87' Civic won't start

K. This problem has been driving me batty for a couple of weeks now, and I am about ready to bomb my civic in my driveway.

I was driving along happy as can be when the car dies (crap). Get it towed home, open er' up and find two seperate peices of camshaft (double crap). For lack of oil or whatever, the cam had eaten the heck out of the bearing surfaces and snapped.
So after a few hours in a wreckng yard, I find a 16 valve head and camshaft that look exactly like the old 12-valve head setup.
Camshaft lobes are the same size, heads are IDENTICAL except for the extra valve. The same gaskets from the old fried head fit the new one perfectly. Everything matches up just fine; the only adjustment I had to make was to the exhaust valve rocker arms. Before I backed them off, the exhaust valves would hit the pistons, but now everything turns just dandy.

Problem: The engine turns over, but doesn't fire.

-I am getting compression; I can hear it out of the exhaust pipe, and it passes the finger-over-the-spark-plug-hole test
-Fuel is not a problem; I had no or only minor problems with the carb before everything when kablooey, and there is no reason why it isn't getting inside the cylinders
-I have followed a Haynes manual and traced the problem to the distributor. The cap is not cracked, all of the contacts have been cleaned and worked fine before now, and i put new wires and plugs on with the head.

My first guess is an igniter problem, but if anyone else knows of something I might of missed, or I am just being stoopid in the first place, please let me know.

K. This problem has been driving me batty for a couple of weeks now, and I am about ready to bomb my civic in my driveway.

I was driving along happy as can be when the car dies (crap). Get it towed home, open er' up and find two seperate peices of camshaft (double crap). For lack of oil or whatever, the cam had eaten the heck out of the bearing surfaces and snapped.
So after a few hours in a wreckng yard, I find a 16 valve head and camshaft that look exactly like the old 12-valve head setup.
Camshaft lobes are the same size, heads are IDENTICAL except for the extra valve. The same gaskets from the old fried head fit the new one perfectly. Everything matches up just fine; the only adjustment I had to make was to the exhaust valve rocker arms. Before I backed them off, the exhaust valves would hit the pistons, but now everything turns just dandy.

Problem: The engine turns over, but doesn't fire.

-I am getting compression; I can hear it out of the exhaust pipe, and it passes the finger-over-the-spark-plug-hole test
-Fuel is not a problem; I had no or only minor problems with the carb before everything when kablooey, and there is no reason why it isn't getting inside the cylinders
-I have followed a Haynes manual and traced the problem to the distributor. The cap is not cracked, all of the contacts have been cleaned and worked fine before now, and i put new wires and plugs on with the head.

My first guess is an igniter problem, but if anyone else knows of something I might of missed, or I am just being stoopid in the first place, please let me know.


is the mixture good in it?

Air-fuel mixture should be good enough for the engine to run; the engine would at least misfire or run like crap, but then it would at least run and I could play with the mixture. As it is, I can't get so much as a misfire or even a spark to ground from either the wire or the plug itself.

might have to replave distributer

First I'd check to make sure the cam isn't off by one tooth. The valves shouldn't touch the pistons at all if the cam is installed properly.

Then check your firing order and check for the correct firing order on the distributor cap. Meaning, check that the rotor is really pointing at the correct plug wire. You may have to rotate all of your plug wires on the distributor over one terminal. I've made this mistake once because it appeared that the rotor was pointing at the #1 terminal when in fact it was on it's way to #3.

Firing order is 1-3-4-2 with the piston closest to the crank pulley being #1.

Thanks for the advice. So far, after trying said timing adjustments with no success, I have followed a Haynes manual and, using a multimeter, traced the electrical ignition path past the ignition coil mounted on the passenger side of the engine compartment (it is fine) to the distributor. WIth the key in the igntion turned on, I get about 12.5 volts at the distributor cap at the terminal on the inside of the cap; that is, the rotor side. So I am assuming the problem might be there.
I tried having someone else turn the engine over while I held the no. 1 spark plug wire to the frame, then right to the negative battery terminal, and I saw no spark. Is there a better way to test this?
Also, might the problem lie in the ECU? (which I am not even sure that I have)