waldonian

Hi, I've got a 1990 civic with a 1991 d15b2 engine. It started running poorly the other day and throwing a code 8. It was running, just very badly and then quit altogether when I went to pull it into the garage. I did the tests in the FSM which pointed to a faulty distributor, so I replaced it. Now it won't start with the new distributor. It will barely try to start like it's running on one cylinder if I turn the dist. all the way advanced, but something is seriously not right. I checked to make sure the rotor is pointing at #1 when it's at TDC (and double checked my firing order).
The FSM mentions a timing adjusting connector, which I can't find. Do I need to jumper it to get it started so I can adjust the timing? The previous owner swapped the engine, so this could well be why I don't see the conector.

1. Any advice on tracking down the connector?
2. Any advice in general, I'm pretty stumped.

Thanks in advance!

ezone

Get a dist to fit the engine you have, not the car. Figure out what car it came from so the folks at ChinaZone can look it up right.
I hear this a lot, people needing 3 or more cheapo reman distributors before they get one that will get the car to run.
If you got the dist mounted with the bolts in about the same spots in the slots as the original, timing will be close enough to run IF the dist is good
If you don't know where that was, then center the bolt heads in the slots. Still will run if the dist is right. (And if the engine is good.....Plugs not wet with gas? Not flooded? Stock cam? Timing belt did not jump time?)
Worry about getting it timed after it runs.
Nope.

Do not jumper the SCS connector until you are ready to set timing, have a timing light, and all that stuff.
Google (images) SCS connector for your car. Right side of the dash (that's passengers side) blue connector, 2 wires.
Looks like it's between the footrest on the floor and the kick panel on the side, near the sensor in the pic (anyone else would call it a BARO sensor)......pull the carpet down and look.





HTH

waldonian

Just to follow up. Ezone was correct on all counts. I was using the 1988 FSM which told me to look under the hood, not the dash, the connector was exactly where Ezone said.

After a $70 "new" distributor from ebay (yeah I know, too good to be true) and a $180 reman from autozone (supposed to be for the donor car my engine came from) I decided to try one more thing before giving up on the car and scrapping it. I went to a u-pull-it, found a same year same engine car, pulled the dizzy & vroom! It started right up. $35.

Thanks to Ezone and this forum for keeping me on the road!

ezone

Thanks for the follow up.

Your comment made me wonder just how many cars get crushed simply because of DangerZone (et al) Quality parts that are simply junk.
Too many people just believe that "new = good", when the reality is more likely that NEW = Never Ever Worked.

waldonian

Yeah, I love my civic, only thought of scrapping it because I'm out of work and on a very tight budget, couldn't keep throwing money at it when the resale value is pretty low. Still, I've put 60,000 miles on it (had 210k on chassis, 100k on engine when purchased) and have never taken it to a shop, and gets 40mpg. When/if it dies I'll be getting another civic for sure!