85 honda civic wont run

It ran terrible when I got it and when i changed the head gasket i found that the old one was burned up and needed to be changed. now that i put it back together it wont start most of the time. i got it too a few times but i had to remove the air filter housing and hold down the flap on the top of the carb and keep feathering the gas to keep it running. I messed with the timing on the distributor but it hasnt solved the problem.

Just how experienced a mechanic are you? There are lots of ways to mess up installing a new head gasket. You could have poor compression now, have you checked it? What are the compression readings? You could have vacuum leaks around the intake manifold. You could have messed up the carburator during the repair process. And now you’ve “messed” with the timing.

Where to start? It seems you have some spark. I’d suggest taking the car to someone with more expertise for troubleshooting. It wasn’t running good to begin with and now it isn’t running at all. You need more help than can be offered here.

thanks for your concern but im not 12 and this isnt my first car. i simply need ideas from outside points of view. if you are not experienced enough and dont have any ideas like uncleturbo here, there is no need to post.

I was all ready to give you suggestions until you responded to UT like a jerk. He rose a valid point, and then tried to help you out. It’s poor form to attack the people who are trying to help you.

Good luck.

Ok, you’re not 12 and you are an experienced mechanic. Then you’ve got to provide more information. I can’t hear the car crank and see any of your work. There are lots of vacuum lines on your era Civic, I can’t tell you if they are properly routed and hooked up.

Do you have good compression? Readings per cylinder are…? Have you reset the timing? Have you poured some fuel or starting fluid in the carb and then cranked the motor? If yes, what happened? Did it run for a few seconds? Backfire? What?

What is the status of the fuel filter? How is the pressure and flow from the fuel pump? You can bypass the fuel tank and hook up an auxillary temporary fuel source with known good fuel and see if the car runs better. You could have gunk on the fuel screen in the tank.

Are the spark plugs, plug wires, and distributor cap new?

These are ideas, up to you if you want to try some out.