nocomputers

I drive a 1998 Civic EX (although not at the moment) with the factory D16Y8 single cam 16 valve VTEC. Fuel, and engine management are factory. All my problems started with a huge cold start problem. It would sputter and die so many times that I would just about , or actually kill the battery befor it would start. The ICM generally has a heat problem if any, so i replaced the coil with an MSD external cap and coil. The cold start problem was thill there. The car ran great for probably an hour. I shut it off laft it over night, and drove it for 20 minutes or so. It slowly developed an intermittent missfire which became progressively worse until it was cutting off, and requiring numerous popstarts to cover the 10 miles home. I've replaced the ICM...the problem was still there when hot, but the cold start problem went away. Is the MSD kit a peice of crap? I've noticed there was another gentleman with a similar problem and the same cap and coil. I'm familiar with ignition coils, and can't imagine that there's any part of a coil that can cause this simptom, rather I assume there's an interaction problem with the honda ignition.

Thanks,
Mark

old man neri

Have you thought about the basics? Such as old leads? old plugs? a bad connection somewhere, possible shorting out?

I once heard of someone having a cracked coil that was intermittent.

nocomputers

New NGK resistor plugs & MSD 8.5mm superconductors 3000 miles ago. New MSD cap, and external coil kit 50 miles ago. I thought that might be it. I put the factory coil back in, and there's nothing at all... I did forget to mention that the idle gets well, weak before the car starts acting up. Weak meaning that if you rev it a little it will drop right down to a stop. I'm a musclecar guy who's branching out. The basics are always where you start, cause that's all you've got. I've looked for install goobers, shorts, and the usual corroded connections, cracked wires, blown fuses, etc.... Thanks for the reply. Sound advice.

Merry x-mas to you.