I swapped the motor from my friends '96 Accord EX into my '94 Accord EX. I used my stock '94 harness and swapped the dizzy from my '94 into his '96 motor. I believe the vtak unit on his is different as it has no plug on it, however mine does. I am not worried about this though as it's my DD -- unless it's causing the problem. I DID NOT TOUCH THE ECU OR HARNESS! All I did was unhook it at the shock towers when I pulled it, pulled it and swapped it from motor to motor, and then dropped it in and rehooked it at the towers. Still no luck at all.

Here's where it now sits..
-The car WILL start and run, but poorly. Timing is set properly.
-Car won't rev past 3k, seems to hit a limiter.
-The CEL/MIL WILL NOT LIGHT. It does not even come on when I first put the key to on for the 2 seconds while all of the other lights are on. I believe it did come on before. HELMS talks about this symptom at page 11-40.
-The oil pressure light also does not come on when the key is first put to on. I KNOW that this light is not burnt out.

Here's what I've done..
-I've added a bunch of meaty grounds grounds. G101 is bolted up from the harness to the intake mani.
- I checked Fuse nr. 1, it was good.
- I tried to follow the steps on page 11-40 of the HELMS but I don't have the test harness.

 

first thing I would do is fix the cel light change the bulb in the back of the gauges and see if a cel comes on check it and go from there

 

The CEL bulb is known-good. Pulled the cluster today and checked it. It literally isnt being grounded by the ECU to show up even in the first two seconds. However, I tested the voltage between the pos battery terminal and multiple spots on the block (including g101) and it came back 12+ volts at each place.

The ECU is also known good as it is the stock '94 from my car that worked before the swap.

 

Trace the wiring between ECU & CEL. Does CEL have battery voltage? It's supposed to have battery voltage, and the ECU switches the ground side of the lamp circuit.

Verify the wire from the CEL back to the ECU. People have told about pins getting pushed back within the plugs of the wiring harness. Or I guess it's possible for the wire to be broken somehow.

Get a wiring drawing for the pin # at the ECU. Backpin that wire & short it to ground. If that works, it proves the wiring harness.