Well, my car has been running like crap for a couple of weeks now. Idles like an old lawnmower, using a lot of gas. #4 doesn't spark, even though the wire is delivering the juice. Water vapor in exhaust, no oil in coolant or vice versa.

Help?

 

Did you pull the wire and check for spark against the valve cover or something? Or did you just use a voltmeter? Just because it's delivering power doesn't mean it's not shorting out somewhere. Check the contacts inside the dizzy to see if one is screwed up.

 

I pulled the #4 wire and brought it near the valve cover, and it had no problem sparking. When I do this, the engine runs exactly the same. I tried new cap, rotor, wires, plugs, runs the same. New fuel filter.

I pulled the exhaust to see if maybe the cat was clogged, and found what looked like sand or slag in the 'honeycomb'. I scraped a lot of this out in an attempt to get the cat flowing again, which I have no idea worked since the car ran the same with the pipe off.

???

 

I don't think it would be your cat since it's always the #4 cylinder that's not firing. Although your engine would run a lot better without a clogged cat, so you might as well change that.

Have you tested it for spark holding the new spark plug (connected to the wire) against the block?

 

You might have a mechanic do a compression test. Your no. 4 cylinder just may be bad. Had the exact same issues and problems on my wife's Mazda, only on cylinder no. 2. Basically, she was running on 3 cylinders. Had to replace the head and piston rings. Hopefully this is not your case. Good luck.

 

Jake, that's kinda what I'm thinking. It's getting fuel, the spark is getting to the end of the wire at least and I've tried three different spark plugs, none of which worked. I think that I might have had some bad gas, because it's running a little better now that I've gone through the gas I had in there, but still just the three cylinders.

I'm planning on either getting a D16-powered parts car or a 30k motor from Nippon Motors and just replacing the motor. I'd rather get more time out of this one, but it's been on borrowed time for awhile and I don't doubt that the recent 1100-mile-loaded-to-the-gills-one-day trip from FL to NY didn't help matters any. I'm not looking forward to a motor swap right now, but it's either that or I just toss money away - I've got new parts on the car now, anything I can afford is going to need work anyway, and at least I'll know what I'm up against by keeping this car.

Dammit. Why couldn't this have been an SiR clone built by the dead grandson of some poor old lady who didn't know what she had? Why the D15 and the four speed? Why Why Why??

 

Well, like I said, hopefully that's not the case. But since you're looking into getting another motor, it really doesn't matter. If it is a dead cylinder, it shouldn't leave you stranded or anything, it will continue to beat on the piston rings and produce premature wear on your motor mounts. You should really let a mechanic take a look at it to pinpoint exactly what's wrong. Just let them do a computer diagnostic to get a general idea on the troubled area. It could be something completely different. Again, best of luck to ya.

 

Well, weirdly enough, the car seems to be getting better the more I drive it. It's easier to start now, although hot starts are still a little bit of a pain in the ***, and the idle has smoothed out considerably, but not entirely. I think that I might just go and have a diagnostic done on it - it seems like it might just be something stupid after all, and my cousin might have some kind of hook-up with another shop.

If the computer was more sophisticated, I might get away with just running the on-board diagnostic - but the damn 'check engine' light isn't even on! Stupid friggin' throttle-body 'fuel injection', ****ing electronic carbureated pos...

Dammit. Someone cough up 1200 bucks so I can go get a ZC swap!!! NOW!!!

 

Now, a little further down the spiral...

While trying to get it to hot start yesterday, I removed the air intake tube and gas vapor started coming out of it - I removed the four screws on the 'box lid' over the throttle body and saw gas vapor coming up through the vacuum line from the intake manifold as well. With the hard starting, the need for throttle at startup and to keep it from stalling at lights, not to mention the wet #4 plug, I'd say that for some reason the car is running way, way rich - so now what? Any ideas out there? O2 sensor maybe?

 

I just bought my Honda, so I don't know the fuel system very well yet. Having said that, my Camaro had a similiar issue. It was the fuel press regulator diaphram that went bad. It developed a pin hole and leaked fuel thru a hose connected to the intake manifold flooding the cyl that was closest to the vacuum line connection. I'm not sure if Hondas even have a vacuum line connected to the fuel press regulators, but if they do,, pull it off with eng running and see if fuel comes out.

Have you pulled the other plugs to see if they were running rich??