Alright, I was having problems starting. It'll crank fast enough, but doesn't start.

- The cylinders are getting fuel (audible injector clicking)
- The spark plugs are all firing (pulled them out to check)
- The timing is accurate
- Cylinders 1,2,3, and 4 have 140, 155, 155, 155 compression, respectively
- I have a known-to-be-good distributor on there, just to be safe

Me and my considerably more experienced friend spent about 2+ hours tonight trying to figure out why it wasn't starting, and we just basically eliminated everything we could think of, which amounted to essentially checking the things I've listed off above.
Of interest: When I put on the good dizzy and replaced the plugs, I could get the car to run, but very very poorly. It only started like this once. Every time after the first, it would never get to run normally. It would fire a couple times, then die. I figured it was timing, but I've redone the timing belt a half dozen times, and it's perfect. After having tried to start the car another, say, 7 or 8 times after the first time, I pulled out the plugs and they were BLACK. All four were totally fouled. This is obviously related to my problem, but I'm not sure what it is.

Ideas are appreciated

 

Well, I was about to say Main Relay, but seeing that your plugs are BLACK, i wouldn't know what to say.

 

bumpah. Anyone?

 

Might sound dumb, but could it be the timing belt? When my brother first got his CRX (which is now mine), the belt snapped, and we couldnt figure out the problem... It just died on him one day while driving... Finally checked the belt, and that was the problem...

Edit: Nevermind, just saw that the timing was accurate...

 

I do appreciate the effort, tho

And I'll ask again... anybody else?

 

My 86 crx and my dads 88 prelude had the ignition wiring that went bad. These two cars are long gone now. I even figured out the problem myself on both cars. It was like you were turning the car off at the same time you were trying to crank it. What was bad on our two Hondas was the wiring behind the key thing that turns. Don't know the exact name of it. It's not to hard to change. You may want to check that if you can't figure anything else. I can't remember exactly how i figured out this was my problem. Maybe the radio or something came on and turned off when it should have been on. That led me to believe it was the ignition wiring switch thing. Also, it quit, barely started back, and then eventually would not crank at all. And yes, they turned over, but just would not crank.

 

it could be an o2 sensor going bad and running so rich that it won't start (run into hydrolock problems)...which would lead me to whether you are getting a code?

 

Very interesting question. While driving around (when the car ran, of course), my CE light would turn on, and I'd look at the ECU but no code was being thrown. I'd stop the car and turn on the ignition, but still no codes.

Is it possible that the car wouldn't start because of this? I've taken out the spark plugs to let the cylinders air out just incase, and when I shined a light in, There was no visible buildup of gasoline, just droplets of gas on the piston. Is this enough to hydrolock? I would imagine a bit more would be necessary for hydrolock. The plugs do smell like gasoline, though, so that may be it.
When I checked for spark, the spark was small and red. I've heard that a proper spark is blue; is this the case?
I'll change the plugs for new ones and take a look.

 

what kind of plugs do you have and are they new (if you have crappy plugs [bosch plugs on our cars don't work well] and you are not getting a good enough spark along with you running extremely rich can cause stalling and non starting)

my method of solving the myriad of engine starting problems is to slowly eliminate each possible problem kinda like you did so i'm just following along other obvious problems...this is what it is leading me to believe but just based on knowledge above i of course could be wrong...but this might eliminate other concerns

 

This morning, I put in brand new plugs (they are bosch, but I don't believe for a minute that they could alone could prevent a car from starting, esepcially in my situation) and attached my known-to-be-working distributor, and I got the exact same thing.

If I was having any problems with the computer controls for my ignition system, my ECU would be throwing a code, right? I'm about to try swapping ECU's.