ive got a 97 ex coupe d16y8. the original motor crapped out so a mechanic friend installed a fresher one from the junkyard. the original distributor had a bad sensor and caused the cel light to come on and the distributor from the fresher motor had a different plug so i kept the bad one because the car still ran fine. anyways about 3 weeks ago the car started cranking up bad. it would take start but it didnt sound like it was firing on all 4 cylinders, it would idle really low (like 500rpms), and it wouldnt rev higher than 3500rpms or so, for the first 30 seconds to a minute. after that it smoothed out and would run fine. well that lasted for about a week and everytime i started it it would sound worse and worse for that first 30 seconds. it finally crapped out and wouldnt start at all and so my mechanic friend came and checked it out. it was getting a spark and it had fuel so my friend and i decided that maybe the distributor had finally kicked the bucket. i pulled a new distrib from a 98 civic ex and just put that in oh a couple hours ago id say. still doesnt work. anyone out there have any ideas?

 

Check compression? Put new plugs in it? fuel pressure/etc??

 

how would i got about testing that?

 

Did you test the distributor you put on from the 98 ex? Could be bad also. Take the cap off the rotor and use a test light to test the terminals on the coil of the distributor, I had this same problem on my itr, after swapping out different coils and two different distributors. The distributor modular was bad not the coil. I ended up buying a new one from autozone and it runs perfect.