tonite i changed my plugs, wires, rotor, cap when i finished, the car wouldnt start unless i held the gas down, only ran at like 200 rpms - not good

not sure what the problem could be but in order to get to the rotors retaining screw, i cranked the car a few times without the cap on or the wires/plugs. (like a moron)

could that have done some damage? any idea if this is a timing problem or if i did some real damage?

 

oh yeah, 1990 LS b18a1

wasnt havin any trouble before, just ran a little rich

 

Your timing is fine, as long as your distributor didn't lock up and make the car jump time. Cranking with cap, wires etc. off shouldn't hurt the engine at all. Sounds like you got a wire loose or something, like car is running on 3 cyl. As for the running rich, my g2 did the same thing. Kept throwing a code 43 (fuel supply system). I'd check all your vacuum lines real close. Mine ran rich, bad mileage, smoked white gas smoke. Took me 3 months to find a crack in the vacuum hose going to the map sensor. I'd go that route first.

 

If the distributor was bad, it would have been making weird grinding noises prior to it dying (happened on my '92 Accord, and my Dad's '93 GSR). So, if it wasn't behaving funny before, it's probably ok.

 

yeah it was the simplest problem it could have been, like a jackass i had a couple of the plug wires scrambled into the cap... so i rearranged it to the proper 1-3-4-2 rotation and the car fired right up.