Alrighty, so my friend asked me to post this for him. Essentially he has a 95 Civic DX that needs a bit of work. After taking the head off, he saw that the gasket was completely ruined and that the head needed some maching. After having the head machined and replacing the head gasket, it won't work anymore. Here's what he told me:

I just did a head gasket job and now the car will not stay running. After i start it, it runs for about 4 seconds really badly, like on 2 cylinders.. .Ignition timing and engine timing still the same, new rotor and cap for distributor and new wires. What could be wrong?

If any of you guys could help out, that would be awesome.

 

throw out the DX motor.....engine swap time!

 

or find someone whos doing an engine swap and buy their motor + tranny for like 200 bucks.

 

Who did the machining on the head? Was it done right? I'm guessing someone fucked it up and it's got a massive head leak. The engine is probably choking on coolant.

But that's assuming your friend did the timing right, and installed the plugs correctly. Make sure the plugs are connected correctly from the distributor to each cylinder. And double check the timing.

That's pretty much all I can offer over the 'net. I'm sure others will chime in.

 

to check if the head is still f'ed he needs to do a compression check. sounds like he got the timing wrong or he mixed up the plug wires.