Need help question for you hondaheads..

ok i have a 91 civic ef with a lsvtec obd1 as some of you may know…my problem is just recently the car has only been starting when it wants to…the car will crank over and start but then if you shut if off and turn it back on a few times it will then just keep turning over tell the battery is ran dead…the problem just started about 3 days ago out of no were…i pulled in to the store shut it off came out went to start it and it just cranked over and putterd.untill it finally started 5 min later…ive changed the plugs,wires, coil.fuel relay.thermo sensor and still nothing…the car runs fine when started there is no difference there…and i havent done anything in the lst few days to mess anything up.??? im done mindfucking myself on this one…any ideas?

fuel pump? fuel pressure regulator? i had the same problem in my ef.

have you checked fuel and spark?

from the hip i say its the ignitor.

Well i havent messed wih either of those…i can here the fuel pump kick on when i turn on the key so i would assume that is working…and im running a stock fpr so i dont really see that going bad?

its hard to diagnose a problem if you don’t diagnose anything and just start replacing parts…

i did all the diagnosing i could do…then stared with the most common honda problems ive ran into…hard to get anywere if you dont replace things…and lucky i had mostthe part to replace so its not like im blowing money on anything…

and yes i checked fuel and spark there both strong as ever…

i am not trying to be a dick… how did you test fuel and spark?

i wasnt saying you were…just fusrated over this hole situation…i have a spark tester getting spark in all 4…and as far as fuel i pulled the line and it was coming out pretty good…the car will start… and usualy a prob like this occurs when a car is to cold or hot…well it does it in both situations.i can get about 2-3 starts back to back then by the forth it will just turn over and over and then will finally catch…

checked all your grounds?

if your grounds are good, your timing is on and you have fuel and spark, then the car should run.

had the same problem… bad grounds/main relay

My 89 Dx did the same, it was the main relay.

well i went through the main grounds and replaced them…and i swapped the main relay out with another one still doing it…those were my two first thoughts as well…imma have my mad sciencetist honda buddy stop over today and check it out…

sounds like main relay or grounds, when it doesnt start does the fuel pump prime?

cracking the fuel line and seeing fuel does not mean you have proper fuel. did you crank it with the line cracked?
do you have another ignitor for the distributor? only other thing i can think of.
main relays are notorious on EFs however if you hear the pump then the relay is working.

U can pop a injector clip off, and test it for power when your cranking

use a fuel pressure guage.

I can hear the pump kick on everytime…and im sure its not the relay…tried two diff ones…

What about the actual starter itself? My old motor, I remember the starter sounding normal, but I had to smack it once in awhile to get the car to start.