Hi-

I have a bone stock 98 civic (d16) that's having problems starting after HG replacement. I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

Symptoms/condition:
Combustion barely starts, then pretty much dies out immediately, under 1 second in most cases. The strange part is after unplugging the battery, it may idle on its own anywhere between 5 and 30 seconds and die out. Engine, valvetrain, sound great during this time, idle is smooth. After that it will not run beyond 1 second until I unplug the battery again (not even if I do an reset via obd scanner)

The head was warped just out of spec at 0.0025 and was milled 0.005. The machine shop removed the cam & rockers assemble before cutting and washing. Head was washed with both sensors in place.

Background:
Everything ran perfect before I touched it with exception of coolant overflowing ; never missed a beat, never hesitated, misfired, etc. New HG & bolts were from the dealer.

Cap, rotor, plugs, wires have well under 10k on them.

Troubleshooting steps performed:
No OBD codes
OBD2 shows good map, iat, coolant, tps, fuel pressure readings; RPM does register when cranking, front o2 fluctuates as well. Oil pressure warning light does go out when cranking, and returns when I stop.
Double checked crank/cam alignment
Tripled check distributor orientation
Sprayed carb cleaner down intake while cranking (does not want to start any better/worse)
Must have checked for unplugged connector 100 times.
Yes, there is oil in there.

 

Anyone? Just tried replacing the entire distributor assembly (distributor itself, control module, coil, cap, rotor, sensor, everything) with a known good one. Still no dice.

 

Have you checked for fuel pressure?? Checked actual compression? Spark at the plug wires??

 

I have checked fuel pressure, additionally I've spray carb cleaner down the intake which will pretty much start any car with a fuel related issue. I have checked compression and it's fine.

I have not actually checked for spark at the wire, but cranking it continuously, it does fire up and die WHILE CRANKING. Clearly there is spark ; the wires aren't very old at all. Not only that, but often when I unplug the battery it will idle fine for anywhere from 5-30 seconds (and it sounds good during this time) before stalling. This pretty much makes plug/cap/rotor/wire failure impossible ; as I've said in my previous post I've replaced the entire distributor including tdc sensor, coil & ignition module.

This is absolutely bizarre.

I mean, I'm sure it's spark at some level, not that many things needed to keep an engine running. Given that static compression doesn't change, fuel system I've pretty much eliminated via carb cleaner test, that just leaves spark. But it seems to be something the ecu is doing that I can't quite figure out.

 

OK, $20 to the first one who figures this out.

 

The ecu sends a signal to the icm. Haveyou checked the wiring going to the distributor?
And if you unplug the battery how does the engine turnover?
Does it start than you unplug the battery?
Probe the big cable on the distributor connector (12v ) next to the blue wire (rpm signal) and crank the engine over when it dies monitor the voltage..

 

Thanks anyway, figured out the problem.

 

Okay what was the problem???

 

I bet it was something simple.

 

No gas???? Lol

 

That was the biggest bitch of a problem to diagnose. There was some motor oil in some of the electrical connectors by the distributor (I'm sure it ended up there during disassembly), causing resistance, corrupt signals, etc. Cleaned the crap out of them, started right up.

 

Nice! Glad I could help point in the right direction