It is a family members car, a hand-me-down from another family member, 250K+ miles. Car had new plugs/cap/wires/rotor about 6 mos ago and has been running great. After a trip to the store, car would not start (engine warm). Car was towed home and has been sitting for about a month since.

I was asked to look at it so that we could get it running again. I don't have a lot of experience w/hondas. I have searched here and found several helpful posts which have helped me to get the following items checked:

Jumped in a good battery, car cranks, but will not start.

First thing I checked was spark, engine has spark when cranking.

(Noticed that the seals which seal the valve cover to the spark plug boots are deteriorated/gone, so the plug boots are getting lots of oil, LOL). So I will need to address that, once we get it running.

Checked all fuses w/test light, found no blown fuses.

Checked the ECM ground (wire w/brass lug bolted to thermostat housing) as that is an often-cited problem. it is clean. removed/cleaned/reinstalled it, for good measure).

When key is turned to "on" position, CEL illuminates, then goes off.

When key is turned to "on" position I can hear the Main/Fuel Pump Relay energize, and then ~2seconds later I hear the second (softer) click, for fuel pump relay "off".

After reading up on the high failure rate for the Main/Fuel Pump relay, I got up under dash, and got that out.

Popped the relay out of it's case, visually inspected it's PCB for cracked solder joints, etc, all seems fine. Verified all relay functionality using 12V battery and the procedure on Alldata. The relay is good.

After reinstalling the relay, I disconnected the fuel return (to tank) line after the fuel pressure regulator (connected a piece of hose running to a small container), to see if fuel is flowing.

When key is turned to ON position, fuel flows for about 2 seconds, until the relay clicks off, So I know that the fuel pump is working/running. However, during cranking, I do not see any additional fuel flow. (is this normal, does the fuel pump only go to the constant-on state when (and if) the engine fires)?

Trying to decide what I should check next.... Fuel Filter clogged and restricting flow, low pressure at the injectors, perhaps? Visually, it looks like it has never been touched.

But on the other hand...if I had very low fuel pressure, I should then see no bypassed fuel after the fuel pressure regulator at the return...right?

 

If the fuel pump is priming, I would think it would at least start. Couldn't it just be oil-soaked plugs?

 

Thanks for your reply, Streetside.

Over the last 24 hours I removed the battery from the car and put it on charge. Re-installed the fully charged battery in the car, and it started right up. (Apparently, although I was able to get the engine to turn over when I was jumping it with another battery as described previously, I must have had a too-low of a system voltage to satisfy something in the system, so it just would not start. Lesson learned, on that one.

Alas, now that the engine starts, I have discovered a new problem.

As I have learned over the years, and is often the case when cars quit running for people, you very often don't get the "whole story" about how the car went about it's failure to run, before you are asked to get involved...

Once I got it started, I immediately had white smoke (and unmistakeable smell of coolant) POURING out the tailpipe, so I know that what we have here is a car that had previously overheated and has likely blown the head gasket.

I allowed the car to warm up, and the white smoke out the exhaust ceased after about 3-4 minutes of running (once reaching normal operating temp). (and running nicely/idles nicely). Exhaust at that time was completely clean, no blue smoke (and this car has never smoked/burned oil).

The car began to approach over-heat, (but not into the upper range of the temp guage) so I shut her down. Electric fans come on, as they should.

So it looks like I am in for a head gasket replacement, and will do water pump/timing belt/thermostat while I'm at it. I am confident that I can handle these myself.

Do the heads on these engines tend to be prone to warpage due to overheat events, or is that generally uncommon? I'm hoping that I don't need to have the head surfaced. I have access to a machine shop to do this, if needed.

I want to make sure I source ALL of the needed items and have everything on hand to complete the job so I can do it start-to-finish in one session.

So I am thinking I need to order:

Head Gasket
Water Pump
Thermostat
Timing Belt
Valve cover gasket / Plug seals kit

 

I haven't done the head gasket job before, but warping doesn't stick out to me in the threads I've seen. I have done the gasket seals job a couple of times, so let me know if you have any questions there.

I learned from . It's pretty easy.

 

Thanks for posting that vid on the seals, streetside, some good info there.

I put the car up on the lift last night and drained the oil, definitely we have coolant getting into the oil, the oil was slightly milky / chocolate-like in color.

One thing I noticed last night when I started her up and drove her into the shop, was that I had NO white smoke out of the tailpipe this time, unlike the first successful startup after the car had been sitting for ~ a month (see my previous post) where I had a TON of white smoke pouring out, right from the start which ceased, once the engine reached operating temp.

I decided to let her warm up to operating temp this time, and did feel coolant flow at the upper rad hose, but what I noticed was that the electric fans were quite delayed in turn on, meaning they didn't home on until the temp needle was around 3/4 of the way up and car was well on its way toward over-heat, I let them run for a minute, before I shut her down.

I think I will replace the temp sender while I have this thing apart, perhaps it is shot and is not closing the circuit to activate the fans at the correct temp (or, is intermittent/erratic).

 

You have a lift? Well, I'm jealous. Keep us updated.