Wylee_M

Hi there, to start, I did not build this motor, I bought the car this way.

Its a 2000 Acura El (honda civic)
obd1 b16 (to my knowledge, however I don't know how to tell)
b18b block
I would assume stock internals, the job did not look too expensive.
b18b trans.
td 81u dist. (What car is this distributor from?) is it an obd1 dist. or obd2?
chipped p28 (with obd2-1 harness)

Problems are:
1.When taking off in first gear, or after changing gears, the car jerks and lags.
2.There is no power to the car when i floor it.
3. When traveling 60mp/h (100km/h) And I step on the gas, the car stutters and does not pick up speed. However if I let off the gas, the car is fine. This stuttering only happens at high speeds.

What I did/noticed:
1.I checked the spark plugs, they probably need changing
2.I checked to see if the firing order was correct (Which according to b16 specs found online, and haynes manual, it wasn't, I changed it according to spec and now the car does not fire up.With this new firing order the car cranks and stops midway as if the firing order is wrong. With the old firing order, or a backwards (?) firing order the car cranks however does not start up, probably because there is no gas in it.
4.There is a green wire from the vtec solenoid just hanging, not connected to anything

What I need to know:
1. Can an obd2 dist work on an obd1 motor? (Is that the root of my problems?)
2. What do i do about firing order? nothing seems to be working can someone please help me I've searched around all day and I have put the wires in proper order according to many pictures found online.
3.Perhaps my timing is off? is that why my car is acting like this?
4. What else do you think it may be?

I'm going to get gas in the car, get the wires in the firing order that allows the car to crank, and change the spark plugs when I get a chance.

I need help and as many suggestions as possible, and if I missed any details please let me know thank you.

EDIT:
Just scanned cel code 21, went to my vtec wire, found a similar colour wire, plugged in it: No more CEL.
So now I am going to gas it up, get the firing order right, and go for a run, (mayb it was the vtec selenoid why the car was acting this way? but that still does not explain why the gas is so horrible and why it lags when i put my foot down.. spark plugs?

0c00l

My rebuild of a D15b2 did this very same thing and it was the timing, I had to check it twice before finding one tooth off! I reset it step by step and it fixed it.

kyden

1st thing i would do is replace the plugs.

firing order is 1342, starting from the bottom left corner if you're looking directly at the distributor. cyl #s start from the timing belt side.

i assume you have an obd2 motor setup. does your distributor have 1 or 2 plugs on it?

Wylee_M

Im going to check the timing, I just dont want to mess anything up...before i start taking off the valve cover and fooling around with the crank and all of that, I want to get every other possible thing out of the way..you think I could just advance or retard the timing by turning the dist instead of fooling around with the belt? I need the car running by tomorrow morning.




This firing order crap is pissing me off. everyone gives me something different. Some say cyl one goes to the top right of the distributor, and others says cyl 1 goes to the bottom left of the distributor. When i start at the top right of the dist. the car actually cranks, but i hear a slight puff noise and it doesn't actually start. When I use the method you show me, the car doesn't make full cranks, maybe once or twice then it stops.

I dont know what kind of motor set up I have, the Dist. has 1 plug.

UPDATE
the haynes manual I have says that the number one spark plug wire position on the dist is bottom left.
I went to my timing belt and felt it, the side close to the headlights is loose and flabby, the side toward the inside of the car is tight.
Timing is off?? I have no Timing belt cover, So how do I line up the pulley and gears to re adjust it?

kyden

i forgot to clarify. 1,3,4,2 going clockwise from bottom left.

1 plug means you have an obd2 distributor.

download the helms manual. haynes sucks.

Wylee_M

I replaced the plugs, I got the 1342 starting from the bottom left as my firing order.

Okay cool so I have an obd2 Dist, However, I believe my motor is an obd1... i believe its from 93 (from reading the first set of numbers on the head near the exhaust mani) will this cause problems? What can you gather about this?


and i want to check the timing, however there is no timing belt cover to line up the crank shaft pulley with. So what i Did was use a screw driver and rest it on the piston, when the piston went up so did the screw driver, I waited till the cam gears pointed upwards, and the piston was at the top, and one of the marks on the crank pulley were pointing upwards.

IS this TDC of the compression stroke? I read somewhere that If i take off the dizzy cap and see if the rotor is pointing to spark plug wire #1 then all is TDC...correct?

and the timing belt is a bit loose, what should I do about that?

0c00l

There should be a code like t-41u or something stamped near the area where the distro mounts, I would find and google it to make sure of what distro you have. It still seems to me that your timing is the issue though. I would make absolutely sure that your mechanical timing is set right, you shouldn't have to retard it a lot, also do you have a timing gun?

lsturbo33

There is a small TDC arrow on the oil pump cover. When it gets dirty it is hard to see. Align the arrow on the correct crank pulley mark and the cams have arrows that line up and they also say up so that should be pretty obvious.

Wylee_M

its 1 td-81u. I beleive its ITR distro, its obd2.
I still beleive timing is my issue too. No sir i Do not have a timing light, however Im sort of sure that i have it at TDC..Im going to take off my valve cover to double check, and my distro cap. but right now, a mark on the crank pulley is pointing upwards, my #1 piston is at the top, and the cam gears are pointing up. it LOOKS like the markings on the cam gears are pointing to eachother, all i need to do now is look at the rotor in the distro cap and see if its pointing at #1. and for the slack in the timing belt...what do i do about that? leave it ? or what..

kyden

the mark on your lower timing gear should match to the mark on the oil pump, while at the same time the cam gear marks should line up.

how bad is the slack on the belt? how far does the belt twist around?

Wylee_M

Hey guys. I took some pics of the cam gears, the distro rotor and the ammount of slack in the timing belt. im going to put them here..tell me what you think. do my cam gears line up? or are they off by a tooth? is my timing belt too loose? is my distro rotor in the wrong spot?

Wylee_M

hey guys, i used my method of finding tdc, and saw where the distro rotor pointed and used that as #1, and did the 1342 firing order (starting at top left) started up first try :D

But now, when i rev it and try to hit redline it just bounces off... goes to 55 and then comes back.

im guna go for a spin but im pretty sure its still going to do the stutter stuff..


EDIT:

I just realized..what the heck..my distro is messed up.. its not supposed to be pointing that way..how do i fix this? this is probably why my car has problems.

QUICK8CIVIC

Your timing belt is waaaay too loose.tighten it first before you rev it.you may jump a tooth on the camgears which could touch the valves resulting on a damaged motor.

Wylee_M

I seemed to have answered my own question. the timing belt has skipped teeth, the cam gears still show tdc, but if i were to look at the crank, im pretty sure it would be off. thats why one side of the timing belt is loose and the other is hard, because it jumped teeth.

but because i have no timing belt cover, i cannot line up the markings on the crank pulley with anything. so what i have to do is remove the crank pulley so i can see the crank gear (is that what you call it?), loosen the timing belt, slip the belt off the crank gear, line up the crank with the marking on the oil pump so cyl1 is actually at tdc, and slip the belt back on. however, my distro will still be wrong wont it?

QUICK8CIVIC

Mark your crank gear tooth inline with the TDC marker with permanent marking pen so it will be easily visible at the top as you line up your camgears.once you have everything tightened up, rotate the crank one full turn and check if you still end up the same as you started at TDC with all the markers lined up.once done, finalize your ign timing with a timing light.