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Got the new distributor in. installed it, and now no spark at all! Rechecked connections, fuses, tried it with both ECUs, and nothing. (And obviously this is different from the problem before. I had good spark on two towers. Now, no spark at all.)
This new distributor is the exact same shape as the old one, but I don’t think it’s a Hitachi. Still, came from a top-rated Ebay seller who claimed 500 sold. But, I’m sure it’s possible I got a bad one, however unlikely. I’m reluctant to open it up and check the coil inside, because, new. I’ve been searching for a way to test the thing without opening it up. Any ideas?
EDIT: Re-installed old distributor. Same old spark. new one must be bad.
Got the HEI spark tester in. After testing around the distributor a few times, I get consistent, rapid blue-white spark at the 1 & 2 distributor points. Little or no spark (and which looks more orange) at the 3 & 4 distributor points.
Checked ignition coil just to see how it sparks, and it seems fine.
There is a little bit of oil inside the distributor cap.
So distributor likely should be replaced, but I’d like to understand what’s going on.
Edit: Did some more research…seems it’s possible for individual distributor towers (which I called “points” in the above) to go bad. Found a mitsubishi (OEM) distributor on ebay for $80. Hopefully that’s my ticket to a working car.
Update: I tested spark again yesterday, but in bright sunlight. I knew it was there, but I couldn’t really tell you how often it was firing. Relevant because I checked it again today (One guy asked me to see what color it was, yellow/orange or blue/white). Today’s overcast, and I can see clearly that I’m barely getting any spark. Tested all 4 wires, cranking it for about a full second, and saw only a few orange sparks. So I’m suspecting something with the distributor or igniter.
Ok, interesting test!
I will need to find an adapter to adapt my regular fuel pressure test kit to this Honda, this may take a few days.
OK, here’s a major update: it’s not oil.
Damn sure looks like oil. But rubbing it between my fingers, I can tell it’s actually gas. There is SOME oil in the #4 cylinder, but, it’s still mostly gas I think.
Well, that explains the lack of smoke.
Got to think on where to go from here.
No, it was never smoking under normal conditions. Back when this first started, the car started to choke and stall out, which became more frequent until the car finally wouldn’t start at all. There was a lot of carbon build up, on the spark plugs and downstream on the O2 sensors. Those have all been replaced. I ran a lot of throttle body cleaner/gumout through the intake before then, which caused a fair bit of smoke and some small carbon bits to spew from the tailpipe, but otherwise no smoke.
Thanks nightflyr; I suspect something like that is the problem. One thing though; I don’t have oil in the spark plug wells. (I have replaced the spark plug well seals, previously.)
Exactly. When I take them out after trying to crank it, the electrodes are covered in oil, enough so that I imagine a spark couldn’t get through it.
Correct. But I’ve just edited the above to correct terminology: the oil is on the spark plug electrodes, not the terminals as I previously wrote.
Problem may be solved.
The car wasn’t starting because I didn’t have fuel. And I didn’t have fuel because, after I had last checked the main relay, I hadn’t put it back in very well. Pushed it in and out came the fuel.
Because I’m not very smart, when I pushed the relay back towards its housing I didn’t realize it was live, and shorted it. So until I fix that I still haven’t started the car.
The reason I’m saying that the problem only “may” be solved is because I’m still concerned about the oily residue on the spark plugs. I gave them a thorough cleaning this morning with degreaser and a brass wire brush, and that oily residue was on there tougher than I first thought. Underneath the sticky liquid layer was a hard coating that had to be scraped off with the wire brush.
Maybe its possible that residue built up because of bad combustion due to the loose main relay? I suppose I’ll need to monitor it once I get the car running. I’d hate to ruin my new O2 sensors and cat.
Edit: I mean to add, Eric, that I have watched your videos, many multiple times in fact. And I’d like to thank you for making them. I really enjoy them, and have learned quite a bit. And thanks to College Man, too, who has replied to many of my questions.
Hm, should I have said the key or immobilized was reprogrammed to the new ecu? Might be more accurate. The swapped ecu did not work with cars immobilizer until I had the dealership reprogram my key to the new ecu. From what I’ve been able to ascertain, 99 was about the year that Honda began putting in these immobilizers.
I hope to work on the car tmrw, hooray for weekends. Since I have oily plugs but good compression, I’m guessing it’s not rings, but maybe valves?
Edit: I definitely tried testing the ignition switch awhile ago. No dice.
Haven’t had a chance to really work on this car again, but I was thinking that after my last updates, its possible that someone would read it and think “this guy needs to do a compression test”. I did do a compression test, and it passed with flying colors.
Hm, inspection of the spark plugs reveals that they are oily.
This is different that the problem I was having before the ECU swap, when the spark plugs built up a tough carbon coating. (I have replaced the plugs since then)
This is a sticky oily coating around the head of the plug, but the electrodes themselves seem fairly clear.
A quick clean with a rag and carb cleaner and tried cranking again. The engine had a few very brief catches without starter fluid. Hm. I’ve to run now, no more work on this till later.
Ok, no start, even after rebooting the engine by removing the neg batt cable and ecu fuse.
Crank was fine, so i tried starter fluid, and got some turn over. Eventually got the engine to run, very badly, for a few seconds.
Looks like I’m back to fuel or timing issues.
What’s weird though is that, after the ECU swap, the car idled beautifully and I was able to drive it for about 1000 ft until the engine just very quietly shut down. But since then, I have this situation.