i'm working on my 91 civic hatch, with a D15 in it -dual point injection-. Stock DX

taking out the fourth spark plug wire makes no differnce when it's running. so first off i grabbed a wire from my 90 CRX Si, and tested it, and i got the same thing, and i know the CRX's wires are good.
Also i got new plugs and it's doing the same thing. i'm getting spark from the wire, but it's just not firing.
this civic has about 195k miles on it and it does burn oil, so i know its not the best conditions for it to ignite. so then i got these spacer things for the plugs and that didn't change it at all either.

i'm not thinking it's fuel cuz the other 3 are getting it fine. but i could be wrong.

any suggestions or comments would be great. thx guys.

 

Start small- Check your dist. cap first. Check to see how the pickups look inside. I assume you have no CEL's. I dont think it can be a fuel issue as its a DPFI system.

 

I agree with ^^^ its not fuel. I would check cap as stated above. Is there no spark going to that cylinder?
I assume that the spacer things are the tube seals/plug gaskets/plug grommets whatever you want to call them. They are always called something different. Those cause you to burn oil if they arent sealing and could foul your plugs and cause this problem. I would check to see if you have a chocolate lollypop (pull the plug wire, if its oil soaked its a chocolate lollypop).
If nothing seems wrong then try checking the compression on that cylinder next. There may be something wrong internally that a compression tester would clue you in on.

 

ok, well i did a compression test, and i'm getting 180 on 1, 175 on 2, 170 on 3, and 15 on 4.

so it's very dead, no wonder it won't spark >.<

so what is next? and what would make it do that?

 

leakdown test! put the cylinder on TDC, force air into the sparkplug hole and listen for where it comes out. air filter =burn intake valve, exhaust= burnt exhaust valve, out the oil cap = rings.

 

i didn't do that test yet, but since there is a lotta oil burning, i'm thinking it's the rings...

 

is there oil on the spark plug? IF yes = rings, no = not rings.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HonDelso &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">is there oil on the spark plug? IF yes = rings, no = not rings.</TD></TR></TABLE>Not neccessarily, could be valve seals too, but My guess is the rings.

 

hey guess what, stock engines are cheap and plentiful, you win.

go get a sohc zc, do some wiring and you come out of this situation very happy.

stock rocks.