TribalChaz

Hey I was wondering if anyone could help me out with some info on my manual 93 DX motor (D15B7). A while back, I changed the cap, rotor, coil, plugs and wires. crappy tire told me i have a faulty distributor because the seal where it meets the camshaft is defective and i have to buy a new one or rebuilt to fix the problem. right now bits of oil are getting let into the cap through the distributor and the oil is getting burnt up on the tabs inside the cap where the spark is made..it caused the car to stall before. also, the engine temp never goes above half, so i think my thermostat or a switch is broken, because no matter how hot the motor gets, the fan never works and the coolant stays in the reservoir. there are two tubes for the coolant that im looking at-one going into the motor from the rad, and one coming into the rad from the motor. The one going into the radiator is never hot because the coolant isnt getting circulated..and when i squeeze it it doesnt make the squishing sound like the other one because theres never any coolant in it. so im thinking that the thermostat is broken, or a switch or something because thats what controls the coolant flow. also, last night for the first time ever the engine heat went way up in the red zone real fast and it started smoking from the cap, and the idle was super rough. i have no tach, but when i engaged the clutch and the revs sunk down, it revved itself up, to maybe 1.5-2K and back down again..okay maybe im exaturating but the whole time for some reason the motor sounded a lot louder than usual. i took off the cap and cleaned it out (there was burnt oil on the tabs and oil inside, on the bottm). i'm not exactly sure how, but my mom driving about 20k with the handbrake on earlier in the day triggered this whole thing. thats the first time i ever saw the engine heat go above half. now i cant drive it for more than 10 mins without it going into the red....it was a rough drive home that consisted of several frequent stops to let the motor cool down..but i did it. screw calling the vultures to tow it for me. anywho does anyone know if im looking at a new distributor and thermostat? is there a way i can replace the distributor without spending 400 bones?and i was wondering if i could change them myself...just simple tools..any help would be apreciated-thanks for reading this long thread...

zeeman

iTrader: (1)

you can replace the distributor o-ring, its a $3 part that takes 5 minutes to change.
An aftermarket thermostat (from part source or crappy tire) is like $15, but one from Honda is more like $40.

TribalChaz

That sounds too good to be true. crappy tire told me id need to replace the whole thing. thanks for the help, but since the engine heat has recently been going over half do you think it could be something other than the thermostat?

zeeman

iTrader: (1)

if your lower rad hose is cold its most likely your thermostat.
Go to honda and ask for a distributor o-ring, just make sure to make a mark on your dizzy before removing it, so you can set it back to where it was before. Either that, or get a timing light, so you can make sure the base timing is correct.

chris_si98

i got a timing light at my house you can borrow.

I borrowed it from a friend who doesn't want it

zeeman

iTrader: (1)

u mean u borrowed it from a friend who's never gunna let you borrow tools again. I'm pretty sure aaron (weiRtech) feels the same way.

imported_starboy869

A themostat is stupid simple to replace.

Get a themostat from CDN TIRE, NAPA, or HONDA. Also get some coolant. I would buy the pre-mix stuff from honda $10.

TribalChaz

thanks a lot, but i dont think ill need the timing light because there is only one way to put the dizzy in (the shaft it sits on is D-shaped). im going to call teknotik for more advice, and then im going to grab an oring and thermostat after i ask around a bit more. hopefully its a 3 dollar oring and not a 250 distributor because replacing the whole thing for a bad seal is rather man-on-man. i really appreciate the input-hopefully i can get this fixed tomorrow. do you think this is the reason why its idling rough though? and why is it overheating so much now all of a sudden...well once the thermostat is fixed and coolant is flowing through hopefully it will be fine.

TribalChaz

all done. the coolant flows properly-just need to fix the fan now and the dizzy is good. thanks!