmost care. Quadruple checked the timing belt. Try to start, wont start. At least it was not cranking over too fast I thought to myself, so whatever the problem I will just fix it. Did Compression test, #1 115, #2 115, #3 115, #4 135. yes kinda low, but will go up when warm and in any case it should start like that. also checked cam timing again of course and it was dead on and have rechecked at least a dozen times since, its perfect. checked for spark, has good strong blue spark. checked dist in correct, it is. checked fuel pressure, 46 psi. I have checked for codes, no codes. I have checked the tps, map, grounds, o2 sensor, loosened up exhaust pipe in case of plugged exhaust and have checked many things that really wont cause a no start and all checks ok. the check engine does go off after 3 secs like its supposed to. I went to Pick N Pull yesterday and purchased another ecm, does the same thing. when I first crank it over it does sputter for about 5 seconds, but then stops sputtering and just cranks over lifelessly. I pull the plugs and they are wet with fuel since it does not start I guess. Please somebody tell me something I have over looked. sorry post is so long, but as you can see, I have been fairly diligent and thorough and wanted to get all info out to you. I have checked so many things not mentioned like injector pulse(working), and I am wondering if maybe the Vtec could be stuck on but Ichecked the solonoid seems great, been leaving it unplugged lately. HELP!!!!!!!!!

THANKS IN ADVANCE

Hondaruss

One thing i would try is when it sputters that shows theres some sort of spark then seems like the spark drops off... i would try starting it again let it sputter then when it feels like it dies of.. and DONT TURN THE KEY OFF ...pull the wires get some spare plugs have someone crank it and see if spark is still present ....if spark is there then its apparent your loading up on fuel..which i seen you checked the map and all that.. but if you dont got spark then sounds like a dis issue. I have went through alot of distributors in my years working with honda's ..this is just my .02

mccordelectric

yeah I have tried that, the spark is always there on all 4 plug wires. I have tried another distributor anyways and it does the same thing. you are correct, it is loading up with fuel, but why? the ecm controls that, and I have tried another ecm, does same thing. no codes are stored unless I crank it over a long time with sensors unplugged, so it does its job.

mccordelectric

so nobody here has any suggestions?

ToddEDM

any luck on fixing this issue??? im having the same thing.

i had this happen last winter, the solution was unplugging the o2 sensors, trying to start it, then i plugged them back in, and BAM! it started.
now im having the same issue this winter, and its not starting, and that fix is not working, i think i might need to replace the o2 sensors.