I'm new to Honda's but this is what I have so far; It cranks and trys to start but that's it. It's my daughter's boyfriends' car and I don't know the history.

F22B2
200,000 miles
The car has sat for about a year
The car has 40 lbs. of fuel pressure while cranking, there is fuel at the rail
All 4 cylinders have spark, checked with an HEI spark checker
It will not start with ether
Compression test shows 3 cylinders with approx. 150 lbs, 1 cylinder has 120 lbs.
All 4 injectors test at 2.4 ohms. I don't have noid lights
The spark plugs are not stock, some kind of Bosch Platinum plugs. At least 3 of the 4 plugs were wet with fuel
I added a couple of gallons of fresh fuel because the gas gauge read empty. It still reads on E so it must be broken
I captured about a quart of fuel through the return and threw it away, thought maybe the fuel was bad. Smells OK though
The battery was fully charged for all test starts. I even tried jump starting it in case the battery was losing too much voltage
The plug wires are on the distributor correctly
There are no stored codes. If there were any they probably got erased from sitting for a year with a dead battery.

As I mentioned, it trys to start but won't. My next thought is to set #1 to TDC and verify the rotor is pointing to #1 in the distributor in case the timing jumped somehow.

I'm running out of ideas. Your thoughts?

 

Spark plugs wet with fuel would point to no spark. It is harder for the spark to jump the gap when the air/fuel in the cylinder is compressed.

Check the timing by setting #1 to TDC and check the rotor. Inspect the distributor cap and rotor for signs of wear.

Tell us the compression on each cylinder. Then add a cap full of oil and check the compression again.

The 96 accord had an OBD2 connector to hook up a code reader behind the ash tray. If you don't have a code reader, you can still check for codes using a piece of wire or a paperclip. See the common diy thread on top of the gen tech help forum. There is a link for checking engine codes.

 

I already checked with a scan tool, there were no codes. If there were codes they were erased due to the car sitting so long with a dead battery.

All 4 plug wires have spark. I checked with an in-line spark tester and double checked with an HEI spark tester. The cap and rotor looked good, but, I have spark so, I know they're OK.

I noted the compression earlier in my initial post. 150 lbs on 3 and 120 lbs on 1. There's enough compression to fire the engine.

 

Make sure that your plugs aren't fowled. as far as fuel goes take the rubber hose off of the pvc valve that connects to the top of your head and pour some gas into it ( not into the head but the hose that goes to your throttle body)and try to start. that should get fuel to the cylinders and the car will start if you have spark to the plugs.

 

Check for start w/ throttle body cleaner or starter fluid of 10 sec spray into air intake. If it won't start/run briefly w/ this, spark is weak despite your tests.

The Bosch plugs have a rep for poor performance. A new set of NGK plugs (OEM) is best.

good luck

 

Thanks spsweet and texashonda. I usually hate to just replace parts until I know for sure what the problem is, but $12 worth of OE plugs won't break the bank and is what I was planning to do anyway.

 

I found the problem, the alternator is frozen. I loosened the alternator belt and put new oem spark plugs in it and it now starts and runs great. Thanks for the help in chasing this down, I appreciate it.