Darn... I hope the gasket will still be reusable. When I did have the cover off and all that, I inspected the belt and it seemed to have minimal wear; no cracks, pretty sturdy, and was even still powdery. It was also on there really tight to the point where it can't be moved with the force of my fingers, which leads me to think that it was replaced within the last few years or so(?). What causes the timing to be off in the first place?

Would retarding/advancing the timing cause that as well or not? The distributor is also missing a bolt, if that matters.

 

Should be fine to reuse.

The timing belt skips teeth on the cam or crank gear.

Nope.

Post pictures.

 

 

It's probably okay if the distributor sits flush against the head, though is there oil leaking from the distributor?

 

It doesn't seem like it; it would be very minimal if it was. I believe most of that gunk is from the old leaking valve cover gasket. The last person to replace the gasket smothered it in grey atv which I think caused it to become severely leaky.

 

It's probably okay. Why don't you buy a new distributor bolt?

 

Are they a standard size or do I have to order it from a Honda parts website?

By the way, how hard will it be to get to the crankshaft pulley? Can it be done without removing the wheel? I don't have any extensions long enough to stick out from the wheel well.

 

Raise front end on stands and then remove the driver's wheel. You'll have good access to the crank bolt that way.

 

Alright, I'll post the results tomorrow when I do the timing check.

 

I checked the timing just now and here are some pictures of how it is:

 

What engine do you have?

See diagram I posted. Rotate crank pulley counterclockwise until the cam pulley is perfectly positioned at TDC1. At no time should you ever rotate the crank pulley clockwise. After cam pulley is set at TDC1, look down at the crank pulley to see if the lone white mark is perfectly aligned with the pointer on the lower timing belt cover.

 

It's a D16Z6. I did rotate the crankshaft pulley counterclockwise to get the lone white mark to match up with the lower cover's pointer, which made the camshaft pulley upside down. I'll go align the camshaft pulley, but that will make the white mark on the crankshaft pulley way off.

 

Do the opposite. Set the cam at TDC1 and then look at the crank. Use the D16Z6 cam timing mark shown in the diagram.

 

Scratch that, I matched the camshaft pulley up correctly and the white mark on the crankshaft pulley came back around to the lower cover's pointer. I didn't know what I was talking about. But now the bolt of the crankshaft pulley is loose and won't rotate the crankshaft pulley anymore. Do I just turn it clockwise to tighten it?

Edit: It did not come loose, it just suddenly became easy to turn. The white mark on the crankshaft is off a little less than an inch to the left of the lower cover's pointer. I'll go take a picture real quick.

 

Post pictures showing the cam and crank timing marks aligned with the pointers.

 

Here is what it looks like after the camshaft pulley is aligned





The actual engraving for the crankshaft mark is in the very front of the white paint. It's actually only off by 1/8th of an inch or so.

 

Timing looks good.

Time to compression test the cylinders.

Did you already verify that the plug wires and injector wires are installed in the correct firing order?

 

The spark plug wires should be correct; this is the order that they're in:



The injector wires should be correct (they're currently unplugged though). Is it possible that I could have fried the fuel injectors while testing them? If you look at the images in the original post, you should see the fuel injector wires. What I did was hook the negative clamp to the black and yellow wire's side of connector on the injector, and the positive clamp to the other wire's side. Then I proceeded to test them using the battery. Isn't the black and yellow the negative one?

 

Have you removed the fuel rail with the injectors, and then cranked the engine to see if all 4 injectors pulse fuel and are not stuck open?

The Yel/Blk wire should have battery voltage. The other wire that runs to the ECU supplies ground.

 

Let me go try that real quick.

 

Well it turns out that two of them are shooting out a constant stream of fuel while the others are "blasting" shots. They also drip when not cranking.

So what you are saying is that the black and yellow wires are the positive? Would it matter if I had switched the positive and negative around? I've heard that injectors aren't polarized so I don't know if they'd be fried or not.

I'm actually going to do another test on the injectors and if they are confirmed screwed up, then I guess I'll be getting new ones.

 

Definitely fix or replace the injectors. Then go from there.

 

I did more testing on the fuel injectors by swapping them around, and it turns out the same two are still jetting out a constant stream of fuel. Which I believe the stream of fuel is not reaching the spark causing it to not fire and flood the cylinders at the same time.

So I guess two non-firing, flooded cylinders are causing it to not run correctly? And are fuel injectors fixable in this condition, or will I just have to get new ones?

 

I agree.

Not sure.

 

Welp, I'll probably just get some new ones then. I'll update this thread with the outcome once I get and install them. Hopefully this will be the fix that makes this car running (good) again and assist whatever underlying problems it has relating to this and the smog problem.