So the story begins last Thursday when I decide to do a little project with my friends and put on my D16Y8 manifold and B18A throttle body that has been sitting around my garage since December. We start at noon with a trip to the Acura dealer to pick up a throttle body gasket to use as a template then it is off to do some metal work. Four hours later and another trip to Lowe's we have machined to manifold to accept the 58mm throttle body no questions asked and we prep it for paint. On goes a nice coat of aluminum color high-temp paint and now for the parts scavenge. I take injectors and there respective seals from a spare D16A6 intake manifold and put them in place to tighten down the D16Y8 Fuel rail. What I do notice is that the seals from the D16A6 are flush in their native manifold, flush in the D15B7 manifold I also have for parts, but stick out maybe 0.25"on the D16Y8 manifold. First question of the day: Is there a difference in injector seals among the years?

We move the car over to my other friends house down the street to do the install which is supposed to be quick and simple. Old manifold off, new manifold on; wrong! We ended up stripping the last nut on the A6 manifold thanks to me turning my back and my friend using a 12 point socket and not having a solid seat on the nut. This is the nut right under the V shaped ridge that can only be accessed by using a gear wrench or a socket from underneath, or possibly a socket, a 90 degree turn and some extensions. I get pissed off and go inside and this is the result https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1288083 Thanks to all that helped . We took plan B and opted for emergency head removal. The head is already below the threshold of 100 degrees so it is safe to remove. With all due haste we jack up the car and proceed for a standard head gasket change.

Disconnect header first, drop front crossmember to allow it to drop. Most of the coolant from the head is already out from when we disconnected the intake manifold lines but the rest is gone when the main head lines are removed. The remaining electrical connections are dropped and the valve cover comes off. The distributor is still in place since I do not want to deal with having to reset the ignition timing.. The timing belt has been marked with white-out to show where it is in relation with what tooth on the cam gear and removed. I attack the headbolts (stock) and remove them in standard criss-cross pattern, guarter turn to break seal and so on and so across the ten and then full turns, then removal. We pull the head straight off with the old intake manifold still attached and the distributor looking all cute and pretty.

The headgasket is in one piece still attached to the head and at no point do I place the head straight on the ground. I **** it to the side and then grab a set of pliers and remove the remaining intake manifold nut. I switch out the manifolds and put it back together again. We lift the head back up and go back to the car and the waiting block. Some coolant had gotten into the cylinders but it had been removed using standard paper towels. We struggle to get the head lined up in with the dowel pin and in the process scratch up the head gasket around that area. Two of the head stud holes have liquid in them and I being a supergenius assume that it will come out if I torque it down extra slowly .

I torque the head back down to the proper spec and think, "How many times can the stock head bolts be torqued down?" I know for a fact that I alone have removed the head twice and the previous owner who knows. We have now retorqued the head and are reusing the previous headgasket (felt like material) that had been changed out 10 months ago. Everything is reattached and coolant is added back into the system. As I am adjusting the wire harness it slips and one of the little clips that is bolted to the intake to keep the harness in place slips and hits the positive of the alternator and sparks. It is 2:00AM and my realization is that we left the battery in place in the trunk. It really is out of sight and out of mind. I think nothing of it, continue on with the wiring, move and extend the IAT sensor, and get ready to prime the system.

On first start of the fuel pump we are leaking at the fuel return line. We stop and extra clamp it. Second prime and we are leaking from the number one injector as it isn't in all the way. Third prime and we are leaking from the number three injector A LOT and it is in place so I replace it with one from the manifold that had just been on the car. The pump is primed again and no leaks. I try and turn over the motor and it turns over, but really slow. It is cranking, but really slow and laborous. I am thinking first off that it is a problem with the electrical system since I sparked the alternator. I tried cranking it three times before the battery just dies. It is chilling at 5 volts, not good.

Items replaced - Result
1) Battery - Cranks sound labor, slow
2) Alternator - Cranks sound labored, still slow
3) Starter - Cranks sound labored, see a pattern?

We then checked spark, we had spark on all cylinders. Also, when checking for a spark and holding the ignition wire next to a ground, be careful as the spark may bounce back, up the wire and into your hand. It is not fun. I then remove the spark plugs to check for coolant or fuel. Cylinders 1,2,4 are dry while number 3 smells strongly of fuel. Number three is the injector I knew was good so I replace the remaining three with known good injectors. Question - The little red filter cones that go into the top of the fuel injector, are they needed for proper operation?.

Before the fuel injector replacement I tried resetting the timing on the crank and the cam, but for some reason after I remove the spark plugs the crank does not want to be turned by hand. Can my timing belt have skipped and put the timing that far off? and how will I rotate my cam to TDC apart from the crank?

And here I am now, typing this up seeking help and knowledge.

Cliffnotes - Read bold for important questions
Items Known -
We have spark, ignition, don't know about compression and don't know about cam/crank timing.

This we will be bumped regularly until I figure this out and pictures may come tomorrow evening.

 

Morning Bump - car still isn't on.

 

Evening - I hate driving this damn V8 Van to and from work.