So i got a 1991 civic hatch from a guy for 500 bucks. started it up and tried to drive it home. it was blowing thick white smoke the entire way. died and would not start about a mile from my house. so i towed it the rest of the way. that was in january. over the last six months i pulled the head off, replaced the head gasket (suspected problem) and cleaned/replaced a ton of stuff. today i changed the oil, put new coolant in and new oil. then for the first time in 6 months, hooked up a battery. the best sound ever, a tripple beep to say my keys were in the ignition. so i stepped on the clutch and turned the key, the belts turned but no ignition. im stumped. i replaced the distributor rotor. but not the cap, or the distributor its self. i didn't replace the plugs or the wires. im thinking its one of these that is failing. any other suggestions on what to replace? im kinda lost in what to do now...

 

Do you have spark to the plugs? Do you have gas to TB?

 

i dont know how to check gas to TB =( but spark to the plugs is kinda there. the spark is orange, i thought it should be blue... the spark plug wires have oil in them for some reason. maybe i just need to clean everything up more. i also saw some greenish blue stuff on the distributer cap. from what i know about copper that is corrosion so i may need a new cap. i just dont wanna spend 50 bucks on stuff i dont need.

 

o let me throw another thing out there, the gas in the tank is about 1/4 full. and its all over six months old? could that be it or not really...

 

Driving overheated until she will go no more is really not good for your engine. You should check the compression first off.

Also since you had the head off, double-check the timing on everything. It is sometimes possible to put the distributor on 180 degrees out of time. Or you could have the plug wires out of order.

 

I would also just change the spark plugs. It could be a simple fix and its only like 10 bucks and you will have to do it eventually. If you were running with a blown head gasket (white smoke) the water could have damaged the spark plugs.

Also, oil on the spark plug wires seems like spark plug tube seals.

 

ok so here is what Ive found out. if you know a lot about this car there is the diagnostic light on the passenger side. i have 16 blinks and thats it. that means fuel rail problem or main relay. which are both very common problems. so ill take the main relay out tomorrow and hope for that. it could be a fuel rail problem but i will hope it is not. to the spark plug tube leak, the oil in there was black, i tried my best to clean it out and it still will not start. i know there is no major leak because there is no fresh oil in it, as in light brown color, it is all black. or thats how i checked anyway. so i am hoping for more comments on what else it could be. i will post when i find take off the main relay and see what it looks like. hope for some pics too.

thank you for all the comments

 

do you happen to know the order the wires should be on the distrubitor. here is what i have it

when looking directly at the distrubitor from the passenger side, top right/cylinder one, top left/cylinder 2, bottom left/cylinder 3, bottom right/cylinder 4. and i will try switching the rotor over to see what happens. thanks for the suggestion.

 

I do know a lot about that car because I have one exactly like it. To check fuel flow, disconnect the fuel return hose between the fuel pressure regulator on the left side of the throttle body and the metal pipe on the firewall. Disconnect at the firewall end and point the hose from the regulator into a container (loosen the gas cap first so there is no back pressure in the tank). When you turn the key on and don't crank, fuel should come out for a couple of seconds in a decent stream and then stop. This is a sample of what's in the tank so you can evaluate if it is stale.

When the main relay is bad, the yellow "engine" light on the dash will usually come on and stay on when you turn the key on and don't crank. It should come on for 2 seconds then go out, during that time the fuel pump runs to prime the lines.

Edit: You definitely have the firing order wrong. It is 1-3-4-2 going clockwise looking at the outside of the cap. The socket at 8 o'clock is #1, 10 o'clock #3, 2 o'clock #4 and 4 o'clock #2. This is with the TEC distributor. I think the Mitsubishi has everything shifted clockwise by about 90 degrees. Take the timing belt cover off so you can see the cam pulley, turn the engine to TDC1 and take the cap off, the rotor must point to #1.

 

i took out the main relay and resoldered everything. the engine light goes off after 2 seconds... but it did before so i did nothing i guess. but i resoldered it and ill upload a photo of this. ill redo the spark plug wires and try it again... and the rotor points at eight oclock right? ill take pics so you can say if i am doing it right.