First I wanna say i'm new to the forum but not to civics. I've had 4 before the one I have now. Never had any problems that I couldn't fix till now. To start off I had to swap my engine due to a spun bearing and rebuilding at the time wasn't as cost effective as picking up a motor from an HX from craigslist. I have a 2000 EX with d16y8 manual transmission. I got a d16y5 from a 97 hx. Swapped the dizzy from my y8 due to the connectors not mating up. In a hurry to get it done I attempted to start it without going over me and my buddies work. "We" forgot to hook up the grounds. When I first tried starting it the relay clicked and the fuel pump kicked on and off. plus the CEL came on and went off as it should. But I wasn't getting spark. So I hooked up the engine and tranny grounds. Tried starting it and playing around till I realized the ECU ground wasn't hooked up. So now all the grounds are hooked up and I have good continuity between all parts of the motor, frame and battery. but now the CEL won't come on and the relay don't click which in turn the Fuel Pump won't kick on. I've replaced the main relay, Dizzy(with new ICM and Coil) and it still won't fire. I also picked up a "new" ECU from craiglist with the same results. I pulled the engine harness and can't find anything wrong with it. I was hoping the one of the grounds on it jumped or burned the wire but nope. I'm wondering if my trying to start it with the grounds not hooked up could fry something. I'm stuck driving my IH scout to work right now and the gas is killing my wallet. any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

Check that the ECU is getting power and ground on the respective power and ground pins. There are 3 or 4 fuses involved. CEL not coming on at all when you turn the key on means the ECU is not powering up. The main relay, distributor, etc. won't affect that. (well, maybe a short in the sensor power circuit killing the 5 volts from the ECU).

 

Ok, so just for the sake of screwing around I decided to check the power to the ECU. I plugged in the main plug for the ECU that I'm guessing is the power source. The engine harness is pulled so I just plugged that one in. With my two "good ECU's I didn't get any kind of voltage from any of the pins. When I plugged in the ECU that I got with the y5 I got just under 8 volts on most pins. I would assume that my ECU's are bad. I have already ordered one and hope this fixes it.

 

new ECU didn't fix it. big suprise. so I'm not quite sure where to start looking from here.

 

Is fuse 44, 13, and/or 9 blown?

 

That was the first thing I checked. I'll check again cause I've been F*cking with if for a while and might've popped one. I'm not quite sure where to check for a short on the sensor power circuit. any tips on where to begin.

 

Click the fuses link in my signature. Each installed fuse should have battery voltage to body ground on both top test tabs.

 

I've got power to the fuses and all are good.

 

Also for the hell of it I hooked up an OBDII tester and got the operating error when it tries to connect.

 

Could it be that im using the wrong harness/ECU on it? I'm using the harness and ECU for the d16y8.