just died while driving...

[ironicirony]

Hi,

I recently did a head gasket change on my 91 2.05L prelude - and lots of thanks to those who helped answer my questions along the way.

Everything was going well for a few weeks and lots of driving both around town and on the highway. (after I re-timed it and replaced the fast idle valve)

However, the other day I was cruising at about 80kph and the car simply died. No warning lights, nothing. I did notice a little bit of 'ticking' that same day, but attributed it to the -20 temperatures outside.

Pulled the fuses to reset stuff and tried to start it again. It turns over, but won't start. It doesn't sound like there's any combustion either. I thought maybe it snapped timing belt but a quick look showed it was okay. I was gonna pull the cover off to see if maybe it slipped and the cam pulleys were off, but with no spark, I thought there might be a better place to start...

I should mention the night before I was driving home at about 120kph with no strange sounds, warning lights, or anything else that might have indicated a problem.

Does anyone have some suggestions on the direction and maybe a checklist I should begin with?

[ironicirony]

hehe - umm - solved the problem. The set screw from the distributor rotor came loose and caused is to seize. Thankfully I had another distributor - kicking around and replaced the seized one. Made sure the set screw was locktight'd in this time - all should be well.

On a side note, I did some reading about 'chipped' cars. I looks as though mine was done at sometime from the looks of the wiring harness and a mysterious chip bolded close to the ignition coil. I had replaced the distributor some time ago and had a hard time timing the engine right. Now, the original one is back on (because I seized the new one!) and the timing was again out despite being back in the original position. I have read that there are sometimes a different number of teeth on the rotors of chip'd cars. Is this true? I also had replaced the TDC crank sensor shortly after getting the car - is that going to have the wrong number of teeth on it too? My fuel economy sucks driving around town - maybe 400km on 91octane. Highway is a bit better but nor by much. Can anyone tell me how many teeth my distributor should have (stock) and TDC (stock). I'm wondering if I should just try and remove the chip?

Thanks for any input and I hope I caused a few of you to laugh at my stupidity!

[spiffyguido]

400km isn't too bad for around town, especially in the winter. If you're warming your car in the morning and spending a lot of time in traffic, your mileage is about where I would guess it to be. You're not driving around a Honda Fit. Double check your ECU to make sure that you're not throwing any codes. A bad coolant temp sensor, among other things will make your mileage go to pot.

As for the chip. Unsure what that might be. Can you post a picture? Where does the chip connect to? Is it connected inline with the coil itself?

I've never heard of a difference number of teeth on the rotor of a chip car. That doesn't make much sense to me why they might do that.