ok so i have a 98 civic with a gsr bottom end and and 89 b16a head. when i bought the car it had bad piston rings. so i replaced them and now i got evrything back together and it cranks but wont start, i am not getting a spark and i think its from a wire not being ground. the fuel pressure regulator will start spraying out gas when i ground the loose wire. problem is i bought the car with the swap already done and i dont know what wiring harness is used. the ecu is obd1. i am trying to fix this instead of buying a whole new gsr from hmo. so if anyone has any suggestions please share. if not just going to get a whole new setup(just trying to avoid dropping 2k into a new engine if possible.

 

What loose wire?

When you turn on the ign. switch, do you hear the fuel pump priming, if not, I will assume the wire you are grounding is the thermostat housing ground(s), [ground for PGM-FI Main Relay and ECU/ECM.

If the fuel injector relay in the PGM-FI Main Relay does not turn on, [power supplied by the ign. switch, ground is at the thermostat housing] the fuel pump relay will not turn on, the fuel injectors will not have power, IGP1&2 at the ECU/ECM will not have power so you will not have spark.

In other words, if the PGM-FI Main Relay is not grounded nothing much will work.

Now you said, "the fuel pressure regulator will start spraying out gas when i ground the loose wire" am I to assume it is spraying out gas because something is disconnected or is the FPG broken? 94

 

yes it defiantly is the wire for the thermostat. And I think the fuel pressure regulator just needs a gasket to seat on the fuel rail. picking up the o ring from Honda today.
thanks for the help!

 

ok so just for diagnostic purposes i removed the fuel pump fuse and grounded one of my spark plugs and grounded the wire to the thermostat housing and still no spark?

 

The fuel pump fuse is also the fuel injector relays fuse, if the fuel injector does not turn on you will have no power to IGP1&2, the ECU/ECM will not "turn on".

Fix the FPR, it needs to be done anyway, then troubleshoot, as in this case, many things, [electrically] are common with each other and can share the same fuse or circuits.

It may be the fuel pump fuse but without it, many things do not have power even if that fuse is not the fuse for something that is not working, EG; fuel pump fuse, [fuse 15- 15A, in under dash fuse box] is also power to fuel injector relays coil, meaning no power to the fuel injectors, even though the fuel injector fuse is fuse 44-15A, in engine bay fuse box.
As mentioned you will not only no power to the fuel pump, there will be no power to the fuel injectors, ECU/ECM IGP1&2 and IACV. 94