External coil on a JDM H22?

We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms

Alright, I'm getting spark on the plugs now. I put the plugs inside the plug wires and cranked the engine with a plug grounded on a bolt in the engine bay. The plugs were soaked in fuel, so I let them dry out. Lets hope this works!
 
Found something... The ground on the thermostat housing is not there. It has to be on the harness somewhere, but it's too dark right now to look for it. Could this be the problem? Are those grounds to the dizzy, coil, anything that has to do with getting spark? I tried looking in my manual, but it doesn't say where the grounds for the dizzy or coil actually bolt to.
 
that ground could be for a lot of things, and missing one can definitely cause the car not to work right...i really dont know what all the thermostat ground is for, but it could be your problem.
 
somebody please help with this we hooked up that ground and still nothing... this car had an alarm a one point in time but as far as we know it doesn't now. if that alarm had an imobilizer could that be the problem????
:confused:
 
Its gotta be something with that damn coil... We're getting fuel and spark for sure. We even put the plug wires on the distributor wrong on purpose and got flames outta the header, (its open right now).

The motor just cranks and cranks, but doesn't even sputter like it's trying to start.

Just a reminder, it's a 95 Accord LX with a JDM OBD-1 H22 with an internal coil in the distributor. The Accord originally came with a non-vtec SOHC F22 with an external coil. We took the yellow wire from the coil connector and spliced it straight into the yellow and black distributor connector. We ARE getting power up through the connector, the ignitor, all the way to the spark plugs. We're getting fuel because when we pull the plugs out, they're soaked in fuel.

PLEASE, someone help!

P.S. The guy we're doing this for does not want to spend anymore money for a USDM H22 distributor... We gotta get this thing outta my damn garage!
 
They're both good.

Found this on H22 Swap Faq (READ BEFORE POSTING) - HondaSociety Web Community:
"Internal/External Coil Issues
If your car came equiped with an internal coil then the jdm h22 distributor will plug right
in no problem. However, if your car had external coil then you will have to modify one plug.
The plug you will need to modify is the plug that went to the stock coil. There are is a yellow
and a yellow/black wire, splice those 2 wire together. The green wire is useless, dont worry
about it."

We did not splice the two together. We spliced the yellow on the coil plug to the yellow/black on the dizzy plug. What do you think?
 
Still not starting..................... Help Please!
 
i think your firing order is backwards or something...if you are getting spark and no start, thats all i can think of. If you are getting spark...then the distributor mod worked.

So, the only reasons it wouldnt start would be improper firing order, wrong injectors, or bad compression...fuel air and spark are the only three things needed for an engine to work.

(and help is limited on the weekend cause very few people are home on their computers).
 
^Agreed, I would check timing, firing order, and see if the injectors are working (get a long screwdriver, put the business end of it on the injector and the handle on your ear and have your friend crank the car, and you should be able to hear a small ticking noise in the handle of the screwdriver.)
 
i think your firing order is backwards or something...if you are getting spark and no start, thats all i can think of. If you are getting spark...then the distributor mod worked.

So, the only reasons it wouldnt start would be improper firing order, wrong injectors, or bad compression...fuel air and spark are the only three things needed for an engine to work.

(and help is limited on the weekend cause very few people are home on their computers).
I with you on the fuel air and spark but we tried every configuration for the firing order ( the one out the manual being the first config)and nothing... the only time it did anything a fire ball came out the bottom of the header
and now the only question I have is does it need back pressure (I've stared my civic before with an open header so I don't think so) to start if so could it be because we have it as an open header right now?? god I am so lost right now and frustrated.
 
Last edited:
Back pressure is never good.

How is the firing order configured? I remember having that issue with my F22A; I was using the B/D-series diagram and it was different. Got the correct one and it fired right up.
 
Back pressure is never good.

How is the firing order configured? I remember having that issue with my F22A; I was using the B/D-series diagram and it was different. Got the correct one and it fired right up.
can't think off the top of my head but we went off of the accord prelude manual
 
It's 1-3-4-2. Right outta the Accord/Prelude manual. We have both the Chilton and Haynes, and they both say the same. Tomorrow we're gonna pull the timing belt cover and verify the cam timing. We adjusted the distributor back and forth slowly while cranking, and still got nothing.

Like InsaneVtec99-4dr said, we purposely put the distributor wires in the wrong order to see what would happen. We got a big fire ball, which defidently means we're igniting the fuel that's in there, but not in the right order, or time.

We got the motor from HMotorsonline, and I've gotten 4 other motors from there and have never had to adjust the distributor timing, let alone the cam timing... We'll see tomorrow...

Thanks for everyones help so far.
 
All Hondas are 1-3-4-2 IIRC. Where do you have cylinder 1 starting on the distributor?

I had the same issues as you and ended up zip-tieing my D15B VTEC distributor on there for awhile until finally figuring it out(after buying like 2 distributors even though my current one was still good). What baffled me was since the D15 distributor worked; I put the stock distributor back on and wired it like how it was on the D15 distributor. Nothing. This leads me to believe the sensors inside the distributor are in a different position.

Refer to the attached pic; I searched everywhere and finally got it from another member on CB7tuners. Rewired the plugs according to the pic and it fired right up.
 
Last edited:
In comparison; this is what I found on many websites(which worked on my D15 but not the Accord's F22):
92851755.gif
 
Last edited:
All Hondas are 1-3-4-2 IIRC. Where do you have cylinder 1 starting on the distributor?

I had the same issues as you and ended up zip-tieing my D15B VTEC distributor on there for awhile until finally figuring it out(after buying like 2 distributors even though my current one was still good). What baffled me was since the D15 distributor worked; I put the stock distributor back on and wired it like how it was on the D15 distributor. Nothing. This leads me to believe the sensors inside the distributor are in a different position.

Refer to the attached pic; I searched everywhere and finally got it from another member on CB7tuners. Rewired the plugs according to the pic and it fired right up.
thats the way we have it wired and still nothing. Like Scott said were gonna check cam timing so we'll see in a little bit
 
I had the same issues as you and ended up zip-tieing my D15B VTEC distributor on there for awhile until finally figuring it out(after buying like 2 distributors even though my current one was still good). What baffled me was since the D15 distributor worked; I put the stock distributor back on and wired it like how it was on the D15 distributor. Nothing. This leads me to believe the sensors inside the distributor are in a different position.

So what did you finally figure out? You said until you finally figured it out... What was it?
 
My issue was the plug wires on the distributor. Every manual and webpage I found pointed to the second pic I posted; which worked for my D15B but not the F22A. When I posted the issue on CB7tuner one of the members sent me a pic(the first pic I posted), wired it accordingly, and it started up.
 
Back
Top