Ok so I’m going to do my best to explain the situation. I have a freshly boosted b18b1 in my ek coupe, obd2 harness obd1 ecu jumper harness blah blah blah. So before I boosted car it ran strong took it on some 1-2 hour drives with no problems. Just recently I got it tuned by a very credible tuner in the Tampa area. He told me my timing was off and I needed to re-do timing, because he looked at the crank and saw it was 2 teeth off at TDC from oil pump. Anyways I do timing I was trying to do it by lineing up timing marks....they won’t line up, so I take off the crank bolt and see the key is in there wrong because previous owner impacted it in there and basically crushed it in, meaning I will never be able to go off timing marks. So I went to the flathead in cyl1 method, did that the cam gears lined up perfectly at TDC and all cyl1 was at top. So keep in mind freshly off the tune car ran fine AF was fine, boosting very nice and smooth honestly ran better than it did when it was NA, but now after I did the timing, the car barley runs, A/F at idle will spike up to 20 at low rpms it will barley move, like I mean go up 100 rpms a second if I’m flooring it, it’ll hiccup, runs like absolute garbage. So I’m wondering if somehow it’s possible I could have timing off 180 degrees don’t know if that can happen. Maybe somehow my injectors even though they are new arnt working right, spark plugs may be fouled out even though they have around 3k mikes in them, I’m honestly lost in the situation right now. Sorry for all the reading lmk if you need more info, anything helps willing to try any ideas you may have, thank you.

 

Your timing sounds like it is still off! if you cant get the crank lined up at TDC then it will always be off since you cannot use the crank pulley to line it up.. Putting the cam gears at TDC doesn't mean the crank is lined up.

You need to have the crank pulley removed and installed correctly so you can time the engine.

Try heating up the crank with the bolt removed and use a pulley remover and try to back out the crank pulley, Use a new woodruff key and hope the crank woodruff key guide on the crank is not damaged or else the crank pulley could move if the key doesn't sit correctly holding the pulley from moving thus throwing off the timing.

If you remove the crank pulley you can use the timing crank gear to set the crank to TDC by lining the groove up with the oil pump mark then setting the mechanical timing correctly but you still need the crank pulley on correctly to set the ignition timing to spec.

 

Yea the heat is a good idea, really hoping I can get pulley off without damaging anything else, I still feel like the flathead method although not as exact it should still be running. But I assume is his to be a timing issue since only thing I have changed since before when it was running ok to now where it barley holds idle was the timing. Also did a compression test, very concerning results. Cyl:1: 150PSI steady

Cyl 2: 105 PSI steady

Cyl 3: 150 PSI steady

Cyl 4 : 155 PSI steady

im not sure if this could be a product of the timing, or if there is another under lying cause adding in like rings or valves. But it’s still weird cause car ran pretty strong before all this.

 

Cyl 2 is bad. Do a leakdown test to determine where compression is lost.

 

Planning on doing when I get off work today, will let you know results.

 

You cannot trust a compression test until you have the engine in proper mechanical time. As muellersfan stated, the fact that the #2 cylinder is significantly lower than the others certainly suggests that there may be another issue there as well... but get the engine in time first and then re-run the compression test.

 

Based on these^ collective comments, it appear that the engine's mechanical timing is correct.

 

Yes I 100% agree, but the only thing I messed with before when it was running good and after when it is running very bad was the timing, I find it in likely that somthing went bad in the meantime with the valve cover off in the 24 hours I was doing timing, but I do suppose it is possible. Anyways just to be safe, I am going to a shop around here owned buy a guy who builds civics himself and he is going to Re-Do timing and valve adjustment just to play it safe. If after that car is still running bad I’m going to pull head and see if I bent a valve also if head gasket it bad. Or rings, hoping it’s none of those though.

 

Maybe the mechanical timing is correct but the ignition timing is off?

 

Yes! That is a good thought, because I’ve done timing 3 times now, all with as far as I can tell it be as close to perfect as possible with the flathead method, even my buddy who is a full time mobile mechanic came and looked over it for me and said it made no sense for why timing would seem to be off. Now for ignition timing, i have tried to move the dizzy around both ways , to see if it would run any better and the more I moved it towards the radiator the better it seemed to idle and stuff which I believe is retarding it, but it still ran Pretty horrible, another thought I had would be the ICM just went bad but I’m not quite sure if that would cause the symptoms I am having. So I’m still pretty new to the Honda world, are there any other factors that have to do with ignition timing, could have the timing been so off before I got my tune that now that I have done the timing the tune is garbage and I’ll need another ?

 

If your plug wires are ran incorrectly, this will be problematic. Also, the screwdriver method to determine TDC works BUT... You have to remove your timing belt from the lower pulley. Remember: in the 4-stroke engine, you'll have TDC on 2 separate events; compression stroke, and exhaust stroke. Removing the belt while you check this will level the playing field, so to speak.

 

I do wish it was plug wires lol, but my wires are only long enough to go in one way. Also I did indeed take belt off the set it at TDC, it does not make sense to me why this is happening unless timing was so off before that when it was tuned the ignition timing is all messed up.

 

Also this is why I can’t go off timing marks, finally was able to pop that b!**h of a bolt off again to get photo.

 

The unfortunate truth is your going to have to do your best to uncobble that mess you have at your crank. I think that until you do, you won’t be able to set your ignition timing correctly even if your able to get your engine timing correct. Hopefully you can warm that up a bit and get that pulley removed so you can inspect the snout of the crank. With any luck, there will be enough undamaged area so a new woodruff key will hold. In the event that there isn’t, well maybe someone with more engine building experience can chime in on how to resolve it other than removing the crankshaft.

 

Yea I really do not want to have to pull engine and replace crank. That’s my last resort.

 

I'm afraid I was correct! the gear and key slipped throwing off the timing. You need to replace the crank and bearings or put a used replacement engine.

 

yank that pulley off and snap some more pictures.

 

Yea that’s what I was afraid of.

 

The keyway in the crankshaft snout looks completely destroyed... so you will either have to swap out the crankshaft for another one just like yours with an undamaged keyway OR remove your crankshaft and take it to a machine shop and have the snout welded up and re-cut the keyway slot in the original location.