I just did an engine swap for my 96 coupe and i am havin nothing but problems with it.. when i bought the car it had the orginal D16y7 non vtec engine but they put a vtec head on it i spun a barrin in it so i bought another stock engine for it (non vtec) i droped it in the car and it wouldnt turn over i thought it was becuz the ecu was for a vtec so i put the vtec head back on it but the car still wouldnt turn over.. so agian i swapped the head to the orginal timed it and i finally got it to turn over.. the car has started twice but the second time it started the crankshaft seized up and it wouldnt move i had the starter tested and it was bad so i bought a new one now it will crank but not start and after i try start it it will crank few times and then lock up ill have to wind the crank shaft backwards so its timed agian and try to crank it agian but with no luck .. its becoming a serious pain in the *** but i am 3200 dollars into this car and i need it for work or ill lose my job so any ideas of what the hell is going on and how to fix it would be GREAT!

 

Are you putting the timing belt on properly? If it is too loose it will skip. After the belt is tight, tighten the tensioner bolt. Do not crank or try to start the engine with the tensioner bolt loose. Tun it only by hand to seat the belt, then lock the tensioner down with the bolt.

Did you put oil in the new engine?

VTEC ECU will start and run a non-VTEC engine fine, until you hit 5500 rpm and the VTEC tries to kick in.