I recently bought a 1995 Honda civic 2door coupe for 400 bucks.

It has no honda cancer yet, but a dime-sized surface rust is on the rear drivers quarter panel. No bondo either.

Anyways, it had a blown headgasket, which is no big deal. It came with what i believe is a d16z6 cylinder head AND engine wiring harness, in the trunk.

Obviously i did the mini-me swap, it went smoothly, but when i went to start it after i put it all together, she wouldn't start. It cranked over smoothly, but it wouldn't fire at all. Its getting fuel, and im pretty sure its not getting spark.

Could anyone give me ideas of what could be wrong?

PS: i bought a z6 distributor from the junkyard, put a new rotor/cap on it, and new internals. New plugs and wires also.

 

It could be your relay. Try taking it to a mechanic though, see if they can test your fuel pump and look at your spark plugs just incase.

 

hmm i might take that into consideration.

The car sat for 3 years before i bought it, the gas gauge reads 1/4 tank, but when i went to drain it out, nothing was there, just fumes... gas tank was dry. So i poured a jerrycan of gas in along with a tiny bit of menthal hydrate for a cleaning of the gas lines.

 

can anyone else give their 2 cents on this bad situation of mine?

 

bump

i want this car on the road ASAP, and i don't wanna spend much money on it. I can do the work myself if i knew what the problem was

 

check your dizzy, chances are it's shot if you got it from a junkyard....then check your main relay.

oh, and check your grounds....like the one on the thermostat.

 

i put new internals in the dizzy i got from the junkers... my ground from the valve cover, to body is hangin on by a couple of wires.

where would my main relay be?

I'm new to hondas, im usually working on my dodge stealth, so this is a new environment for me lol


i bought a y8 distributor thinking thats what my cylinder head was... it had all new internals, new cap/spring, rotor. So i swapped all that over to the z6 distributor... but i'll try switching some internals around, see what happens i guess.

 

you need an obd1 dizzy....swapping internals won't work. That's more than likely your problem right there, lol. Also, main relay is on the left side by the fuel box, just google it and it'll pop up a pic, i'm on my phone or else i'd do it for you.

 

Are you sure the car is getting fuel. How do you know? Do you hear the fuel pump turn on when the key is turned. I would check the grounds that go on the thermostat housing (circled in yellow in pic). Clean the area off with a metal brush and make sure there is clean contact. On my civic I actually ran a wire from that housing and straight to the battery ground on the car and started right up, I would try that if the car doesn't start after cleaning the surfaces.

 

You said in your statement that " I am pretty sure it's not getting spark". Maybe that's where the problem lay.

As with all cars, you need 4 things for the car to start;
Fuel
Air
Spark
Enough compression.

You said the car turns over fine;
Check your timing.
Check your sensors especially Crankshaft positioning sensor.
Check your earthing locations

You did after all put the engine together. Check your work. Make sure it's done right. Hope I was of some help

 

Update: i haven't been able to touch it, as my sisters car broke down with a badly leaking headgasket, and 4 other problems with it. Thats all cleared up now.

NOW... i will be working on MY civic once again. I installed the Z6 cylinderhead, as of now, i know im not getting spark. I'm getting fuel to my injectors 100% fact.

I'm going to be getting 1.6L injectors soon. I bought a 97 D16y8 1.6 vtec ECU from a junkyard. I was wondering how to install that. Do i need the conversion harness from OBD1 - 2? or can i just plug it in and go?

I"m going to be buying the vtec water pump also, and oil pump, if there are such things. (i'm new to honda so don't rip on me)

I will recheck my timing, and i'll check the relay for my alternator and i'll update you guys sometime this weekend, or next week.

 

you can plug in and go since both are obd1 comp but you need to wire the vtec up or you will throw a cel. ur getting fuel? are you sure your injectors are firing? compression since you swapped heads

 

When i was testing for spark, i pulled each sparkplug, and i felt the compression come out the sparkplug hole, pretty strong i must say.

Vtec is all wired up, as the Z6 cylinder head came with the vtec engine harness.

 

did you connect the clip to the starter? most people forget that when they do swaps...

 

i will definitely check that out also.

I'm going to be doing all my work next week. As my timing kit won't be arriving till then. New header, powdercoated black, along with a new o2 sensor, and new driver-side balljoint.