danielsan95

1997 honda civic, im honestly not sure if it had an engine swap of not vin checks out as a ex but the engine itself has a d16y7 engine, all i know is the previous oner told me its got a rebuilt head, anyway car wont start but it cranks and wants to turn over, took it to a honda service and they said it could be the ignoton but wants to charge me $1350 just to see if the parts will do anything and i said screw that but they also said it staarted numerous times with ease and so i drove it home no problem but today i drove it to work and as i was to start heaiing home the car wouldnt start again like samthing happened to what led me to take it to honda service for a diagnose, after that "diagnose" i replaced the distributor cap and rotor as well as the main relay, please help again the car cranks over and ants to start oh by the way the ne distributor cap are those clear see-through ones and i had someone checked as i start no spark, spark plug wires are pracically brand new

danielsan95

oh and i dont know if it matters or not but the car got 123k miles then again it has an aftermarket cluster so yea...

TomCat39

Please provide the ECU in the car.

The 96-00 Civic EX should be a D16Y8 vtec motor, what is in the car is the CX/DX D16Y7 non vtec motor or at least block.

Also check the head and the intake manifold. Does the head have a vtec solenoid? Does the intake manifold have the throttle body pointing up to the hood or to the passenger side?

It's been changed up a bit and you will need to identify what all has been changed.

Pictures would be helpful too.

danielsan95

ok ill be able to do all that tomorrow, cuz currently my car is sitting on my works parking lot, all i know off hand is that the engine itself is a d16y7 cuz of the "label" on front of it, and its not a vtec cuz i dont see a vtec line unless im blind, but yea tomorrow ill try and post some pics of the motor, im about to replace the distributor on it during my lunch break, any advice on what i should do and not to do. oh and this is my first "non-stock" civic same as first time owning a civic, lol i appreciate the help

danielsan95

oh where can i find the ecu?

TomCat39

There is no rush on this end. The forums and the people here will be around for some time. Any urgency will be on your side of things.

I'm not as familiar with the 96-00 civics but I will help out as best as I can.

The ECU should have a -Pxx- number on the label, that is the model number we need to identify the ECU. The ECU resides behind the passenger side kick panel.




The fastest way to see if the vtec head was kept is look for the vtec solenoid on the back left of the head. See the blow out illustration below and see where I highlighted in yellow the bolt path where it shows where it bolts up to the head.

danielsan95

Sorry for me taking long on posting the pics got caught up with some things, but here are the pictures of the engine

danielsan95

maybe in a few days the pics of the engine will be posted, but i have replaced pretty much the whole internal parts of the distributor and still no spark, so i decided to have a look in the little fuse box under the hood(not the main big one, but the little small one) and it appears the orange wire harness that plugs into the box itself appears to be corroded? not sure if it is but i tried using a test light to see and the thing came out wet. what is that little box called?

mk378

That's an EX intake, non-VTEC engine, and aftermarket exhaust header.

The small fuse box with orange plugs should only be for the anti-lock brake system. It would not prevent starting.

Check that there is power on the black and yellow wire in the 2 pin plug to the distributor, both with the key on and while cranking. This wire supplies power to the coil.

danielsan95

That little box has the fuel pump motor relay?

mk378

No. That relay is under the dash in the glove box area.

Are you familiar with the "cranks but won't start" troubleshooting drill, and have you done any of it?

The first step is to turn the key on but don't crank and observe that the fuel pump runs for 2 seconds then stops. At the same time the check engine light should come on for those 2 seconds then go out.

TomCat39

The VTEC solenoid is not there in the back left corner, that means they used the head and blcok of the D16Y7 while keeping the intake manifold and their aftermarket exhaust from the D16Y8:



Follow mk378 instructions and report back.

Also, identify your ECU, it should be a P2E for the D16Y7, if it's a P2P it's still the D16Y8 ECU.

Also, please turn the key to the on (II) position where the dashboard lights up and see if your engine light comes on for 2 seconds and then goes off. If you don't see the engine light at all, please report that too.

The process has started, best of luck.

danielsan95

I'll try that method, and I have replaced the relay that's under the glovebox, but what I was trying to say is the I guess fuse or whatcha ma call it cuz there's like 4 fuses in that little box I was talking about. The guy from oreilys told me to the security thing where I put the key in and put it on the "on" position, and and take the key back out then put it back and try to crank it, didn't work but that whole time I was doing that, check engine light didn't go off it stayed on the whole time, at first I thought that was normal but since y'all mentioned it should've gone away, it didn't, I'll do all those y'all mentioned when I get home, and I'll let y'all know what happens

danielsan95

Here the pic of the little box I was talking about

TomCat39

Since the check engine light is always on, there is a code. I suspect I know what code it is but it's still good to pull the code by jumping the service connector and reading the blink codes.

Do you know how to do this?

Those orange plugs are filled with dielectric grease to prevent corrosion and dirt from getting into them. Should be fine.

danielsan95

Oh ok good, up dumb question but how do you do that exactly? The blink code thing

mk378

Find the test plug which is about at the top of the carpet on the right side of the car where the passenger's door meets the dashboard. It has two wires I think they are brown and green and it isn't plugged into anything. Put a piece of wire or a paper clip into the plug to short the two wires together. Turn the key on but don't crank. The CEL will flash with codes.

Or of course you can also use an OBDII scanner on the OBDII plug under the dash on the driver's side. You get more detailed information that way.

If it were an OBD1 Civic, check engine light not going out when you turn the key on but don't crank means there is a major problem and you won't be able to read any codes. I don't know if that is necessarily the case with OBDII.

Again, the little fuse box with orange plugs is for the ABS. It has nothing to do with starting the engine. It isn't even installed on DX, LX models that don't have ABS.

danielsan95

Aight yea I'll do that when I get home

TomCat39

danielsan95

Aight so apperantly, the obd scanner keep saying link error

mk378

Your ECU is not booting up. This could be because of a lack of power or ground, or a bad ECU.

Next thing to check would be the ECU grounds, four small wires connected to the engine at the thermostat.

710times

is it me or does it look like he has an obd1 dizzy? i see two plugs

TomCat39

Very well could be.

The ECU hasn't been identified yet either.

This seems like a pretty frankenstein swap by the looks of things. Everything has to be looked at and identified.

danielsan95

Heres the ecu

danielsan95

Where's the thermostat on the engine? Honestly I could've googled it but seeing y'all mentioning about a Frankenstein swap makes easier just to ask on here