hey guys im on my last straw here i have a 94 integra h22 swap ive put so much money into this car its insane... i bought the car with the swap and it ran great the timing belt broke and since it dosent run even close to the same..
i replaced the water pump head gasket and timing belt and put the orginal head back on after gas testing the cilinders for leaks ... the first cilinder wasent firing so i bought another engine and swapped the heads ... still the same problem first cilinder isent firing im getting spark fuel and the compression is around 210 im totally lost and a friend seems to think i could have a hole in my pistion .... is this possable .. or a likely thing to happen? if so i have another bottom end but it needs rod bearings is this somthing i can do myself? and will it solve my problem im completely lost and giving up hope please help...

I think you would've seen a hole in your piston when your head was off, don't you agree?

Check compression
If compression is bad, proceed to leak down test.

If compression is good, whip out a spark tester and put it between the plug and the plug wire, then see if it's sparking like it should with the engine running.

If spark is good, check the plug. I doubt the plug is bad, but if it is, replace it. If it's good...

Whip out a node light and test injector pulse. If pulse is bad, proceed to repairing injector wiring.

If injector pulse is good, proceed to remove fuel rail and swap injectors 1 & 2 around. If your problem goes to #2 cylinder, replace the injector.

If problem remains isolated in #1, then pop that valve cover off and check valve clearance. If your valves are adjusted too tight or too lose, compression will be good, but the car will still run like crap, so check the lash.

If everything checks out fine, go to a mechanic and have them further diagnose it.

So you broke your timing belt, replace the timing belt and its not working right.

Did you follow proper procedure for replacing the belt. Did you do it yourself

You broke your belt. Odds are you belt some valves.

You have a new Head on it?

Still runs like ****?

COmpression is good you have fuel and spark? But no fire, you cant have all 3 going on and nothing happening.

Check your dizzy and coil.

i have been workin on this car with trained honda machanics and were all lost weve done all the tests above at least 3 times they only thing that was helpfull out of that was the adjusting the valves that could possable be the problem but thank you for your time and suggestions ... if the valve was adjusted to tight or wutever could there be spark fuel and compression and not working .. cause thats exzactly wuts happening it acually seems to be running very rich ..

Yes that could be a problem if u adjust them too tight the valve may slightly stay open sweeping the cylinder but have the car running pull the spark plugs out and see what cylinder it affects the most it might be and injector seal leaking. Also check for vacuum leaks by spraying alittle mist of water around the intake manifold.

For the most part isolating the problem when and where it is coming from will be the key.

just quick thing to check since your getting spark and fuel just make sure ur getting your spark at the correct time. maybe when you broke the belt off you might have crossed a wire or something

i checked the valves today there all according to spec.. im still totally lost ive check the spark in all 4 cilinders and it is slightly weaker in the first cilinder but i dont think its a significent enough diffrence ( i could be wrong) ive pulled the fuel rail and there all firing in order and the same amount ..switched the first injector to the 2nd and still not firing in first cilinder .. i had to drive it down the street they other day and it smells like gas out they exzaust ..i figured because the first cilinder is getting gas that its not burning but wen i disconnected the wire to the fuel injector the car ran even worse ... making me think that the cilinder is trying to fire or somthing but yet when the car is running and you pull the spark plug wire theres no diffrence in the first cilinder .. the compression is slightly higher in the 1st cilinder as welll ( the one not firing) but theyre all at a good compression rate .. i dont kno how to check if the spark plugs are firing in order ..so suggestions on that would help ... could a vacum leak acually cause the first cilinder not to fire?? ...im running msd could that be part of the problem but i would think that would effect all the cilinders and not just the one .... any kind of suggestions or help is welcome and i thank you all for your suggestions already KEEP INFO COMING PLEASE

99 percent sure its something stupid.

You cant have all three factors and not have a running cylinder.

Did you swap the spark plugs between the first and second cylinder? Have you tried new spark plug wires? I'm assuming you guys have double-checked base ignition timing at the dizzy. Are you running just an MSD coil or do you have an ignition box? Try bypassing the box if you have one and see what happens.

Other things to check: wet compression and leakdown test.

He says he has good comp in all cylinders.

No need for a leak down test.

Leak down test is really to see where you are loosing pressure from correct?

But if he has comp in the cylinder no need for a wet test either. Just wasting his time.

If he has spark at the spark plug wire, and can confirm that fuel is spiting into the cylinder, than the obvious piece of the puzzle here is that the spark plug is bad.

Its scientifically impossible to have compression in a cylinder along with fuel and spark at the same time, and not get a working cylinder.

Im thinking that he either has a bad spark plug, or its his MSD junk he has in the car.

ive changed the spark plugs like 3 diffrent times already because my friend was convinced of pritty much the same thing your saying .. alot of people told me to get rid of the msd so i ordered a stock dizzy and it should be here any day .. but i dont see how msd would send spark to all they other cilinders except that one still i think thats my next step ive changed the spark plug wire to and there was no change.. thanks for they info again guys

are the grounds on the engine good? most important is the harness ground i think.
so ur running external coil distributor, obd1? with what ecu. h22a4?

voltage good at battery and while running?

my car would do the same thing sort of when it got way to much fuel, cause i'm a noob at tuning, would run on like 3cyl, shut off, pull tons of fuel, start up, fine.

Could have also burnt up your ignition coil as well.

Have you tried swapping injectors around to see if the problem persists in another cylinder? A leaking injector will cause a misfire.



One coil powers four cylinders. Bad coil = no run.

check the ecu grounds
especially the ones by the thermostat housing

Not true

how is that not true there is a single coil for the dizzy

Yep, H22's have a single ignition coil. Depending on if its JDM or not, it will either be internal in the dizzy or external.

Cam timing is good?

Please explain yourself because without an explanation, it would appear as though you're purposely spreading misinformation.

Have you never had a shitty coil that was functioning improperly?

Well I have, and it was running a misfire on a cylider. Not all the time like said in this thread, but enough to offer advice into checking to see if coil is damaged as well.

There is no misinformation about what I said.

If you are having spark issues, you need to test everything from the dizzy to the coil to the plugs, all the way down to the terminals on the ECU to make sure that everything is good.

Based on OP's info, Im just throwing IDs his way to looking into. He says he has spark on the wire, and fuel in Cylinder 1. Well, WTF, with Compression, even if cam timing was off, he would still get ignition on the cylinder.

Im just throwing ideas around here to look into. According to what the OP is stating here, his engine according to science is the missing link, lol.

why they said you posted misinformation is because your other post made it seem that you think preludes use more than one coil

Where they hell did you guys see me say that there is more than one coil, lol.

are you dumb or ignorant or can you just not read on one of the post's you quoted it said "One coil powers four cylinders. Bad coil = no run." and you posted not true

Well my 1.2 cents: You've replaced plugs, wires, tripled checked nearly everything else, what about the dist. cap? The OP said he checked the spark at all cylinders, but a weak spark (blue in color) would cause a poor firing of the cylinder, not a complete burn (causing the "fuel smell" while driving and a worse condition when pulling the plug wire). The only thing not swapped out seems to be the cap/rotor and it may have a hairline crack. Like someone else said, it's gotta be something stupid. HTH