knock! knock!

my D16a didn't come with a distributor but everyone told me my dx dist. would work, and that 2 of the bolts would line up. this did not work like they said to make along story short, but the motor would turn over (running like crap) I figured that was due to the timing being off and the tp sensor being broken. I let it run like 3 different times and on the 4th or 5th run I turned it over as normal and after a minute or two this terrible engine knock started. I've turned it over 2 more times since for like 2 seconds and its still there. could the right dist. fix this knock or is the motor f--ked. would I be better off swapping my 1st gen B16A and change the wiring and tranny or just try and work this mess out?