Rolltide

Hello I'm new here. I have an 01 civic 1.7 non vtech. Car has 203, 000. This morning I started my car and as soon as it started it died. Upon trying to restart I heard the motor seem to free spin like the timing belt had broke, so I didn't try to turn it over anymore. I removed the valve cover and timing belt cover to find the belt intact and upon turning the crank over with a ratchet I found the crank and cam still in time. I bumped the motor a few times to see the rockers moving but I'm scared to turn the motor over anymore. I changed the timing belt 30, 000 ago along with tensioner and water pump. Car has shown no signs of problems until it stalled at start. I'm at a loss. There is no check engine light. A friend had mentioned crank positioning sensor could this be? My concern is the motor seems to turn over quickly. Any help would be great thank you.

ezone

Ran for a half second, or did it run longer than that?


What happened the LAST time it ran? Moved 10 feet in the driveway and shut off?

Is it cold wherever you are?




Flooded it.
Spark plugs soaking wet, fuel washed down the oil film from the cylinder walls now it lost compression.
You can try holding the gas pedal to the floor while cranking, see if it tries to fire...
Or pull plugs and re-oil the cylinders manually, then crank it over with plugs OUT, then reassemble and see if it can fire.

Rolltide

It didn't even get to a full idle before it died, and yes last time it was started was the night before and it was only running about 15 seconds. I was not aware you could flood out a fuel injected motor like that.

ezone

Good guess, huh?
The "moving cars around in the driveway" scenario is probably the most common.

Try working at a car lot where the cars get rearranged every other week.


You can flood ANY gas engine. All you gotta do is have the spark plug wet enough that the spark doesn't arc through the gap.

Any time you start an engine, you should drive it at least until the engine is fully warmed up. If you shut it off before the spark plugs have reached a temperature hot enough to burn off carbon (soot) buildup, the carbon residue can soak up raw gas on the next start and snuff out the spark. Doesn't always happen but the chances increase dramatically when the above scenario (or similar) happens.

Rolltide

Makes perfect sense. Well ill try starting it later to find out. I didn't try more than bumping after it died due to it turning over quickly making me think it was the timing belt, till I found it was good. Now I feel stupid haha. Thank you very much. Ill let you know later how it goes.

ezone

It may take a LOT of cranking to get it cleared out and restore some compression.
Don't grind on the starter longer than 15 seconds, and allow at least full minute for it to cool down before trying again.

Holding the gas pedal to the floor during cranking is supposed to cancel fuel injectors (de-flood or de-choke mode).

Rolltide

10-4 thank you.