Ok, I have a '91 DX hatch that had a thrown rod in it. I replaced the block with my spare D15B7, and used the original head and everything else. Has plenty of compression, has air/fuel, and has spark. The spark is kind of faint, but it works. The engine is timed correctly and there is no CEL. The ground wire on the valve cover gets so hot the plastic starts melting when I'm trying to start it, so I'm thinking I have an electrical problem somewhere, but I have no clue where to start.

It started for maybe a full second, and ended with a backfire out of the intake manifold. It tries to start, but just won't keep going. Since it did start, I don't think my valves are bent, but I haven't checked them out yet. Sorry for the long thread, I just wanted to give all the details. TIA.

 

check your ground by the thermostat housing. If the valve cover ground is getting hot then you have a ground somewhere else not doing its job. Your car should run without that valve cover ground even attatched.

 

brushed all of the ground points down, and car still won't start. Anyone else have an idea?

 

Are you sure the negative battery cable is securely attatched at the transmission? The smaller cable from the valve cover is obviously handling more of the load than it should. You could also have something wired wrong or shorted out that is drawing too much current.

 

i dont knlow if you know where all the ground points are, but i had the same problem and it was a ground i had forgotten to hook up. theres one on the clutch adjustment **** thingy, theres one on the valve cover, theres one on the thermostat housing, and another one can double up on the thermostat housing, or it can go on the starter.

 

yea check the one on the starter when i repaced my clutch i forgot to plug the one from the starter back and my car didnt start.. make sure its all the way in

 

Once I brushed all of the ground points and battery terminals/hookups, the smoking stopped. However, the car still wouldn't start.

 

you said you checked for codes are did you say you have no check engine light.
any back fire in the intake manifold could indicat poor valve sealing are the engin timing could be off
9 and compression would still be fair. if your engine sat for awhile the most likely cause for problem could be your valves sticking to the seats and now they have
poor sealing. I'm not conviced you have aN ELECTRICAL problem. do you have a compression tester?

 

If the engine hasn't been run for a while, I'd put a teaspoon of marvel mystery oil(or another light weight oil) in each cylinder and spray starter fluid or carb cleaner into the intake before trying to start up.

Hot grounds are no good, you might want to increase gauge, but I think it will go away once you get the thing to fire up. Do you have the block grounded?

 

What kind of compression tester do you guys use to get in there? We have one but its built for an old V8...

When turning the crank pulley by hand, it would turn very easily for maybe an 1/8 revolution, then it would gradually get harder to turn until I just couldn't turn it. So I figured I had at least some compression.