97 civic manual, no mods

Then, the next morning I went to leave and it was real shaky and cel was on. After a minute or 2, cel started flashing. Took it to a shop, and they say it needs a new head and head gasket. Now mind you, this car has NEVER overheated, and isn't overheating now, either. Oil looks fine (aside from it being a little dark), and coolant is fine, nice and green.
We decided to get another opinion, so we went and got the car and drove it to autozone to get the codes, and the codes say p0301, cyl 1, 3, 4 misfire, mfg controlled ignition or misfire. So we bought a new dist. cap and new plugs. My husband put the cap on and now the damn thing wont start, seems to be getting no gas. Turns over great, real smooth, just wont fire up.
I'm a nursing student, and I CANNOT miss class, and with money being very tight, we can't afford to have any major repairs done. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
Monica

 

While cranking, check for sparks at the plug wires if you don't get any there take the cap off and see if you can get sparks from the coil spring to a grounded test wire. There should be strong blue sparks that can jump a 1/2 inch gap or more. If you just get little yellow sparks the coil is probably bad.

If the sparks are OK it may be a fuel problem or the timing belt slipped. How old is the timing belt?

 

Could be your ignition coil (inside the distributor)

 

Based on the information you provide, you may have a fuel system problem. You should measure the fuel pressure to see if it is out of spec.

 

Sounds like the new distributor is bad. Go back to the orig dist and cap and see if it fires up. Sometimes if you crank the motor too long without starting, you can flood out your motor. Just check the plugs to make sure they are not wet.

 

Thanks for all your help fellas. He ended up changing the plugs, wires, cap, still wouldn't start. Took ignition mod. and coil out, had ignition mod. tested, which tested good, so he bought a coil, put them back on the car and, voila! Car runs better than before it took a crap in the first place. However, one of the plugs had to have a sleeve because apparently before we owned the car, someone overtightened or crossthreaded a plug, and ended up having to bore out and use a sleeve. But anyway, it's running great now, so thanks to all for helping out -and so fast! Thanks to you, I wont miss a single class!
-Monica