B16 SiR II OBDI to OBD0 conversion harness from Hasport/Locash in an 89 hatch si.

Once the engine was in, the engine idled, not very well, but it idled. There was initially a problem with the fuel pump not priming but a new ECU fixed that right away. Here's what my question is:

The engine idled, at best, OK. We drove it around the block a few times, and there was plenty of bogging, and toward the end of the drive, it wanted to die all the time. Once we got back we saw smoke coming from under the hood, under closer inspection it was coming from the cat (which was glowing bright red).

We let that cool off and unbolted the cat (so there is no exhaust on the car now, behind the collector on the manifold). Started the engine again, and it idled OK again with a misfire/backfire here and there.

Today we double checked that the timing belt hadn't skipped and it's dead on. We hooked up a timing light to see about the ignition but now the engine will not start. It did for maybe a split second then died, and now will not start (even when I was moving the dist. back and forth while trying to start it).

I checked for fuel by unbolting the line from the filter and there is plenty of fuel squirting out.

So all in all, the engine idled ok at first, and slowly got worse and worse until it was pretty much backfiring constantly, now it won't start.

Any help?

It should also be noted that the CEL is "on" but I don't know how to check it, short of hooking up the old ECU with a little blinking light built into it. I know how to check the codes on most other Hondas but this one doesn't have that plug that needs to be jumped.

When the old ECU was hooked up, it was throwing a code 6 which has nothing to do with this problem.