OK, I know I've asked this before, and I did search. I honestly don't recall getting an answer on this.....I have read of zc's going through distributors- if so, why? I installed a ZC aprox. 2 months ago & i put in a new (remanned) dizzy & it's already dead. WTF? New cap, rotor, etc...WTF happened?

 

I don't know. I've had the same distributor in my car since i swapped the engine (put a reman one on during swap just for luck) so that's going on 2.5 years now. Are the bearings or the electronics going out? If its the bearings, I know that sometimes remanufactured distributors have only new parts where something went wrong (depending on where you buy them(hint: don't shop at autozone)), so they could be ready to go out already.

 

Yes the dizzy that usually comes with the zc(or any honda engine) usually does end up going out shortly after the engine is installed......do your self a favor and get one from autozone that way youll have a lifetime warranty

 

OEM a little over a year no probs. Some people just have shitty luck. I personally have never had any distributor problems with any of my honda's in six years. I think it's just internet myth, combined with generally higher milage swaps. The ZC was the cheaper model in japan, and probably not cared for at all, and probably saw more mileage in its life there as compared to a B series motor from japan.

 

As a road race person I can safely say that on an engine with over 100k on it you will eventually eat the bearings and thus destroy the distributor. Ours went with 175k on a stock D16a6. Went the Advance and got a reman from Beck-Arnley (they seem to be the best reman house) with a warranty. Another CRX pilot at Watkins Glen this week had his fail and carries several. Very important to have a quality reman or a brand new-genuine Honda one (very pricey, btw) to install. Also do a search on E-bay there is a dealer in Canada with an interesting offer for distributors.

 

AHHH the dizzy on ZC's. I had a turbo ZC in my EF and another friend of mine had a ZC. He had only gone threw 2 dizzies. Where on mine I went threw 7 total. 4 before the turbo and 3 after. Now my car was basicly a race car I drove it to work mon.-fri. and then raced it on the weekend and I just kept using crapy Autozone ones since all I had to do was buy one and just kept taking it back ( good 'ol warranty ) I have heard of other people have simular problems and some go on with only use one.

 

i'v had mine one for a few years now (but only 5,000 miles or so...the car is in the garage more than on the street, but that's a different story). i have heard that ZCs "eat" distributors, but i haven't had a problem other than the rotor screw coming loose.

i would get a good quality one and see how long that one goes. if it doesn't last long, you might want to investigate it further.

 

Another alternative is to invest in a direct ignition setup like "Electromotive's". I went through coils and ignitors and for the cost of 2 or 3 dizzys you can eliminate that problem.

 

yea, I just took off the dizzy the morning, and the cap & rotor were fine, but there wasn't current going through the return on the dizzy (checked w/ a test light). There were tiny metal flakes in the dizzy for some reason. I have a remanned A1 Cardone (sp?) from O'reilly's with a life time warrenty- it just sucks b/c I bought it only 2 months ago. Oh well, thanks ya'll.

 

time to put that warranty to use...

 

I would love to know the answer to this question. It should be the same basic distributor as any of the other OBD0 hondas... with the exception of the mounting. The internals should be basically the same.

I've had countless hondas. I put well of 160,000 on my Si. My GF's Si had about 150,000, I had a base model with 175,000. I can't even list them all. NEVER did one distributor go bad, ever on any of them... except my ZC.

My ZC is on distributor number 4 now. I hardly ever drive the damn thing and they're usually lower milage distributors when I get them from yards. The breakdown is as follows....

#1. Bearing went out
#2. Cam Sensor Went
#3. Cam Sensor or similar electrical and also always leaked oil in to the dist through the bearing.
#4. Waiting to see, and also appears to leak a little oil.

 

I've had my ZC in for about 18 months with no dizzy problems whatsoever.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by therealciviczc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I would love to know the answer to this question. It should be the same basic distributor as any of the other OBD0 hondas... with the exception of the mounting. The internals should be basically the same.

I've had countless hondas. I put well of 160,000 on my Si. My GF's Si had about 150,000, I had a base model with 175,000. I can't even list them all. NEVER did one distributor go bad, ever on any of them... except my ZC.

My ZC is on distributor number 4 now. I hardly ever drive the damn thing and they're usually lower milage distributors when I get them from yards. The breakdown is as follows....

#1. Bearing went out
#2. Cam Sensor Went
#3. Cam Sensor or similar electrical and also always leaked oil in to the dist through the bearing.
#4. Waiting to see, and also appears to leak a little oil.

</TD></TR></TABLE>


Hmmmmm......... ive also noticed a lil leakage of oil underneath my distributor........ how do i fix that?!

 

I'm having the same problem with my exhaust cam angle sensor. I tried replacing the O ring but that didn't work. I would also like to know if anybody has solved this problem.

 

fyi, i replaced the o-ring on my cam angle sensor and it stopped leaking. i got a generic o-ring, but it did the job...

 

I had my zc distributor for 4 years...no problems

My friend went through 3 in the same time.

 

My CPS (ex cam angle sen) was leaking as well...I found it odd there was no gasket between the head and the sensor...hondabond worked for me.

 

here is a pic of the o-ring that should be in the exhaust cam engle sensor. its #1 in the pic.



i had to replace that one as it was bad and leaking.

 

My dist always leaks in to the dist and it appears to be coming from around the shaft, so I think its actually going in through the bearing, not the o-ring. I'm not aware of any fix if it isn't the o ring leaking.

 

Wow you all have shitty luck, I put my ZC in over 5 years ago and it's still running strong on its first distributor but I put an MSD 6A system in it about a year ago.

 

I'm on my 2nd dizzy since purchasing the car exactly 1 year ago last week and I'm having problems again which seem to be pointing to the distributor. for those of you who've got through 4 5 6 7 have you figured out how to stop it? is it as simple as getting an oem one? I had 2 remanufactured ones.

 

Back in my ZC days my first ZC had a DOA dizzy when I got it. I was just at my buddies house and we just found out his ZC dizzy was DOA too. I showed them how to rebuild it and they should have it running soon. I think they are cursed. My one friend has been running his ZC dizzy for 5yrs now, though. My second ZC had a good dizzy, so of the 4 ZC's I've encountered there is a 50% success rate.

Edit I forgot my other buddies ZC was fine, success Rate 60%

 

Why not just get an OEM Acura distributor for it. That is sure to last a long time and eventually pay for itself I guess.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by keithv &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">here is a pic of the o-ring that should be in the exhaust cam engle sensor. its #1 in the pic. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah that's exactly the one I replaced. I even bought the o - ring from acura and it still leaks. Any other ideas, or should I try another o-ring?

 

well it was definately the dizzy that was fuxored. I replaced it & the car ran, I now have code 8 so I'm assuming that when I repinned my plug I swapped the white wires around- oh well, I'll fix it tomorrow. I'm just glad to have gotten the car home from work.