i have a 92 da integra. car was running good. i needed the plastic cover pieces on the timing belt side, so i took valve cover and camshaft sprockets off so i can remove them. put everything back, reset timing to the dot. crankshaft at 0, and camshaft sprockets both arrows up and lines pointing to each other. made sure timing belt was tight. turned crank shaft a few times to make sure timing was good. put everything back together, and started car up. engine runs very rough and dies. will stay on if i give a little gas, but runs rough and smokes. checked for spark, and all was good. pulled valve cover again, and checked timing, but it was dead on. plug wires are on correctly. i just don't understand. pulled spark plugs, and all were black, and plugs only have maybe 20 miles on them. only thing i didn't do yet is check for codes, but check engine light isn't on. any help? or list of things for me to check?

update: still having problems. put in new plugs. ran car with no intake, iacv and fitv both have correct vacuum to them. when i started car a few times, it made a quick puff of smoke out of the intake manifold. i made sure there was no oil in plug wells. even tried jumping a tooth over on the intake sprocket to see how it would run. still runs like crap. non of the wires were unplugged, other than the cruise control one when i had to remove it for more room. if only the damn check engine light would come on to tell me the problem. i'm going crazy here!!!

 

bump. any help? checked ecu codes and nothing came up.

 

bump.

 

the up is up the the - has to meet wit -

 

you could have set the timing wrong and just dont know how to time

 

like i said, that is what i am hoping. crank pulley is at top dead center, and camshaft sprockets are both pointing at each other with the TOP pointing up. tightened up tensioner and turned crank pulley a few rounds and timing is still on the mark. i will take another look at it in the next few days.

 

I need help with this too. Also redid my timming 3 times to make sure. Still runs the same.

 

you said you had the "up" arrows pointing at each other...
the "up" arrows should be pointing up, the little lines on the cam gears are what you need to line up, not the arrows, altho the arrows DO need to be pointing UP

 

no, the up arrows are pointing up. the little lines on each side are pointed to each other. i'm sure if the up arrows were pointed to each other, the crank won't even turn due to valves hitting pistons. i'm sure i'll figure it out eventually.

 

still having problems. put in new plugs. ran car with no intake, iacv and fitv both have correct vacuum to them. when i started car a few times, it made a quick puff of smoke out of the intake manifold. i made sure there was no oil in plug wells. even tried jumping a tooth over on the intake sprocket to see how it would run. still runs like crap. non of the wires were unplugged, other than the cruise control one when i had to remove it for more room. if only the damn check engine light would come on to tell me what the problem is. i'm going crazy here!!!

swapped another dizzy, and same problem exists... spark and fuel is there, but spark may be off. when i pull the wires with engine running, i can hear the spark, but only see once every 5 spark jumps when i hold it to a ground...

 

Redo it, or better yet pay someone to time it. After reading everything very clearly, i beleive that it is just not timed correctly. Your taking the steps right with checking everything after you tighten it but what you are telling us goes hand and hand with bad timing.

 

any other thoughts. only thing i can think left is to jump a tooth over on the exhaust side of the cam gear. i had already jump one over on the intake side, but still felt like crap, so will try the exhaust side. if problem is still there after i try this, then i am completely lost. if anyone finds the solution if i don't find it myself, there might be a small reward.