Ok, so I've almost completed swapping a d16y8 into a 93 del sol, minus a power steering issue, but when I went to fire it up for the first time there was no spark. I think I know the issue but wanted to seek advice from people who know more than I. The issue, I believe, is the I just dropped the d16y8 into the del sol using the obd1 ecu and wiring harness. I modified the connections on the harness to accommodate the distributor, alternator and injectors (this is reversible). I have a donor car the engine came from, a 99 civic ex. Can I just use the ecu and engine harness from the civic? It looks like everything will connect fine to the del sol except for the gang connectors on the drivers side nearest the firewall and brake fluid reservoir. I can take pics if this isn't clear. Are there any adapter connectors I would need? Thank you, this is my first time doing this and your help is truly appreciated.

 

Is spark the only problem?

Fuel?

Compression?

 

Yes, spark is the only issue. I've tested the plugs and there is no spark. It has fuel and the engine is known good. It came out of the running donor car.

 

Yes there are obd2 to obd1 injector adapters, obd2 to obd1 alternator adapters and obd2 to obd1 distributor adapters. Please confirm your wiring engineering.

 

The injectors, alternators and distributor connections are sound. The car is not getting spark. What I need to know is if I take the ECU and wiring harness from the donor car and use it will that resolve the no spark issue. If I use the donor car wiring harness no adapters would be necessary, I think, with the exception, possibly, of the gang connectors. I don't know what would plug into those. I think the issue is the crank position sensor connection, which is present on the donor engine but not on the current wiring harness. The only adapter that is in question that I don't know about is for the gang connection right in front of the driver near the fire wall.

 

what ecu are you running? Did you check the ground connection by the thermostat? Did you make the connection from the alternator to the engine bay fusebox? Did you remember to put the tires on and lower it to the ground?

 

You're making this unnecessarily complicated. Swap only the engine itself. Use all the OBD1 manifolds, distributor, alternator, harnesses, etc. that came with the car or like replacements.

 

Here is a picture of the connections I am unsure of if using the donor harness.

 

show me the plugs near the driver side shock tower.

 

Perhaps I am being unclear. The car came as a shell. That is what I have done, with the exception of the distributor, that came from the donor car and I have purchased the appropriate adapter. I am at the point of trying to start the car and there is no spark. Other places I have raid said that you could not simply use the obd1 ecu and wiring harness with an obd2 engine. Perhaps that is not true. I do not know. What I do know is there is no spark, there is no corresponding connection for the crank position sensor that the engine has and the wiring harness does not.

 

I'm having difficulty getting the image to display. I hit upload, it goes through the process but nothing displays?

 

Does the distributor rotor spin when you crank the engine?

 

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I've tried several ways but I cannot get this image to display?

 

I believe it was but I would have to verify that. I tested that it was not getting spark with a spark tester so I am sure it wasn't.

 

I have to assume it was spinning, the distributor and engine all came from a known good car. I drove it into the shop the day before

 

the ecu is from a 93 del sol si
the ground is solid
the connection from the alternator to the engine bay fuse box is present and accounted for.
lol, maybe that's it.

 

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There are the connections I was speaking of.

 

Check

Remove the hood ECU fuse when you check.

 

I will do that. Does the crank position sensor from the donor engine have to be connected to something? There is no place in the current wiring harness for that connection? My thought is that is why it is not getting spark, or the ecu from the 93 del sol si does not know how to communicate with some other part of the engine.

 

The OBD1 ECU does not use the crank position sensor. All rpm-related timing comes from the three sensors inside the distributor. You can leave the crank sensor disconnected.

On OBDII, the crank position sensor is only used to check if the timing belt is in time and throw a code if it is not (Crank Fluctuation). The timing required to make the engine run still comes from the three sensors in the distributor.

 

Thank you mk378. if the distributor tests fine, which I'm 99.99% sure it will, I literally drove the donor into the shop, removed the engine and placed in in the del sol shell, do you have any other suggestions what to test for no spark?