so i just bought this car ( not running ) as a project .. . want to try to get it running and then swap the motor to a hatch shell the only reason why i bought the car is because i got a smoking deal on it because i can part it out and make my money back and then some !!!

1992 Honda Civic LX 4door Dark Blue
odo 212xxx
Full B18A1 Swap
Previous Owner Told me that the motor was rebuilt 60000 ago ( dont know if its true but could be )


When i went to look at the car i seen the bad : both Rear Qtr panels rusted , basketball sized dent in front fender , little bit of oil around the exhaust manifold , cam cover and all the bracketing that goes behind it missing , PCV valve missing , antifreeze hose wasn't in the right spot , dizzy didnt work , it had a rigged starter wire , Grounds were in the wrong locations, P75 Computer was in it When its supposed to run a PR4 , cam seal is shot because the kid that had it before painted the head high temp blue

The Good : LS 5 speed trans in decent shape , 92 Eg Dash decent shape , Legit B18A1 Swap all wiring is installed and looks to be correct

The Ugly : other then the body the oil and antifreeze was bone dry


so i get this thing home and i bought a PR4 Computer and a B18A1 OBD1 Dizzy and installed them got it turning over , hooked up pcv valve and idle control , antifreeze hoses and did an oil change no metal in oil was about 2 quarts short tho , New plug wires , new starter wire , relocated grounds and everything back to normal positions , now i was trying to turn over the car again after i did all this and it wouldn't start just kept backfiring and it has gas and spark i was actully trying to advance the timing just a tad to try to get it to start but it actually spat the starter out as i was tinkering with it because i didnt realize that there was only 1 bolt holding the starter on it was missing the bottom bolt im lucky it didnt crack the transfer case , so now im planning on going to snag a junkyard special starter on Tuesday and im going to install that then get a timing gun and check the timing and make sure that's all correct ....

so now im on to what do i have to do next ?? i will post an update of what its doing after i install another starter

Anybody have any ideas of why it couldnt start ?? or what would stop it from starting anything i should check into more thoroughly maybe im not seeing something sorry if this sounds like non sense to anybody this is the first honda ive ever owned and im brand new to honda tech

 

Do a compression test and report back.

 

If it is backfiring, its more than likely timing related. I would set the engine to #1 TDC and check your timing marks, then pull the cap off of your distributor and make sure it's not 180* out.

 

man im starting to like honda tech already! does anybody know where i can find a timing diagram i can print out for a B18A1 so i can reset timing ?? i tryed google and cant find anything useful Thanks all

 

Check the mechanical timing, the ignition timing isn't really sensitive enough for it to not start if you start it somewhere around the middle and go from there.

Also, an OBD1 PR4 and P75 are essentially the same thing, there are some very, very slight differences in the tune, and the automatic PR4s look for an EGR, that's it.