ok i have a 91 crx si with no rust (score). i got it and it has a dohc zc motor but it was in pieces, and missing pieces and wires are just tossed in and dash was out. the guy i got it from said the motor ran but i had my doubts. i got all the missing parts and put the dash and engine back together, spent alot to the the missing parts but its together. i started it for a sec with the valve cover off to make sure it ran before i spent $100 on a valve cover. started but idle was weird then i turned it off. got the valve cover and installed it and wont start. did everything i could and just found out that it has a very weird problem. if i take a spark plug out and set it on metal it wont spark, if i pull it away it wont spark but if i hold it a fue cm away from metal it has great spark. really weird. please any help will be great. i checked grounds, fuses ect.

 

i forgot to mention but i assume people would understand. the spark plug is pluged into the wire and ran off the engine with the engine turning over, by key, when it does this.

 

The wiring for the dizzy is incorrect. Make sure its converted to MPFI first and then redo the Dizzy wires. The external cam sensor will need to be wired in right too.

 

the dizzy was missing so i got a used one that is working off ebay. its a 91 integra dizzy. i repinned it to the correct locations by matching up the wire colors and ran the new exhaust cam sensor wires. it ran when i put it in and now a fue weeks later this problem. i checked all fuses, i cleaned the ignitor and distributor cap. i checked and sanded all grounds, the front one by the headlight on driver side, the one for ecu on the thermostat housing, the one under passenger side dash, and the one by ignition. i checked the fireing order and i did the timing myself. cyl 1 at tdc and cams both up. i did it myself and amazingly managed to get it perfect. ecu led lights up and goes off to show working properly. def getting gas. cleaned spark plugs. i dont know why but the plugs will not spark if touching the motor, sparks everytime around if it is a little bit away from touching the motor and does not spark at all far away from motor. its driving me nuts. please any suggestions will help. all the wireing looks ok how ever there is a solid green wire with silver specs, on the passenger side that is not connected to anything also a single ground wire loose. looked everywhere and cant find where they go. also to note there are a fue wires from the harness that seem to be soldered together there is 2 sets of wires soldered together and they are 3 wires in each. like i said it started before and i turned it off by the key so i am not sure. i am going to recheck the dizzy wires, and fireing order. the person who wired the car was nice enough to put a red piece of tape on the one dizzy wire as there is another wite wire also.

 

A main relay going bad or gone bad will also do this, where it doesn't spark all the time. Another issue is you are prob missing grounds from the motor to the chassis. I had to install several gnds on the motor directly to the - on the battery side and several few from the motor to the chassis. This greatly helped out since I got mine Dohc ZC butchered from the previous owner who did not know what he was doing.

 

Ok thanks for the help. It must of been the wireing on the dizzy. I got a different pic of the wireing and it was different than mine. So I got the spark working now. I redid the timing a fue times again and no start. I am currently draining the old gas maybe that is the problem now. I am headed to get gas soon and will let you know how it turns out. There is no timing belt cover so there is no tdc mark for the crank, I just used a long screwdriver in the no 1 piston when it was all the way to the top I alligned the cams with the lines even across the head and pointed up. I will post some pics. Sence i got the car I put rims on and full skunk2 lowering springs and shocks also a fue strut bars here and there. It has pace setters header, hi-flow cat, and skunk 2 catback exhaust along with cold air intake.

 

Finally I got it working. YES... Ran just like before rough idle seems to mis fire randomly. I did the timing like a million times again then finally had enought with it and changed the distributor clock all the way forward and what do you know she started. So I am going to buy some new plugs. I just cleaned the old ones and def new wires. Does anyone know the stock position where the distributor should be? Do you think timing if off a tooth? I dont have the correct ecu but from what I am told it should work ok with it. It is a pr4 5 spd ecu.

 

The PR4 runs extremely rich shooting soot all over the place. A Pm6 is what you should be using to get the most out of it and chipping the PR4 to a PM7 is the ideal target. Check your sparkplug wires if you have them hooked up wrong to the cap it also backfires like no tomorrow. Looking at the cap from the side it should look like a Plus sign + with the Top being #1 then clockwise its 1 - 3 -4 -2. You might have to play with it and turn the crank by hand to see what the rotor points too Its always confusing with these motors.

 

ya the wires are right. ok so put in new plugs and runs alot better. still has weird idle problem but in the dark i noticed the blinker light flashes very dim with it off. when i try to put the blinker on it just makes a buzzing sound from the relay so i just assumed the relay was bad but now i think i found the problem a short somewhere in the blinkers ect. im pretty sure the taillights stayed on even with the lights off, i just unplugged them from the rear and didnt think much of it because the car didnt run yet. also the headlight highbeam indicator is on very dim, lights work fine and the indicator gets bright as it should. the crx is just about working and able to be on the road again. thanks alot for all the help and motivation. i should of mentioned the car has not ran in several years the last reg and inspection on it is from 2006. i am going to repaint the car over this summer its gonna be viper red. i am going to leaving it all stock looking and painting it one color not black on bottom. gonna pull the engine and wire tuck/ paint the engine bay. then turbo kit with forged internals. i was gonna swap but why when i can just put the cash into this zc. i just want to make sure its a good motor before i sink money into it.

 

about the ecu i had plans on paying someone on ebay for a socketed PM6 ECU that has been chipped to work with a DOHC ZC engine. its only $95 if i give my old ecu so well worth it because first my ecu isnt the correct one and
-Enable a Shift light, user specified RPM,
-no top speed limiter
-Rev Limiter
-Launch Control RPM, user specified
let me know if i should get a different flash on the ecu of the best choice i heard the integra ecu has more aggressive fuel map. ect.
i am also in the process of trying to figure out if i have a lsd zc trans or the stock si trans.

 

If your PR4 says Pr4-A02 you can chip it for fairly cheap.
I got sick and tired of the external cam always throwing a CPS code so I swapped over to an OBD1 and now using a PM7 map to run it, but my car is still on jack stands since I was going to swap in some stainless steel brake lines. Once you get all the bugs worked out its a fun car to drive.