89 Civic swapped engine will not start. Read sticky

1970rs · Jun 23, 2006, 12:51 PM

I will try to keep this short. I have had this 89 hatchback civic for many years. My brother drove it and had the head gasket replaced. After this it always smoked alot.This was about 5 years ago so it has been sitting. I found a 90 wagon model donor car with a bad tranny and decided to buy it and use the engine for the 89 to drive back and forth to work. Ok enough of the history.
I swapped the engines( both 1.5L's) while I was at it I replaced the timing belt, clutch, and fuel pump (because the gas was very old). I have worked on these many times so I am confident the belt is timed correctly. Checked it twice to make sure. Went to start the car and it would not start. Would try to but never would. By the way my brother said it did this after he tried to get it running a year or so after he parked it. Checked the basics for fuel and fire. These were Ok but could not see alot of fuel from the injectors. Pulled the ecu and it was flashing code 16. Ran thru diagnostics and determined it was a bad ECU. Replaced the ecu with a known good one from the donor car still having the same problem. Everytime I run thru the trouble tree it leads me back to the same place. But I know the ecu from the donor is good since I drove the car home. I also tried to check for an injector pulse on both injectors and the noid light does not light. Pinned out the Main relay and it passed. Also replaced the main relay with the one from the donor car (drove it home) Sorry for such a long post but I want to include as much info as possible. I am at my wits end with it. I do not have much money in it so I could give up but, I cant let it win. Any suggestions or help from anyone would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Jay

kennydoesit · May 24, 2007, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by txgreasemonkey

Kennydoesit, read sections A and B in the link below:

http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/cars-tr...das-46563.html

.TxGreaseMnky... I have to perform the K-Test (I overlooked it earlier), because I need to make sure it's NOT an ECM problem.

kennydoesit · May 25, 2007, 03:12 AM

Yes, as a matter of fact.. I've done all both of those things. I guess it's worth another shot at doing them again though..

Thanks.

This thing is quite the enigma.

On the 88 and 89 Models, one cannot even check the Igniter unless you have a lab scope or something; they recommend (Haynes) that you take it to the dealer.

kennydoesit · May 25, 2007, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by txgreasemonkey

Next, I would perform the main relay harness tests below:

http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/cars-tr...tml#post358044

I can hear the fuel pump coming on for the 2 secs and I hear it when the key is released after cranking the engine over. No spark and NO injector power (or pulse)

hiperf402 · May 26, 2007, 08:40 PM

kennydoesit, how can you get 5.76 volts from a ground strap to batt ground? This would only be caused by high resistance. Dumb question, but did you try cleaning ground and reconnecting. It's there for a reason. With it disconnected, half of the sensor won't work correctly so don't think that by some miracle it will fix itself. you got a hot injector wire probably due to backfeeding in the circuit. Honda computers don't usually fail, and if they do,t he car usually won't start at all.

kennydoesit · Jun 2, 2007, 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kennydoesit

I found a CRANK ANGLE Senor test inside of a Haynes Manual. A resistance test of two sets of terminals (E & C and B & D or something of this order) yielded an acceptable resistance of 395 Ohms. However, another test of each individual terminal (E, C, B and D) to ground yielded NO CONTINUITY.

The manual further suggests that if the CRK Angle sensor failed any of the tests that the entire distributor must be replaced.

I installed a HEAD gasket before all of this happened and the owner was driving the car home; he never made it. The car test drove perfectly after I finished all the repairs (for atleast an hour), but, like I said, when he got in it.. it died in like 30 minutes after he paid me. I feel bad about the whole situation.

I did, however, clean the engine compartment one last time before I handed it back to him. I was wondering if water might have eventually worked it's way into an already aging distributor; shorting out the CRK sensor?

THE CRK sensor failed a GROUND continuity test (meaning there is an open somewhere inside of it).

I guess that it's distributor time.

ALSO, I still have NO power to the INJectors (DUal Point EFI).

Any suggestions anyone? ANYONE.

PROBLEM SOLVED:

The Distributor tests that I conducted lead me to believe that the distributor was faulty and it WAS.

Popped in a reman'd one from O'reilly's Auto Parts ($200) and the car fired right up; it's impossible to put the distrib (Hitachi -- internal coil pack, ig module, crk sensor, etc) in incorrectly on these particular Hondas (88 Civic LX).