New Member with serious issues

[bennettracing]

Hey everybody, I'm new here. I recently bought an '88 Accord from a buddy of mine. We installed a Weber carb and basically rebuilt the top end of the motor. The other day he was driving along, it was running fine, and he said it coughed, ran fine for a few miles, coughed again, ran fine, and then died like somebody turned the key off. It hasn't run since. I have checked nearly everything I know besideds the compression because I need to get a tester for that, and nothing makes any sense. It has spark, it has fuel, it has air, it's timed correctly as I can tell, and yet it just spins the motor over without even sputtering at all. It won't even sputter when spraying carb cleaner in the weber-less intake. All I can think of is a loss of compression from a possibly incorrectly installed head gasket, but I wanted to ask for any other ideas. Thanks in advance!

Kyle

[89dxowner]

Well it could be a number of things. First off I would change the plugs just incase. Then if that doesn't work make sure that all the vacum lines are connected correctly. It's possible that it has a loss of compression. Press your finger or thumb over the spark plug hole tightly and turn the motor over and see if it blows your finger off that might let you know right there weather it has good compression or not. Not accurate but its a start until you get a tester. Im not a expert at this stuff but I am just telling you the things i know might be wrong. Welcome to the board!!!

-Brandon

[A20A1]

There really shoyuldn't be a vacuum line problem... I would check to make sure the float valve is not unscrewing itself from the roof of the top hat and then putting pressure on the float needle assembly causing the fuel level to drop and cause a restriction due to lack of float travel... if the float valve is loose (the brass hexagon bit) then just tighten it up and check the float travel in both directions and then refill the float bowl with some gas and start the carb up.

[bennettracing]

Well, I spent another few hours working on it tonight, still no luck. It has started to backfire though, I don't know that that is necessarily a good thing, but at least it shows some form of life. I had previously changed out and put in new spark plugs, so they should be fine. The fact that it is backfiring tells me the timing is off, but it is as close to perfect I can get it without having it running and using a timing light. I do have plenty of compression, I didn't even think of the mentioned method of testing. Seems to have more than enough compression to start. As far as I can tell, it has spark, it has fuel, it has timing correct, it has air, it's all mechanically sound, and yet it does nothing. Anybody got any other ideas? I'm stumped...

Kyle

[Michael Cote]

First check to see if it jumped timing. Find Top Dead Center and see if rotor button is pointing to the #1 spark plug wire at cap. If that's proper I would replace rotor button. They can go for some reason but still look fine to the naked eye. I've seen them fail at 15,000 miles. Good luck, Mike

[A20A1]

Check the stator to reluctor gap inside the distributor, this is a very touchy part that goes bad for no appearent reason... it's pretty easy to bend the stator plates... just getting both sides equal might take some time... especially if the distributor bearings are going.

[bennettracing]

Thanks for the help guys, I've been leading towards the conclusion of it being a distributor or ecu problem... Not much else it can be, it seems to be exactly on time. I posted a post in the wanted section for a new distributor, what kind of price am I looking at for a new one? I'm thinking of getting a new dist. and a MSD system to replace the engine wiring. Should simplify things a bit. What is the average gap on the stator/reluctor spacing? Thanks again for your help.

Kyle