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I have a '91 Civic LX that has pretty much always given me problems. I'm relatively certain that the car is possessed. Most recently I noticed a rather prevalent oil leak coming out of where the distributor housing mates up to the block, so I decided to (carefully) pull the distributor and slap a little ultra-black in there. It has those 3 gold bolts that have the phillips #2 or #3 fitting in the middle. Went for the first one with a phillips head and BAM, BROKE THE DAMN PHILLIPS BIT! So I gave it a break and went on to remove the other two with relative ease. Came back to that top bolt and ended up stripping the hell out of it. Long story slightly shorter, I ended up applying PB Blaster, and even a little heat (carefully), both to no avail. I finally ended up chopping up one of my Bolt-Outs and welding it to a wrench to remove the bolt. I set the distributor to the side and started applying the RTV. My dad came over and asked what I was doing and started spinning the distributor shaft. Great... So I slapped it back together and I'm now adjusting the timing, except it idles hella weird like it's missing on a cylinder and when I rev the engine to 2500rpm, the check engine light comes on. The weirdest thing is that when I went to check the timing, I couldn't see the hash marks on the crank pulley. I switched the inductive pickup from the #1 cylinder to the #3 (I think) and suddenly I can see the hash marks. WTF??? Anyone have ANY ideas?

 
Rep Power: 214

Well when your dad took the distributor off and spun it he took it off its timing. What you will have to do is rotate the crank to TDC cylinder 1. When you do this you should see the mark on the cam gear. It should have a arrow pointing up or a dash or something. If it is straight up and cylinder 1 is at tdc your timing is good. But now you will have to make the distributor timed right with the timing. You can usually if the distributor is not lined up right you can re wire the plug wires. But the plug wires should always be #3-#4
#1-#2
Number 1 always starts on the bottom left and then goes to 2 next to it and 3 right above 1 and 4 beside 3.

 
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Thanks, that explains a lot. Do you have any recommendations for setting the cam to TDC? Should I just prop up the drive tires, put it in drive (obviously not running) and spin the wheel? Should I have the cam set at TDC, BTDC, or ATDC? I heard that it was better to have it set a few degrees BTDC. Also, I'm guessing that when the cam is reset to TDC I should probably make sure the distributor is firing on cylinder 1? Thanks again for all the help!!!

 
Rep Power: 214

Everything must be set a TDC when doing the timing, well cylinder 1 at least. The cam should be at TDC to. The cam gear should have a arrow and it should be pointing up, if so then its at TDC and ya most of the time the arrow or line/dot or whatver is usually off by a couple degrees. There should be a mark on the crank as well and it should be up. To check and make sure it is a TDC you can grab something small and long enough to put in the cylinder and move the crank and see where it is at. If everything lines up then you are good. While doing this it is also good to check valve clearance just in case.

 
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Don't forget the ecu jumper wire under dash! Do a search if you aren't familiar.

 
Rep Power: 205

Just curious, nastyn8 do you also own a Tundra?

 
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Yeah I remembered to jump the ECU. Are there any tricks to pulling off the valve cover? I'm pretty certain mine has never been removed and is not coming off easily. Do I just need to give it a little more love? Do I need to pull out the spark plugs to pull it? I only ask because this car is seriously possessed er something... I don't know how I can swap out almost the entire drive train on my truck (including doing an auto-manual tranny swap) without incident, yet almost every time I so much as change the oil on the Civic, something goes horribly wrong...

Nope don't own a Tundra. I also have a Fit and a Chevy Blazer.

 
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LOL, okay, so got the valve cover off (just needed A LOT of love) and I'm gonna get a new gasket for it and new orings for the spark plugs. Got the cam cover off and I see the "UP" marking on the cam, so how do I get it to rotate upward? Now it is probably at 45*.

 
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Put the car in neutral, and turn the motor over manually using a big socket wrench with a 17mm socket from the left front wheel well. You'll see the crankshaft bolt if you turn the steering wheel all the way to the left. Jacking it up a little and/or pulling the drivers wheel helps.

 
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Got it. Thanks!

 
Rep Power: 214

Ya all you do is grab a socket and long extension and just turn the crank until the arrow is up.

 
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Okay, new question: as 02civic recommended I'm checking my valve clearance. No problem adjusting cylinders #1 & #3, but the manual says to rotate the crank pulley 180* each time to change various cylinders to TDC. However, when adjusting the crank pulley 180* for cylinder #4, the hash mark on the cam gear doesn't match up to where it should be for TDC. It seems off by a solid 30* if not worse. Should I just go with where the cam gear hash mark is? Also, how can I precisely tell where TDC is on cylinders #2-#4? On cylinder #1 of course there's the marks on the crank pulley that match up with the pointers, but on cylinder #3 I just kinda eyeballed it as best as possible, but it seems like something that should be a little more precise.

 
Rep Power: 214

An easy way to check if they are at tdc is grab something long and small enough to go down through the cylinder where the spark plug is and push it down to the piston then rotate the crank till it starts to go back down then rotate it back a little to where it is at tdc.

 
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Ah! Brilliant! I was just watching the valves for any movement, but that's a perfect way to double check it. Thanks again!