1987 CRX Si + New Clutch = No Run?

[AceFrehley03]

Hey everybody. First post here, and I'm a relative Honda-newbie, so be nice.

 

Well, I recently bought a '87 CRX Si (5-speed) that had a toast clutch. Its high mileage (251K) and needs paint but the interior is flawless, and it purred like a kitten. For $150, couldn't go wrong.

 

Well, I'm making a transition (only for this car) from my American roots (1985 Lincoln Mark VII LSC and a 1983 Ford Ranger, I'm a Ford person) and I decided to tackle it using a whole slew of random (and mostly useless) tools and a Chilton's manual.

 

Well, I got the engine out after some fussing with it, and got it apart, cleaned up, etc. Replaced the clutch, spark plugs, distributor cap and rotor, cleaned up under the hood, and labelled everything so I wouldn't've gotten confused. This is my 9th engine swap, I'm 18.

 

Alright, so I got the engine all back together and in the car. Got everything (or so I think) hooked up and all hoses connected, water in the engine, oil in the engine and transmission, essentially locked, cocked, and ready to rock. The battery was dead so I yarded the one out of my truck as a temporary.

 

Got in the car and cranked on it, nothing. Didn't even try. Decided to check the obvious, noticed that the coil wire was unplugged at the distributor cap. Plugged it back in and at the same time checked the firing order, and its 1-3-4-2, counting clockwise, from the bottom of the distributor. All's good there.

 

Get back in the car and crank on it some more, doesn't fire. It does do something that I've never noticed before - almost like it's hydraulicing. The engine turns over normally and then the starter very suddenly bogs down to about 33% speed, then picks up after a split second. It does this randomly with no rhyme or reason, like somethings binding, but its not a spot on the flywheel, I examined it when it was out and it was perfect. The starter was tempramental in that it hung up a few times but it shouldn't cause the car to not run.

 

I pulled out the plugs and noticed sand on the threads. Interesting.. looked in the recesses and sure enough there was a little sand in each hole, but not enough to do anything extremely damaging (only a few grains literally) so I threaded the old plugs in partially and scrubbed around the holes to prevent this from becoming a problem. At the same time I turned the engine over compressionless and the starter worked perfectly, no binding or anything.

 

I sprayed some carb cleaner down the throttle body and it popped through the intake, followed by some smoke. Normally a sign of the timing being 180* off but I don't see how this is possible since I didn't have the distributor off.

 

I've checked to make sure that everything is hooked up properly and it seems to be. It's getting spark. It has fuel. Fuel leaked from the bottom of the filter so that doesn't seem to be the problem.

 

Any (preferably fast) ideas would be GREATLY appreciated.. I'm stumped and I don't like it. Thanks in advance.

[AceFrehley03]

Well, I worked on the car some more and managed to get it to run. Although, not well. The firing order in the book was completely off from the firing order that it should've been. I lined the engine up, TDC, and checked the rotor, and it was 180* off from where it should've been. I just rotated the plug wires accordingly and turned the car over. It started up but only ran on two cylinders, #2 and #4 are dead holes.

 

Then the real problem started. Went to take out all of the spark plugs and noticed #2 was extremely tight. Looked at it, wondering what gave, and I noticed it was a little further out then the rest of the spark plugs. The hole stripped out - naturally as soon as I get one thing fixed, something else, worse, breaks. I'm going to go out and try to finesse the spark plug into the hole better but I might just give up instantly, if it's not worth ruining more. Wish me luck, any posts would be appreciated. Thanks.

[AceFrehley03]

Screw it - fixed it myself. Thanks anyway.