RE: A hard 1990 Civic problem for the experts
 

what about your injectors?????

RE: A hard 1990 Civic problem for the experts
 

Let me be more specific about the ECU, maybe I don't understand the LED.

It flashes just once (just like described above), I assume that means Code 1 (oxygen). Am I correct?

As for the injectors, shouldn't it kick a little with the starting fluid, that is why I haven't bothered testing the injectors.

I have it at a garage, it gets a new physical on Monday and I will let everybody know the results. This is very, very strange.

RE: A hard 1990 Civic problem for the experts
 

OK, let me answer my own question.

The ECU flashes once to tell you it is ON, then it will flash error codes. I was wrong about the Code 1 error.

There are no errors reported by the ECU. (the oxygen error wouldn't matter anyway because the O2 sensor is out of loop until the exhaust manifold is hot)

The main relay should be working because the fuel pump is energized and the ECU is ON.

As I understand it, the main relay's purpose is to power the fuel pump and the ECU. Does it do anything else?

About the fuel lines, that is why I sprayed the starter fluid, am I wrong to assume the it should at least cough a little with the fluid?

As for strong vs. week sparking, week sparking doesn't usually just happen all at once, and it should still give a little chugging shouldn't it?

The sparks I saw looked nice and strong, at all four wires. All my plugs couldn't have died at the same time.

The mystery to me is why can't I get even a poor response from the engine, at least a little sign of ignition, a bang, or sputter, or something.

Am I wrong to assume that the starter fluid should provide some kind of ignition, even if it is very poor ignition?

RE: A hard 1990 Civic problem for the experts
 

it should atleast chug, if you used enough. use an ST 125 spark tester, it takes a certain amount of volts to even make it work. that way you can make sure.

RE: A hard 1990 Civic problem for the experts
 

just to be sure remove the main relay and take off the black cover, then resolder all the terminals in there. my car did the same thing about 3 days ago but it would fire, start and imediatly cut off for me. it also sputtered to a halt like it ran out of gas. after repairing my main realpa it started and ran fine, after filing my gas tank up i still had a gallon in it before the relay went out.

RE: A hard 1990 Civic problem for the experts
 

GOOD NEWS!!!!! I figured mine out and it's could be your problem as well. The engine was flooded bad. What I ended up having to do was unplug my injectors, remove the plugs but leave them in the wire. Place them right over the plug hole and crank the engine, it will ignite the fumes and burn up most the gas. When you finally get atleast a couple of cylinders to quit shooting flames. Put the plugs back in leaving the injectors unplugged and start your engine and run it as long as you can, you may have to restart it a couple times. If the timing sounds off it's because a cylinder or two dried up before the others. Plug in your injectors once you think you've got the gas all burt out. You'll need to clear your computer because you'll now be getting an injector code. Be sure to change your oil, plugs, and filter. I hope this works for you It's been driving me crazy.

RE: A hard 1990 Civic problem for the experts
 

Very interesting about the flooded engine.
I have my car at a very good mechanic now and he was able to start the car.
He is taking his time to try to understand the problem, so I will be patient, I am very interested in solving this strange problem.
He was able to get it started after a spark plug change, and in the process probably blew the gas out of the cylinders with an air gun, therefore was it the plugs, or was it flooded cylinders? Could be a little of both.
The fuel lines and injectors test OK, good and clean fuel flow (maybe a little too much fuel).
It is still running poorly, he seems to think it might be the ignitor. I think he might be right about this. I have cleaned out the distributor cap because of white powder. This powder is supposed to be caused by bad bearings in the rotor, and I was told once that this could kill the ignitor, I don't know if this is true or not, but the ignitor is part of the assembly, so it may be possible.
Ignitors are expensive, so he is going to do a little more diagnostics before installing an expensive part.
I am confident my mechanic will solve it, he is patient and doesn't shot gun. Once a car gets above 200,000 miles, all kinds of things could be broken, but engine compression is good, and the tranny doesn't slip, so it is worth putting some money into this car.

RE: A hard 1990 Civic problem for the experts
 

Good to hear your car is coming along. sounds like you might want to keep this guy around. I tried using a vacum pump so suck out my cylinders and throttle body, and that wasn't enough. If your car is like mine it can get 40mpg so the cylinders everything is going to have to dry completely before the problem goes completely away. I can't quite idle without flooding out yet but I quit driving so I can pull my plugs and let my oil drain like all day so things can evaporate. Yeah, it's worth the money to replace the whole ditributor. I tried two different ones while trying to figure out my problems. GOOD LUCK.

worn igniter/ignitor or melted distributor
 

Your distributor is melted or the igniter is shot. Both are within the distributor. These fixed my past problems at the same mileage. It now has 300k on it.