Last week i picked up a 99 honda civic si for a killer price but the catch is it barely runs! it has a b20b bottom end supposebly from a 2000 crv and a stock b16 vtec head. my issue is that when its cold and a try to start it it will on turn over and run for a second or two. after doing this over and over it will run longer and longer untill it will stay running. at idle it runs great and has no issues and also if you only give it small throtle inputs but if you get on it at all it will spit and sputer and runs like pure garbage. some times it even back fires through the intake. ive cleaned the TB and idle air. ive also checked timing, spark, and the diz cap. what confuses me is i have found a few things not connected... the front o2 sensor, oil pressure sensor, and a 2 wire connector with a blue/red wire and a white/red wire. i think this is the crank sensor but not sure because it dosent look like there is one on the oil pump drive. but even with all this unplugged i have no CEL. it has a stock 99 si ecu. today i tried to hook a scanner up to it and it wont read anything at all (yes the key was on and not running) any ideas on what it might be? sorry i wrote such a book i just wanted to include as much info as possible!

 

Your engine is off timing

 

thanks ill try to pick up a timing light this weekend and check the timing again

 

Not the ignition timing, take your timing belt off and re set it

 

i checked the mechanical timing already and it was correct. the line on the pully was pretty hard to see cause the car has set for 2 years and was pretty rusted so i used the piston TDC to make sure i was good to go. i think the cam timing may be degreed a little bit because it has skunk 2 cam gears but the markings are to worn to read...

 

Then get some stock gears and use the line on the oil pump gear to locate tdc its not open to weather. Its the timing