I have a 93 Civic Hatch with a B18C that has just been fully built with 9:0:1 JE Pistons, Eagle Rods, all Skunk2 valvetrain including cam gears. After I put the motor back together, it wouldn't start unless I give it some gas. If I let off the gas, the motor will shut off immediately. I checked all connections, vacuum hoses, and feel like I have the timing right if not very close. I have an Unorthodox pulley so I'm not exactly sure what mark lines up to achieve TDC. I also have a MSD 6AL ignition with an external coil. I believe I am getting spark so I don't think the ignition is the problem. When the car does run, it is very slow and opening the throttle does not change the RPM. If anyone has any information that helps, I would appreciate it.

 

4 things you need to do to find the problem

1:check fuel pressure
2:timing....if you dont have a gun,go buy one,guessing isnt a way of fixing things.
3:compression....what is it per cylinder
4:leak down.if you have more then 5 percent you've got issues,less it should start

Any more questions everyone will refer back to these four issues. Untill you have the answers its very hard to diagnose over the computer. Good luck

 

Thanks for the info, IMALLSLO. This is my first engine that I'm building so I'm kinda new to this. I just know the basic stuff when it comes to engine building. How do you check if to see if it has fuel pressure? I can rent a gun at the Autozone which isn't a big problem. I'm not sure if they have a compression gauge. I wouldn't know where to start when it comes to a leakdown. Fortunately, my brother is a mechanic, but unfortunately he lives an hour and a half away. When he has time, he comes in visit so I just have to be patient I guess. I guess I will do what I can in the mean time and keep up to date with my progress.

 

Fuel pressures kinda an easy one....just crank the motor and then crack the fuel line at the rail(only if you dont have a gauge handy). You should see fuel shoot out. For timing......take the valve cover back off and double check your marks. Make sure the cams line up with each other and the crank is on its mark. set the dist to roughly a little past middle(bolt futher forward). This should set it around 15 degrees(rent a gun and set it properly when running). The car sounds like it retarded in timing. You may wanna start the car with the dist fully advanced(bolt all the way forward) and see if this cleans the throttle response up at all. If it does then adjust your cam gears.

 

Well, I know it's not the fuel pressure because I already tried cracking the line at the fuel rail. I put the distributor back the way it was taken off from the cleanliness of where the bolt use to sit. The cam gears are both lined up. My guess is for the pulley to be TDC, the second mark should be lined up with the pointer on the timing cover. When I did that, the cam gears didn't looked TDC so I will try to adjust it tomorrow. We also tried moving the dizzy around when the car was running, but it didn't change at all. Thanks again for the info.

 

remember its the white mark....not the red. the red is 15 degrees and that would be good.!

 

The pulley is polished so there are no colors for the markings.

 

I finally got the car to crank. Turns out it was the cam timing. Now I have idling problems. The car is idling at 1,000 rpm and when I was cruising along at speeds higher than 40 and put the car in neutral, the car shuts off. My brother is telling me that I need to make the car relearn the idle. Can anyone confirm this? Going to try it tomorrow and update the status.

 

Bump. I've been messing around with the timing on the distributor and reset the idle. The car now idles around 800 rpm, but it still stalls after cruising down the road, revving pass 3,000, and then putting it in neutral. Could it be that the compression is so low that my stock ECU is shutting it down and can't compensate for the compression? Does anyone know the solution to this problem? If info would be appreciated.

 

just a thought, did you build it yourself? if so did you strip / mess with the head...... cam shaft / vavle train?

 

The bottom end was built by Abacus Racing out of Virginia Beach. The head work was done here in town by a machine shop. All valve train parts are Skunk2 and were bought brand new. I put the motor back together myself.

 

if the bottom end was built within a shop, they should've used new rings and I'm quite sure the head gasket was properly torqued. Your compression shouldn’t be an issue. The head…. Are you positive that other shop re set the valve clearance after reassembling the head?

A little story, someone I knew bought a built b18b (his turbo project) from another guy who claimed it was fully built professionally within a shop (you know, Rods, Block Guard, cams…). My friend bought this motor because he thought he could have dropped it right into the car and have it fire up without any moderate work to be done (re stripping the motor). The guy he bought it from also told him he could…. I gave him a hand with putting it in and when it came time to start, it ran like $hit (you could hear the lack of power in the rev’s), detonated, and after one min smoke was coming out of the oil cap area… no codes, no leaks and physically everything seemed fine. We did everything we were suppose to properly. Anyway, after I had a nice long discussion with him about the person he bought it from and the work performed, I check his valve clearance (way the hell off), his oil pump slump thingie was disconnected (the motor wasn’t even getting oil) and there was as extra pcv oil line not connected (or in that area). After we did those things, re did the timing and fired it up; it ran like a champ!

I’m not trying to scare or get you worried, but if you had a pro shop build it (they should know to not *** around with peoples **** and provide good quality service) double check their work to make sure they didn’t miss something. Check the valve clearance, ensure your timing is absolutely correct and if wiring is good. if the physical build is good and your main parts are good, it should fire up and run fine. Your brother could be right about releaning the mixture at idle for your problem. What ecu are you using? Is it chipped? If so, what maps are you running off of? Also can you guaranty your sensors on your intake are good and strong?

If you can’t tell if piston # 1 is at tdc (due to the lack of marks), use the chopstick method. Remove the #1 sparklug (of course the timing belt should be disconnected), and when you think #1 it at tdc, put the chopstick (a nice looooong one) in and let it sit on the piston. Crank the motor by hand until you see the piston is at tdc (the chopstick will go up and after it’s reached it’s highest point ------ TDC ---- it will begin to move down, as the piston goes down). After you know you’ve manually set your piston to tdc, make sure your cams are aligned properly (with piston #1), put your timing in, set it and you should be good. If you don’t have any marks, there’s a dial you can buy to help out (I can’t rem the name for peas)

Anyway, that’s a lot of words, I hope I was able to help a little…. Let us know what the outcome is.

 

Thanks for the reply. As far as the rings are concerned, I had got new ones to go with the new psitons. I torque the head down myself with ARP studs and a Cometic head gasket. I'm not sure if the other shop reset the valve clearance. All the sensors were working before I took it apart and the motor ran fine. I'm using a non-chipped P72. I might have no other choice but to take it to the shop and let them figure it out.