I have an 89 Civic Hatch DX, just put a new 89 Si tranny in it, finaly got it running good. Its dang fast too... Anyways, it has the D15B7 engine out of either a Del Sol or 92-95 Civic. I have an 89 Si ECU (PM6) in it right now, and have tried the original DX ECU also. The car ran great for about an hour of cruising, little racing, and stopping at different spots. But when I shifted into 4th during a race, everything went psycho. It started bucking and my idiot light came on (Check Engine light) and started clicking. The thing was bucking so bad it was like I was trying to clutch start it. My tach was bouncing up and down too, it was fairly accurate, but it was just bouncing. I took off the distributer cap, and sanded down the rotor and points, but it didn't help... I pretty much have it down to the ECU not working with that engine, a major sensor came out (just put motor back in for the tranny), or my distributer is just jacked. We tried to short out the #1 plug, and nothing happened. But about 10 minutes later it had a spark, but still ran like crap. So if anyone knows whats going on, or if you have any ideas at all, help. Thanks.

 

That's a classic ignitor failure. You have all the symptoms.
Get a new ignitor (goes inside the distributor).
Also, do yourself a favor and buy it at the dealer.
I know they rape you on price, but the aftermarket ignitors I have used are crap.
They sometimes come out bad out of the box.

Been there, done it many, many times.

 

is the d15b7 mpfi? and the DX ecu actually worked without rewiring?

 

theres no way the pm5 ECU worked. when i converted my DX to MPFI, i didnt realize it wouldnt work so i tried to run it, well it runs on like 2 cylinders. sounds like a Briggs & Stratton.

 

Ignitor eh? I'll look into that. Thanks man. About the DX ECU, it didn't work either. Its the first time I had plugged it in (I've owned the car about a month now), and it was while the car was on the fritz; it didn't even crank.

 

Well, I just spent $113 on a new ignitor.... Got a new distributor rotor and cap because something went wrong somewhere and the rotor broke and chipped off a cap point thing. Too bad the new ones don't fit. I bought everything for a 92-95 Civic, so I guess that engine is out of a Del Sol. I turned the key on, and my idiot light was still on, so I don't know. I may just return everything, invest in about $60 more and get an MSD dist or something. Also, in my 84-89 Civic Haynes book, it said to check fuse #32 when checking the ignitor. I don't have a fuse #32. I'm wondering if the fuse panel is not stock either. So which fuse goes to the ignitor? I checked all the fuses, and they were all good...