Guest fixerupper Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Ok, so my Civic when I bought it didn't start. SO... I thought nice project. Well it's actually just a nice pain in the ass. So far here were our guesses. 1) Fuel pump not working - ehhhhhh! It runs just fine... 2) Starter bad, or not connecting - It's not bad you can hear it turn over and, but as for not connecting when I turn the key I get one quick like half fire from the engine, but it's more like a sputter than a fire... So I'm pretty sure she's connecting. 3) Timing belt - Well we're actually in the middle of pulling the belt off now (have to move every other friggin thing in the way), but I don't think that it's that. I was told today that it would have to be off by more than a few teeth for the car not to start. I don't know if that's entirely true... So I'm not quite sure what's going on under there. Any thoughts or suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desperado Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Well, most cars I have seen if the belt was off a tooth it would barely run and 2 teeth it wouldn't run at all. As far as the starter connecting,, I am not sure what you are talking about here. Either the starter is turning the motor over (the crank is turning) or it's not, so that one is pretty simple. I am not sure how you tested the fuel pump, just turning on the key a couple times and pushing the needle in the fuel pressure port and getting sprayed with fuel is NOT testing the fuel pump. But if there is any fuel there it should at least fire and die. So that runs us back to either the timing of the cam is off, or the motor has some internal problems. Once you put a new timeing belt on it, if it still will not run PM me or call me at 967-4324 and I will come up and look at it I am right up the road in Johnstown. First thing I am going to do is do a leakdown test on the cylinders. I am not sure if that motor is an interference motor or not. What that means is rather or not the pistons can come to the top of the cylinder with the valves open. An INTERFERENCE motor means that the pistons WILL hit the valves. And that can happen if it's jumped cam time. I don't know where your civic came from, but if some kid had it and liked bouncing it off the rev limiter all the time, that could have bent the valves even if the timing is ok. Fair warning BTW, don't bounce the motor off the limiter, it is NOT designed to take that, in stock form anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest racinbird Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 FWIW...Some older civics had issues with bad distributors. The shafts would wear out and extra play would cause no/bad spark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fixerupper Posted September 27, 2005 Report Share Posted September 27, 2005 Ok, well first thing's first. The valves do not appear to be bent. That's just saying what we can see from taking the valve cover off. Second the car came from a junkyard/crappy auto sales place where ted and ned clampet work. So there are some questionable things, such as they put holes through one of the belt pulleys. As for the fuel pump, you can here it turn on and there is definitely pressure in the lines. So there you have it. I'll let you know as soon as I get the belt replaced as to how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desperado Posted September 27, 2005 Report Share Posted September 27, 2005 You musta got it from Houcks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fixerupper Posted September 27, 2005 Report Share Posted September 27, 2005 No, actually I live just east of Columbus. It was just outside of Johnstown for those of you who know where that is. Trust me these guys were none too bright. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desperado Posted September 27, 2005 Report Share Posted September 27, 2005 Hmmm, I think I mentioed something about BEING FROM JOHNSTOWN. And you have Alec (Alexandria) as your location. So I think I know where you are. As far as the junk yard, I am talking about the one out on Sportsmans Club Road. That's Houcks Garage and Wrecking, and its' run by Ma and Pa Kettle and their boy Bub, Not Bubba but just Bub. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mensan Posted September 28, 2005 Report Share Posted September 28, 2005 If you took the valve cover off you will know if the timing chain is broken. Think about it. If it has a bad distributor gear, that one is pretty easy too. This does not sound like a difficult problem. If you are new to cars in general I apologize. What does this car look like? Does it have a wing? Exhaust? What color is it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Posted September 28, 2005 Report Share Posted September 28, 2005 its a belt eli. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fixerupper Posted September 28, 2005 Report Share Posted September 28, 2005 Sorry, desperado, forgot who I was talking too. Anyway, no, it was Tri-County right there at the corner of 657 and 62... great guys...bleh. As for the belt it's not broken. I do know my basics around an engine, but am totally new to the imports. My dad's helping me out, but as for that he had only a 70 something civic just to toy around with. He's actually the muscle car kinda guy (396 '69 Nova and a 454 '68) and he's mechanically inclined, but when it comes to imports he's like a monkey holding a stick as far as most of the electronics go. Anyway the car's getting spark so I definitely doubt it's a distributor problem. I'm supposed to get the puller to take off the belt pulley that's in the way tonight. I'll let you guys know if the timing was off. By this point I'm sure that's what it is. Oh, BTW, does anyone know of any engine mounts that would put a d16a1 into my dx chassis (d15a, 1989)? I've decided to swap engines once the inspection is done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fixerupper Posted October 7, 2005 Report Share Posted October 7, 2005 Ok, so here we go... I finally got the puller to remove the lower belt pulley, in order to get to the timing belt. So we eyed how we the thought the bottom gear should be, leveled the cam with the top of the head, and took the slack out of the belt. It started! Ok, but after looking at some things awe noticed the marks on the pulley do not match up with the marks on the belt cover. We had the car actually running for a minute or two then shut it off because it sounded like it wasn't quite on time. So we moved the bottom gear again to the way it looks like it should be marked (key in gear was at one o'clock) and we put it back to twelve so that the marks on the pulley would line up. It wouldn't start that way. So any clues on why it's like that? I mean if it's gonna run like that I don't care, but I'd still rather know why it has to be off to run at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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