This is the first time I've adjusted the valves on a modern Honda motor, but the principle, and even the basic adjustment components, haven't changed any. About the only thing I did differently from other engines I've set valves on is with this one I bumped the starter to advance the engine to set the valves. It was not at all convenient to reach down there with some sort of big wrench or socket/ratchet and crank on the motor. But just to confirm my accuracy using the starter, I went through all sixteen valves' adjustment settings at least twice.

I also pulled the plugs, just to take a look at them. The car is still kinda new to us (bought in 11/2011) and we haven't changed the plugs yet. It's running a set of NGK platinums. They have pointy electrode ends and long part numbers. They look barely used. So they went back in of course.

The plug wires are cut so that there can be no mixups as to where each one is supposed to go. But I checked anyway, just to be sure. No firing order errors.

So really all I did was remove the plug wires (from the valve cover only), pull off the valve cover, pull off the top timing belt cover (to inspect the belt -- it looks good), adjust the valves, and then reverse these steps.

And then, when I went to start the car, it wouldn't. Not even a cough or hiccup. It is as if I had left the plug wires off, or something. I can detect a very faint whiff of fuel after cranking the engine over for several seconds. So the injectors are working. No spark? What would I have done to cause no spark?

Would having had it up on jack stands made a difference? We had it up on jack stands before all this. We were tracing down a leak in the power steering system, found it, but hadn't bothered to take the car down from the jack stands. There was a brief period where we ran it while it was up on the stands. When we first tried to start it after setting the valves, it was still up on the jack stands. Then we removed the stands. I was wondering if there might have been some sort of fuel-drain-back-into-the-tank issues that I wasn't aware of. Which is the only reason why I even thought to mention having it up on stands.

So I've repeatedly gone over all the electrical connections under the hood, making sure everything's secure and plugged in, nothing's grounding out, etc. And I'm coming up blank.

Any ideas?

 

Have you checked for spark? Firing the coil with the plug wires disconnected is prone to damage it. You need to unplug the 2-wire power plug to the distributor before turning the key with the spark wires disconnected.

 

I appreciate the tip on checking the spark. But I'm operating under the assumption that there is no spark. I can smell fuel, so I'm satisfied that the injectors are working -- at least well enough for the engine to start. So what else is there? Timing and spark right? (Assuming a clear airway of course)

I know adjusting the valves can have an effect on engine timing, but to my knowledge it isn't drastic enough for the car not to start. I mean I have pushed the timing pretty far in both directions with other cars I've owned and they still started. So I'm assuming at this point that adjusting the valves had no bearing on the dns condition.

That brings things down to spark. I guess what I was really after, me not being very knowledgeable about post-CVCC Civics, is wanting to make sure that there is no sort of high-tech safety device, or whatever, that I might have triggered while working on the car that might have disabled the ignition, for example.

I'll admit it. I don't even know enough about the inner workings of modern Civics to know what it is I don't know. Which is why I'm here, asking what seems to be mindless questions, because I've hit a wall and don't know how to procede further.

So let me ask this: when a general no-spark situation is encountered, what are the sort of high-percentage places you look for a possible culprit? Crank sensor? ballast resistor? ??? And what are some tests one can conduct to determine where the problem lies?

I've d/l'd the shop manual, and located a troubleshooting section. There's a pin 20 on the EX ECU Plug A that sends the ignition pulse. The output signal from the pin is just battery voltage, though. Dunno what help this is supposed to provide, but it's about all I've been able to find so far.

 

I'm trying not to be too curt here, but checking for spark is one of the first things to do on a car that won't start. You're really over-thinking things. There is no high tech interlock device on these cars-- 2001 and later have the "immobilizer" system that checks for a matching RFID chip in the key, a 98 does not. Some cars have a g-force crash sensor that cuts off the fuel, the Civic does not.

And did you read my part about how the coil is likely to blow if you crank the engine with the spark wires disconnected? That has happened to several people here in this forum and the answer was a new coil.

 

Thanks again for the follow-up. Yes I caught the bit about cranking it with the wires not hooked up. But I just now put two and two together. So even though you're not specifically pointing to my actions, it appears that you're suggesting that, since I chose to bump the starter to advance the engine so I could set the valves, I might have cratered the coil, eh? Now that had never occurred to me, but in retrospect it makes a perverse sort of sense.

So I probably blew the coil by bump starting the engine, eh? Heh. Live and learn. So it looks like a cheapo coil at O'Reilly's is gonna set me back about $70. Dammit.

Okay so I did a search here on testing the coil and got some hits. I'm off to test the coil now.

EDIT: So I go out to get my Chilton's repair manual (which is 'just okay' in my view so far) and begin to read through the section on the coil when all of a sudden it clouds up and starts to rain. And my car being parked in the driveway, I realize I'm gonna have some time on my hands to properly read through everything I wanted and didn't want to know about the coil and other ignition system components for a 96-00 Civic EX. Welp, here it is, almost an hour later, and it's still raining, so this may take a while. I'll report back for sake of completion to let y'all know what I found that I did wrong.

 

Okay, for the sake of completion, closure, everything being right once more in the world, etc., I thought I'd report back.

MK378, your suggestion was correct. I had in fact blown my coil. I tested it, using the numbers found in the Chilton guide, and found that the Terminal A to secondary windings was within spec, but the resistance between the two terminals was way off. So, off to the parts store for a coil. 75 bux and change with tax, thanks to my being a clueless nooblishy boob.

So, changing out a coil is what, maybe a 15 minute job, right? Hah. Meet my Honda. The Civic from --- well, maybe not hell, but it appears that it took up extended residence close to a blast furnace. I'll swear, everything under the hood I've had to loosen has been much tighter than I expected. Including minor things like the small screws that hold the wires to the coil's two terminals. I had to physically destroy the old coil in order to remove the wires and small screws from it. And as it was, I buggered up one of those screws pretty good. (the maker of the new coil was too cheap to supply new screws!) The rotor was stuck good and its set screw was tighter than hell. I had to destroy it to get it off. Just as well, it was pretty badly pitted. I think it was probably the original. This '98 has 125k on it, time for another.

I make the reference to heat because of what I saw under the valve cover when I set the valves. The entire valve train was very darkly colored -- a deep brownish black color. And that brace or whatever it is that runs across the top of the D16Y8's valve train assembly had lots of spots where it looked like oil had caked, dried out and burned. All along the top. And the valve adjustment screws and their lock nuts -- they were all extremely tight. The lock nuts required a major amount of force to bust them loose, and the setting screws were even frozen in place, requiring often a substantial amount of torque to get them to move. Once moving then they loosened up.

So, yeah, this has been fun. At least the engine is running a lot quieter and perhaps a bit smoother now, thanks to setting the valve lash. Who knows, maybe this is the first time it's been set since it exited warranty. I gotta say that it really does run well, so I hope I can ignore some of the warning signs I see.

 

Cooltouch, you might want to do some reading about Kreen (Internal Engine Cleaner). A good source is the forums at Bob Is the Oil Guy. Kreen is purchased directly from Kano Laboratories. A couple of crankcase treatments of Kreen at 10% of the oil capacity should clean up that varnish.

Disclaimer: I have absolutely no financial interest in Kano Labs.

 

Thanks for the heads-up, Ska-T. I've never heard of Kreen, but I will look into it.