HELP > 95 civic vx rebuild motor now won’t start??

[JT]

🙁
ok i have this d16z6 vitara with eagle h beam rods. low compression build fresh build. for boost
i have like about 3k miles on it already. on friday i drove and had a check engine light code 22. vtec pressure light. and a code 15 ignition output signal? when i was driving it hard.the next day i cleared the code. i installed a fresh new radiator and bleed the motor with the vehicle jacked up in the air. due to a bigger radiator i bought prepping for boost. i ordered like 3 weeks ago. the fan comes on like at least 4 or 5 cycles and opened the heater bleed no bubbles and closed the radiator cap.

the next day i installed a new air intake system SRi with velocity a stack. it was good for a whole day. no problems or check engine lights. it idled fine and sounded beefier with the stack/intake pipe. no idle problem misfire etc. no check engine light. then i took it for a drive. i went up a hill and looked at the gauge as i drove up a hill to the oil pressure looked like 60psi steady. going up the hill. again parked the car and inspected the cars fan coolant etc. i then heard like a knock metal sound near the intake manifold side. block i wasn’t sure. i revved the vehicle a couple times let it idle. I heard the knock metal like a ratchet was hitting metal or something. like a loud starter click solenoid hitting. it went away. i looked at the oil pressure at idle it looked okay i think like 40 psi or so. i tried reving the engine a little hard and medium type revs. i couldn’t make the engine to do the sound. engine later felt regular no noise whatnot. test drove it again a couple of miles.
i drove home parked the car.

later that night i tried starting the car. i couldn’t get the engine to turn over. WTF?
it wouldn’t start. i tried starting it i had to give it gas to let it start? the idle was very rough.
oil pressure went steady when i give it gas but idle is very rough and scary sounding. had oil pressure like 40psi at one time.
the engine couldn’t bare to start up also giving it gas to start but very rough and engine dying.

the morning i checked compression cyl number 1 to 4 was @149psi and cyl number 5 was @150psi .
reseted the ecu and still couldn’t start. correctly
fuel pressure gauge near the fuel filter 40psi and 40psi near the fuel rail gauge. key on.
i added gas to make sure i was also on a slight slope in my garage. 2 gallon.
i checked the plugs seems to have spark. not sure if it was strong enough though at plug 1. and 2 only.
pulled sprakplugs all where fouled black colors. looked dusted carbon like look.
cylinders seem wet or something. checked the ignition system looks corroded and not good rotor/cap.
and swapped the cap/rotor/plugs from my previous motor that was running better. but still looks like corroded slightly.
i installed new set of spark pug gapped them.

so put back the stock air intake box. and removed the SRI with velocitcy stack/intake filter. i got it to start up little better than b4 it idled by itself but rough dying very low rpm at idle. if i give it gas hold it it seems steady. but when i let it go the rpm surges and rough idle still.

i installed a d15z1 IAC valve seems same to the d16z6 one but little bigger. i installed it with only one mount bolt but bolted up straight.

restarted ecu and car idled better but i still have the god dang rough idle. i got it to idle by itself without dying. then i begin to hear the god dang ping knock/ noise near the intake manifold area? loud tick in that area/ like metal or some sound.
the loud tick went away but when it idled the oil pressure where 40psi. it got steady slightly but little rough still.like intermittent.

the noise begin to come more like the knock sound one after another stops and came more. i stopped the motor and pulled the sparkplugs. i was worried that the motor is broken or something. :unsure: 🙁 🙁 FML… help me….

i checked the sparkplugs # 1 and #4 sparkplugs looked way diffrent than sparkplugs #2 and #3.

#1,4= looked more new not fouled looks whiter than
#2,3= looked more with black deposits on the whole electrode tip/inside tip.
why cylinder plugs differ?
is the other cyl firing?/and other is running rich???

what is that weird noise???
i hope its nothing big.
can ignition problem be causing this loud noise?
or is the noise mechanical related?
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Topic

[jason]

really the only way the ignition can make this noise is if the timing was off sounds like you may have to crack open the top of that motor look and see if it might be on the valve train and maybe the intake gasket so I would try and rule out mechanical first because of this noise.

[JT]

i took off the top of the valve cover and i don’t see any loose parts or anything. what do i look. i will look into seeing the intake manifold gasket because the gasket is a plastic gasket thermal gasket i bought, but could that cause the engine to sound like a knock?
could the ICM be causing some sort of misfire that cause that loud knock sound? ive had a code CEL 15 last week. ignition output signal. and why are my cylinders spark plugs number 1 and 4 are not fouled looking
and only spark plugs 2 and 3 spark plugs are very fouled black and dirty carbon etc.

[jason]

u could be getting a pre detonation knock from the timing. have u looked to c with a scanner what your cam and crank positions are this can tell you your timing angel I don’t know if you have ever done this and etcg may have a post on it but just fire it up [if u are sure that this knock is not in the bottom end ] and rep up the engine to about 1500 hundred look at the scanner and see what prescient the cam sensor is at it should be at or around 0 it maybe real high if the timing is not wright and you are getting this knock. i have never done this on this motor but it has worked on a lot of other engines . maybe worth a try I don’t no why it would not work.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Based on the fact that the engine was apart not long ago, I suspect something with the rebuild. Engine noises after rebuilds are usually something that wasn’t measured properly or torqued properly. Before you run the engine again I would advise tearing it down for an inspection to make sure everything has the correct clearance and that everything is torqued correctly. If it’s not and you continue to drive it, you could scatter the engine and a bunch of money will be wasted.

You might also find this helpful.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-no-start-problems

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/diagnosing-noises-in-your-car

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Author]

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