k20zfg2

Alright guys so this sounds stupid and a little crazy but a buddy of mine had this car sitting in his garage that he had bought a few years ago, pretty clean eg hatch, it had an automatic, b18b turbo'd (looks like a ford 2.3 log mani and small, maybe t3/t4 turbo?) He bought it running but apparently wanted to swap in a 5spd, so took it apart and its been sitting since. So I picked it up off him for super cheap as a little project, my truck is getting pretty bad on gas and I figured a little civic might save me some cash and be fun to drive even with the auto. I had a quick peek and made sure the harness looked in ok shape, it looked together. Put the engine and trans back in, put oil and coolant in, (waiting on some trans fluid) and went to go start it up, cranks great, good fuel pressure but almost no spark post coil (its got an aftermarket msd coil and distributor). I'm at a loss, I don't know where to start, I doubled checked all my connections, and only one I missed was oil pressure sender (single wire, I doubt that would cause a no start though). Any info would be helpful, i'm wondering maybe the lack of fluid in trans possibly, or some tranny wiring or possibly bad wiring from ecu to distributor? Thanks again guys for reading any insight would help.

HiProfile

More than likely it's the ignitor (icm) inside the distributor. When you pull the cap, it will be the little zippo-sized part with ~4 wires on it. Also check that the ground strap is on the chassis & trans, as well as on the thermostat housing. Good connections there are key.

k20zfg2

I'm sure I completely missed the tstat ground so i'll have to double check my grounds and I never had anything apart in the distributor but I will pull it apart and clean the connections on the icm.

k20zfg2

To be honest I only hooked up 3 grounds, 1 on the valve cover and front rad support, 1 through the main harness on the engine block close to the thermostat, and one that I couldnt remember where it went, but I just attached it to the transaxle. Wonderning what could be wrong possibly with the icm or grounds?

nealnanoHX

Personally I would get rid of the MSD setup. Unless the motor is making over 500whp the stock ignition system is fine. Make sure you dont have any ground not hooked up but it sounds like you got them all. It sounds like a weak coil to me but that is a forum diag. Put it back to stock ignition with a new coil fresh plugs, cap, rotor and wires and try again.

k20zfg2

I unfortunately do not have the stock components, I would probably have to track down some used parts to make this cost effective so I guess ill have to wait and track down stock parts? All it is msd coil and distributor cap though.

k20zfg2

Alright quick update, so I cleaned and doubled checked grounds, took the dizzy apart and cleaned the terminals on the icm and ignitor (I think) had to repair a wire that was pretty badly corroded as well! But still no luck, actually I think its worse now, no spark at all. So either i've got some bad wiring in that part of the harness and moving it around just broke something apart.

nealnanoHX

Yeah hacked up wiring is always a problem.

lolv8s

Check your fuses under the hood. Make sure your grounds are getting a good connection...