Civic2Scooby

ok so I was cranking over my new swap it has fuel and spark and my buddy was watching and he saw like a miniature explosion through my throttle body inside my intake. could this be timing? or is it possible a ****ed up distributor? please I desperately need help

SRT_Andy

It's probably timing. Did you use new plugs? Also, did you have the intake pipe off going to the TB?

Civic2Scooby

yes the intake piping was off, not new plugs, should I get some? and how can I adjust the timing if I cant get the car to idle?

Bakeoff

having the intake pipe off won't hurt it, so don't go worrying yourself about that. And bad spark plugs won;t make it backfire. Use a timing light to check teh timing, double check the timing belt, and to make sure both the crank and cams are aligned.

Jafro

So, you haven't got it running yet, right? You need to get the motor to Top Dead Center.

If you don't know how to find TDC, pull the #1 plug, put a LONG screwdriver straight up-n-down through the port, and turn the crank BY HAND with a wrench. You'll be able to see when it's at the top of the stroke. When it's there, it's either 0 degrees, or it's 180 degrees out. So check the plug order if you don't get it right the first time (my haynes manual was wrong about where #1 was, go figure).

Once you know you're at TDC, open up your distributor and see where the rotor is pointed. That's the #1 cyl. Follow this firing order 1-3-4-2, and it will start.

If it the above info has been verified and won't kick over immediately, loosen the 3 12mm bolts that hold it on, and slightly rotate it slightly while someone cranks it. It should kick over.

Jafro

slightly

Redcivic

Don't use a screw driver you could scratch your piston. Have you had the motor apart? If nothing has been taken apart then just use the timing marks. What does it do when you try and start it? It could be a lot of things, I need more info.

Civic2Scooby

no the motor wasnt apart. when I turn it over it sounds like it is pushing air out of the intake manifold and then it combusts inside the intake manifold. I figure it was either timing or the distributor was ****ed up.

Jafro

Sounds to me like you have the plugs in the wrong firing order. If you've got the motor together, you won't be able to see the timing marks. That's why I said to use the screwdriver method.

A friend of mine has snapped 2 timing belts, shaken hands with the valves, and re-used his rotating assembly after replacing his head. He's running 12's on about 24 PSI. Scratching your piston won't hurt it at all unless you bought ceramic coated pistons or something like that.

You'll have to pull your valve cover off in order to see the cam timing marks. You can skip the screwdriver method if you feel like doing that. Might as well pull it just to be sure. Line everything up, check your distributor and 1-3-4-2 clockwise from there.

westcoaststyle

Did you change the timing belt? If it sounds like it's compressing in the intake, you might have the belt on wrong.

As for the timing, these guys are right. That's the stupidest most embarassing mistake - getting the firing order wrong. If you took the distributor off for some reason (all the way off the motor) you may have put it back on backwards as there are 2 ways it can be mounted.

Do as Jafro said with the TDC check and rotor pointing to #1. This will tell you if your firing order is right/wrong and if you have the distributor in right. Once you have it all right, just turn the distributor to where the top bolt is right in the center of the adjustment - basically it's centered, not all the way to one side or the other. That's a good baseline to doing timing.

hih