Wdpfreak145

So the other night my civic just died on me. It wasn't getting any spark whatsoever. I was doing about 45 mph in 4th gear and the car started sputtering/dieseling while still in gear. I took it out of gear and coasted to a stop and the engine died before I could even pull over.

Ordered a new distributor and rotor, used the old cap (local advance didn't have one). Put everything back together and then the car had a lot of trouble starting. Finally, it came to life, but was missing bad. Two of my plug wires were shorting out and shockin me when I touched them. Swapped them all out with some spares I had laying around.

But then it developed a terrible hesitation when opening up the throttle from idle speed. I followed the method in the FAQ for setting the timing, but the hesitation was still there. So I had to play it by ear. I had to rotate the distributor alll the way toward the back of the engine in order to get the ignition timing right (or what felt right, anyways), to the point where I didn't have that hesitation when taking off.

Kind of worried/curious about this, or if there's anything I can do to cure it.

It's a 1995 honda civic ex d16z6 converted to manual, still using the automatic p28.

Former User

Sounds like the timing belt skipped a tooth.

Wdpfreak145

Yikes! Is there any easy way to confirm? Or is taking off the upper timing cover the only way to do it?

I'm about to take it for the first drive over a mile. I guess we'll find out...

Former User

Don't drive the car until you check the mechanical timing.

Remove the valve cover and then the upper timing belt cover. Turn the crank pulley ONLY counterclockwise until the cam pulley is perfectly at TDC1. Then check whether or not the crank pulley is also at TDC1.

dpetro1

Beat me to it Ron, was just about to post that pic.

OP, when you where setting the ignition timing, did you actually use a timing light to set the car to 16* BTDC as detailed in the FAQ



PS - turning the dizzy counterclockwise (toward the firewall) = advance. clockwise is retard

Wdpfreak145

Okay. Well guys I haven't had a choice but to drive the car. It has been running "okay" for the last two days aside from a hesitation in the lower RPM range. I picked up a new timing belt and water pump and I plan to do it all this evening when I get off work at 8 o clock.

Do I need to get RTV or anything like that? I'm gonna go ahead and flush the coolant system while I'm in there. But I need to know these things so I can get everything I need now before I get started!

dpetro1

Ouch, starting a timing belt job at 8pm is gonna be rough. do you have a crank pulley holder? or something to help crack the crank bolt?

did you even check the mechanical timing and/or ignition timing before decided to replace everything?

Wdpfreak145

I haven't had the chance to check the timing. It will work out alright for me, I don't work till 3pm tomorrow. I will be pulling off the upper timing cover and checking the mechanical timing this evening before I actually tear into it.

I did use the timing light to try and set the ignition timing properly, but when judging by the marks on the crank pulley, the hesitation on the ignition was AWFUL.

Wdpfreak145

Today is the day!! I've got the valve cover off, the ps pump off, and the upper timing cover off.

Here is my cam pulley at TDC:

Wdpfreak145

And here is my crank pulley. It looks like those two marks are supposed to line up with the gap on the timing cover and the point should be between them, and it is obviously not... It's way off lol....

JDM_teh_WIN!!

Actually it looks like it is timed correctly. I think the paint on your timing marks are worn off. There should be 4 marks total. There should be 3 consecutive marks that are for timing and 1 mark for TDC. It looks like its lined up with the TDC mark. I would take a closer look. I mean it doesn't hurt to change the TB and WP but I don't think that is your problem honestly.

I dunno I'm just going by the Helms manual for 92-95 civics. Maybe there are only 3 marks total? 16, 12 and TDC?

dpetro1

Set the crank to tdc. Then look at the cam . In the first pic the cam doesn't look like its at tdc. I don't see the "up" mark.

Omegax10

Is your firing order correct? Like the spark plug wires going to the right cylinder? My GSR Swap was hesitating bad at low rpms but when I revved up a little it wouldn't be as noticeable then I discovered I had the order wrong lol

Wdpfreak145

Alright. Big updates guys. Get ready.

So tuesday my two brothers and I tear into the motor. It is in fact off by what would appear to be a couple of teeth. Everything comes off fine, swap in new water pump and new timing belt. Lined the crank pulley up and slipped the belt over the cam pulley.

But here is what we did not know!!! When pulling the timing belt, my crank was moving ever so slightly from time to time, and was throwing off the time. We didn't know this so we threw the engine back together. Still ran like ****.

So I tore into it thursday (again) and I already knew how to do all of it. I was just going to loosen the tensioner and then realign the cam and crank, slip the belt back over, and snug everything back down. Didn't happen. Turns out my brother cranked the tensioner on so tight that it rounded out the head. So I had to grind the entire head down with a dremel, free the tensioner, and rob a bolt off my parts car.

For future reference, the timing belt tensioner bolt is a 10x20 and measures just over 2 inches long. Same as the upper bolt for the power steering bracket to the block, coincidentally (the one for the ps bracket just has more threads). So I used that in its place. Got the car running again, STILL ran like ****!! So I checked the firing order off the distributor, and I had at least two plug wires wrong!! =/

So it's running a HELL of a lot better than it was, but now I just need to recheck the ignition timing and see if I can get it spot on this time or not... New plug wires and plugs will be getting done very very soon.

dpetro1

so is it possible the firing order was the problem in the first place? and the mechanical timing was never off? i figured since you used the old cap, you didn't mess with the wires

Wdpfreak145

I actually did a new cap and rotor when I did the distributor, changing the firing order on the plug wires helped but it didn't cure the problem entirely. New plugs and wires, properly gapped, along with adjusting the ignition timing and it runs like a champ now! Cost me a lot of money, but at least I got the experience in doing it (first time for all of this), and I can say it's all done if I should ever have to sell the car.

No more hesitation in the lower end, a nice steady idle, and it just begs to climb through the RPM's now.