Hey there, new to the forum but have read many great ideas to try and has seemed to be the best resource so far but still no running car unfortunately. Hoping you can possibly help me out.

Car is a 2000 Acura EL 1.6 vtec with a manual transmisson. Recently did the timing belt (water pump and tensioner) and continued to drive car for about 2 months before clutch started to slip. Ordered a new clutch online and drove the car as little as i could manage as not to ruin anything. Got the new clutch and installed earlier this week. Clutch install went fine but when i went to start the car it would just wind over and start. Checked for fire and didnt have fire. Checked all the plugs, checked fuses, checked the transmission ground, added a set of booster cables as an extra ground but nothing. Assumed it was a bad distributor and i Had a parts car sitting right in front of where its parked not starting so figured it was worth a look. Parts car is a 1.6 non vtec automatic and the distributor looked the same and a buddy whos been helping me said hes changed many of them between cars before. Got spark back with the parts car dizzy but still wouldnt start. Spark plugs arent wet (to suggest flooding) when they get pulled out but the car will slightly cough and run when you spray gas directly into the intake. Checked to see if there was 12v power to the injectors and there is but not sure how to check the "pulse" or when its pulsing.

Only codes that come up are for my broken o2 sensor which has been broken for almost a year (i would think irrelevant), and p1259 for the vtec solenoid but every forum ive read said that shouldnt cause a no start.

Already put a new fuel filter on, tried 2 different sets of spark plug wires, tried the main relays from both cars, took the fuel pump thinking it wasnt getting enough fuel pressure, tried to swap the computer but that just wasnt happy.Only thing we can think of now is the non vtec dizzy inst liking the vtec computer and isnt firing the injectors when its firing its spark plugs. not sure if thats even possible but we are running outta ideas and people to call upon locally

I am sure I am missing a few troubleshooting steps we have tried but its been a long week of work all day and car not starting all night trying to get my DD back.

Any thoughts would be appreciated
Thanks
Zach

 

Is the G101 thermostat ground connected?

 

Didn't disconnect it but went to check it this morning on the way out for work and ended up breaking all 3 wires off. Here's to hoping one was already broken before this morning

 

So been working late the last 2 nights to try and finish a job. Finally got out to fix those wires and still unfortunately no start. Now I couldn't get the bolt out for the ground so I moved it under one of the thermostat bolts it'snot far away so figured it would be okay. Those wires definitely needed to be fixed but I don't think that was the issue until I broke them

 

You need spark to support combustion UNDER pressure, fuel and air and to time it correctly. So get some plugs, put the leads on them and see what kind of spark you have, describe this as accurately as possible.
Did you make sure your dizzy is that correct orientation to fire on plug one when engine is at TDC on the compression stroke.
crack the fuel filter line engine side and see if you get fuel pressure. if you get fuel pressure and voltage at the injectors you should be good, however I doubt you will pass all these tests, its just knowing where to focus your search.

 

I will check the spark again tonight and report back. As far as the dizzy goes we put it on the first time and tried to start it and it sounded as If it was 180 degrees out (from working with older vehicles) and it actually backfired but didn't try to start. We flipped it around and it sounded more like it should when we tried to start it. Now I know I have fuel pressure because I left the engine side of the fuel filter open when I changed it to let the air out and it definitely sprayed out. And the injectors light up the test light. Should I measure it with a multimeter? If so where? in series with the injector or?

 

From what I have read here the light is an easier method of trying to determine the injector pulses as the meter may not be sensitive enough, if it backfired it has spark, compression and fuel only at the wrong time, so look at the timing, the lead position and quality of spark. get it at TDC, make sure the rotor is about 8 degrees off the no.1 electrode, I cut away a cap for this purpose as it saves a lot of time guessing where the rotor is pointing.

 

Is it possible for the timing to be different between 2 different dizzys? I wouldn't think changing my clutch would put anything outta time on that side especially considering my timing belt and tensioner only have a max of 10k km on them. The point I'm at now when I get back to the car is to try and flip the dizzy back 180 and see what happens.
can anyone confirm if a non vtec dizzy will work with you vtec computer? It's been thrown around that it might not be communicating with each other

 

There is literally nothing different between the two distributors assuming they both came from '99 - '00 Civics or ELs. The only oddball is the Civic HX distributor which was never sold in Canada (I think even it works though)

Some Vtec and non-vtec D-series distributors are different in terms of the mounting ears, but they're all the same inside as far as the electronics are concerned. Even OBD1 and OBD2 are the same that way, just the plugs differ.

 

So car started today. Completely by fluke. Original problem after getting spark back ended up being a blocked fuel filter. Changed the fuel filter but apparently didn't line up bolt (because the fuel comes out the side of the bolt ) so I had fuel at the filter but wasn't getting any to the fuel rail or not enough. Took the bolt out, engrave which way the opening lines up and then tightened it until the line was perfect with the hose going to the engine side.
Now here's the strange thing and why I say it started by fluke when it did. After I fixed the fuel issue (I found by talking to another buddy who said it might be a silly little thing) I tried to start it on 2 different occasions before tonight and it would slightly try but would never actually start. Ended up taking the spark plugs out one at a time and put my hand over the hole to check to see they were firing on the compression stroke and indeed they were. Felt the second cylinder might be a little low on compression but didn't think it was enough to not let It start. Checked all the cylinders with a compression tester and it was between 100 on the lowest cylinder and 120 on the high. (it always burned a Lil oil but what honda motor doesn't). We ended up burning 2 of the spark plug electrodes with a torch to burn off any leftover residue before putting them back in and for kicks we tried it and it fired right up.
so to anyone who might be having issues like this. Definitely have good spark plugs (even though my car started I'm going to get new spark plugs), make sure fuel is making it all the way to the cylinder. That banjo nut is a silly set up to stop fuel if it's not lines up correctly , and make sure that you have compression on all the cylinder and spark at the right time even if it's as simple as putting your hand over the spark plug hole while the spark plug is grounded in its holder to check for spark all 4 cylinders.

 

Banjo doesn't matter where the outlet is, there's a hollow past the threads meaning there is always fuel there, if that's a problem your fitting may need cleaning. definitely re try your compression tests with the engine warm and throttle wide open and all plugs out and no chance of a stray spark. if you did the test cold with plugs in the holes and the throttle closed the tests are far from conclusive

 

Original issue was car wouldn't start. It starts now. I just happened to try a compression test cause buddy had a compression tester in his trunk. As far as the banjo nut I assumed the same thing. But it was golden clean on the inside and that's the only thing I did to get the fuel back so im just throwing it into the troubleshooting ideas