Engine died,dont know reason,can you help?LONG

[DpSyChO]

Ok,where do I start.First off car: a bone stock 90 civic dx hatchback.Found it for sale pretty cheap ,a one owner car that had been serviced on a regular basis.Got tags on it and drove it a week,didnt hesitate or miss a lick,I was pretty happy with it.Last saturday night my wife driving it home,I was in passenger seat asleep ,a couple of friends were in back.We were on interstate,about 3/4 a mile from our exit,car died like it ran out of gas,so says my wife and buddy in back seat.she woke me up and got into the emergency pull off.I got into the drivers seat and tried to crank it,didnt crank first lick,tried again,crank this time but was hesitating/missing like it had no gas.Tried to pull off,went about 20ft and it went dead,crank it back and it ran for about 5 seconds and hasnt ran since.Fuel guage read 1/4-3/8 a tank,But I swaped out the cluster for one with a tach the day I started driving it ,so I thought guage may have got off and I was out of gas.My buddy and I walked to the service station at end of off ramp we were going to take and got a 2 gallon jug of gas and put it in,didnt help.I called my sister to come get us,while waiting for her i had my wife turn it over while no cars were going by so it was dark and I checked wires for arching,saw none.I then pulled each wire from spark plug one at a time and stuck a small screwdriver in it and put it beside the chrome valve cover nut and had her turn over motor,all 4 arched to nut.Next day I went back to it and put in 4 new plugs I already had got for it,nothing.Towed it to the Community College I take a body shop class at and left it till I could figure it out.Today I checked out main relay via multimeter,its ok.The ECU gives 1 blink when you turn on key then does not blink any more,I assume its ok? I loosened the fuel pressure release bolt on filter and fuel came out,I then left it a little loose and had someone turn key and fuel sprayed out the 2 seconds the fuel pump was turned on.Pulled ECU fuse and all 4 spark plugs and checked compression,It was as follows:#1 50psi, #2 145psi, #3 175psi, #4 175psi.number one was pretty low but it should still try to crank.I didnt have time to tear off lower timing belt cover so I then checked timing by taking upper timing belt cover off and with plugs still out put a 1/4 inch wooden dowel in #1 spark plug hole and rested it on piston and rotated motor till #1 was at tdc and timing marks on timing gear was level with head,so its either dead on or off 1/2 the timing gear? Know of anything else I could try?

[4-Door Flunky]

Ok, when I read your first symptoms, I thought, "His timing belt has slipped a notch or two."
Since it has slipped, it is still producing spark, but not at the proper time.
Set the motor at Top Dead Center, and I mean line up the crankshaft pulley with the needle in the timing cover.
Pull off your distributor cap. I think you'll find the rotor is NOT pointing to the number one plug (or 180 degrees off).
Flunky

[1PhatCX]

with #1 cylinder having very little compression i think that the rings are blown in the cylinder, you should also try a leakdown test, chances are that your headgasket is gone possibly, also pull your distributor cap off and see if the screw in the rotor fell off. if this is the case then its an easy fix.

[91civichatch2571]

I agree with 1PhatCX about the leakdown test, that number one cylinder doesnt sound too good. A leakdown test will tell you whether its an exhaust or intake valve stuck open, bad rings or headgasket. Also, after youve cranked it a few times, take the plugs out an look at them. Do they have oil on any of them? Do you smell gas on them? You may also want to check the injectors to make sure they are getting power and working properly. Here is a link that will be real helpful to you. Its a service manual and describes how to do certain tests and troubleshooting. Good luck bud.

[4-Door Flunky]

If the screw on the rotor had come out, he wouldn't have spark. He's got spark.
If the timing belt had slipped a tooth or two, the compression tests would have all been uniform. It does sound like a head gasket or ring.
There's still one thing unexplained by that hypothesis: the car doesn't run. Our cars should run on only three cylinders. I drove a 4-cylinder car from California to New Mexico on three cylinders...and got great gas mileage, too!
Makes me wonder if the timing belt slipped AND he bent a valve.
Flunky

[DpSyChO]

Went back today and lined up timing mark on crank and timing mark on cam gear with #1 at tdc,pulled off distributor cap and it was between #3 and #4 on distributor cap,tried to pull off rotor,wouldnt budge.pulled distributor off so I could get a good look at it .Once off distributor was hard to turn and bottom of rotor (part that goes onto distributor shaft) was a blob,you could tell it had melted and rehardened.I guess the bearings/bushings(not sure which it has) went out and got the shaft hot enough to melt rotor and let it spin on shaft? For what its worth its not a OEM honda cap/rotor.The woman I got the car from had it serviced on a regular basis and said it was last done about 50k miles ago with a timing belt change.The timing belt did look new,like it was just put on and it was a honda timing belt.I'll see if I can snap a pic of the distributor with the melted rotor and have it posted.