Let me start off with; it's a 1992 Civic 4 door auto. I bought the car and the owner said it had a broken timing belt. Well when I got it home I pulled off the valve cover and see the timing belt is in tack. So I crank over the motor with the valve cover off and see the cam is broken in two. I pulled the cam off to see the journals are completely scored. I then pull the head off and replace the head and head gasket. Torque it all down, slide the timing belt back on at TDC and proceed the start the car. It cranks over but will not start. Also it makes a screeching sound like metal against metal. I made sure there is fuel and there is spark. (although spark seems a little weak) also did a compression test and it's 150 across the board. My question is it the transmission or the bottom end? Drained the engine oil and there isn't any metal chunks. I also pulled off the belts from PS and AC compressor to make sure the screeching isn't coming form there.

HELP ME!!!

 

Oh and I tried to start the car in both Park and Neutral

 

are you sure the lower end isn't destroyed? if it was low enough on oil to damage the cam shaft it could have spun a bearing...how does the motor feel when cranking it over by hand?

just for ***** and giggles...you may want to check and make sure the cam is getting oiled and that your not destroying the new head/cam you put in it because an oil feed is plugged with metal shavings or coked oil

how weak is the spark? is the battery up to snuff? no idea on what the general location of the noise is? ie timing belt side? by the cylinder head? or over by the starter/trans?

 

If you get 150psi across the board, I pretty sure the bottom end is at least good enough to start. Transmission is the least likely cause since the engine crank over. Did you install the ground wire at the thermostat housing tight? I would focus more on the weak spark

 

YEs the head is getting oil. I cranked it with valve cover off and there is oil going to the head. Cranking the motor by hand feels normal. BAttery is good. I have no idea where the sound is coming from.

Yes all grounds are tight. As for spark I used a distributor off my DD and still nothing, put the same distributor back on my DD and it was fine. Maybe ECU???

 

does the cel cycle ? or stay on ?

 

no

 

do you have spark ? need to see that first. even if the distributor works in the other car does not mean yours is dead. could be wire related or fuel.
need to start at the basics
spark
fuel
vroom .

 

Yes it has spark. I shocked myself and physically saw an arc when I stock a screwdriver in the spark plug wire and arced it against a valvecover nut. Yes it has fuel I checked the rail and stuck a checklight on the injector wires and they are all firing.

 

ok so no cel and it does not cycle correct.
if so then we need to look at the fuses and do a ecu test.

drop me a line and i will send you the ecu test info.

 

no cel but does cycle correctly. Comes on then turns off

 

Hmm well since their is fuel and spark we need to have a look at the ecu. Silly question how old is the fuel in the car ? Can you spray some carb cleaner into the throttle body and will it start ?

 

Not sure how old the fuel is, but I try some carb cleaner or starter fluid.

Just in my recent experience, I had 8 year fuel in a Ferio and started up on the first try. Needless to say I was pretty shocked.

 

it could not hurt to try that since you have all the correct things to make the car run

 

Did you check to make sure you have the firring order correct?

 

I'm going to assume you have both cam and crank set to TDC properly - correct?

Curious, but what year is the head you replaced the previous head with? if you put a 96-00 civic head on there, you may have cam/crank TDC issues because the 96-00 SOHC cam sprocket's TDC marking(s) are not the same as 92-95 SOHC sprocket markings. IT's off by a tooth or 2. you'll need to reuse the 92-95 sprocket on the 96-00 camshaft.

 

Yes cam and crank are at TDC. The head was replaced with a 93 head. Nothing special just a stock DX head.

 

any update ?

 

silly but some times we over think problems and forget the basics.
x 2 ^^

 

I'll check, but I'm almost 100% sure it's correct.

 

cool did you try the carb spray yet ?
also forgot to add have you removed the plugs and let them dry out since all the fuel will foul the plugs and not let it start. i would also disconnect the dist and fuel supply and crank it over for about 10 sec's and get all the fuel out of the cylinders with the plugs out and then reinstall the plugs and reconnect everything and see what happens. while the plugs are out see if the gas smells old or fresh.

 

Just tried carb cleaner and still nothing. Plugs does smell like gas.

 

well you have me stumped. with out seen the car in front of me its tough.somethings missing cant quite put my finger on it yet.
ok 1 more check put it on tdc and remove the cap and see if it's on the correct cylinder .make sure the rotor is clocked right so set it to tdc and remove the cap and see if your on # 1 or 4 and see the position of the rotor i know back in the day we used to see cars come in for after market parts installed and end up been the rotor was off 180 degs

 

check and it's on #1. This is super frustrating

 

im stumped on this one im sure if it was in front of me i could figure it out but E daig is tough at times.