My son has 97 Honda Civic LX. started running rough one day, each day got worse, then died. Ran all checks of: good compression, has spark, has fuel all the way from fuel rail to injectors, took out plugs, layed them on top, turned car over it blew 3" flames out the cover and still did not cough. had igniter and coil in Dist. check out (fine) All Timing marks are on even Dist. timing is all set correctly. Small Code reader from Auto Zone spits out ZERO CODES. I have compression also. 02 sensor I took out to make sure it wasn't cat. converter. I found a warranteed ECM on ebay for $50.00 got it and plugged it in and car started and Idled fine, rev up engine and it boggs down and shuts off, re-started it aprox. 10 times.(it will sit and Idle just fine). Clipped Timing light on the plug wires and 2 read fine and 2 read a few blinks at a time. Next morning I went and got new plug wires and plugs. Put them in and car will not run or even cough again. all connections on wires check out, I have excel. spark. Sprayed eather in throttlebody and still will not cough, I am beginning to think that there may be a short somewhere that is shorting out ECM. but wouldn't the eather test with spark and compression at least make the car cough? Are there any other suggestions out there? My brain is RACKED?

 

Take cap off and try to jump sparks from the coil spring to a grounded test wire. Should jump 1/2 inch or more. Weak yellow sparks, replace coil. Firing the coil into an open circuit (i.e. bad plug wires) is prone to damage it.

If you get it to run again, check for dead cylinders by disconnecting fuel injectors one at a time.