Racer's Lounge - Help with a 97 Civic- no start

Cliffs- SOHC 97 civic with newish plugs, wires, fuel filter won't start...it did this morning. We aborted a timing belt change before we even got the crank pulley off. Reassembled everything and presto - no start. Cranking but won't turn over. We've been over everything we touched and cannot get it to turn over. Help or ideas would be appreciated greatly.

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So my buddy and I were going to change his timing belt. That didn't work out very well, because we got it down to the crank pulley and couldn't get it off. We put new drive belts on the accessories, put a new motor mount on the lower mount and buttoned it back up.

Keeping in mind it got here under it's own power, it was somewhat surprising when it didn't start. We changed the wires and still nothing.

So here's the deal:

Fuel filter, plugs and wires are all 9 months old. The plugs smell like gas when I pulled em. The starter turns as much as it can, but it will not kick the motor over, not even a little bit. Battery terminals are clean and tight, and it has not had issues.

I pulled the distributor cap off and it was pretty carboned up, so I sanded some of it off and reinstalled. The rotor looked old but functional.

We have had the accessories off and on a couple of times trying to figure out if we did something, but all we can think of is that the timing somehow got knocked off, but we didn't get far enough to even touch the timing belt, and the rotor was not loose when I pulled the distributor cap. We had the power steering moved but not disconnected, the alternator loose but not off, and the top timing belt cover off...and that was the end.

I doubt we turned the crankpulley clockwise (it very much says not to do that) when we were trying to get that off..in fact we had a hard time getting it to stop turning counterclockwise in the first place, which is why we gave up on that.

I can't think of anything that you guys did that wouldn't make it start but some ideas....

Check your Main Relay (the one for the fuel pump)-they go out all the time on civics. It is located on the drivers side under the dash.

Then check your ECU-it should be under the passenger side's floor under the carpet.

Main relay had occurred to me too- but the FP is priming.
We have no spark, even after a new igniter, rotor and cap. I am going to test voltage at the coil when I get home today and see why electrons don't get to the plugs. Coil tested good on ohms early this morning.

Mechanical timing aside, there is no reason I can think of (that'd be the problem) that we would not have spark.

I do not miss working on non-distributorless ignitions. More moving parts and more aligning marks and tolerances is never fun.

How exactly do I check the ECU?
The other thing I was thinking was bad engine ground. Firebird will not start with a loose or disconnected engine ground...but I don't know where all the grounds on this are.

Thanks for the feedback.

Normally you can just check the ECU by looking at it....if it is blown there will be black burn spot somewhere on the ECU-Which can be caused by a bad ground. (Also disconnect the battery before you unplug it and inspect)

IF your ECU is blown....make sure that that you have ALL the grounds fixed....because the new one will just blow again.

Also check your fuses

If you need them, I have the ground diagrams....PM me your email ad. and I can pdf them

Check your grounds.

The starter turns as much as it can, but it will not kick the motor over, not even a little bit. Battery terminals are clean and tight, and it has not had issues.


So the engine won't turn over at all?

Well, we got spark at the plugs, and the starter spins the motor and the accessory pulleys turn, but it does not run.

Igniter was dead, and we replaced that. Coil primary and secondary resistance are within spec, and the igniter/coil YLW/BLK has battery voltage at key on.

We went back into the top timing belt housing and double checked the mechanical timing- the crank was off by about 2 teeth of cam pulley, so we fixed that.

Put it all back together and tried to start it. We had combustion for maybe a second, but it died. Trying again swamps the plugs, I think. It gets massively gas smelled and doesn't get as close to running as when we try the first time after the gas in the cyls has dissipated.

I am thinking ground more and more.

Take off the oil fill cap and have someone crank it while you look inside and make sure the rocker arms are moving, if they are the timing belts fine...then put a pick up coil in it and be done with it(it's inside the distributer, might have to buy the whole distributer)

It's alive!

My friend randomly tried starting it this morning and it finally did run. He drove it to the office and parked in my spot, which is what I saw when I came back from lunch. Needless to say I was surprised.

So last night after we readjusted mechanical timing and replaced the igniter, it was fixed, but I guess the plugs were fouled from previous efforts to start it.

I still think the grounds are less than ideal though, and if I can find where they all are I will be replacing them with new heavier guage wire and lugs after I clean off the attachment points.

Thanks everyone.

^ cool......I got your PM i will send you the grounds when I get home (I'm at work)

Sweet, thanks. They are 12 year old grounds and I am more than a bit surprised they get the job done. When it comes to grounds, I like to err on the side of 0/1 gauge, if you know what I mean.