93 Civic CX hatch, Canadian model, 244 000 km (the "clown car" featured
on Tegger's site, FYI).

I've had a broken ball joint and a ruptured Canadian Tire tire in the
past month and a half (I blame a pothole) but the other two problems
have me much more concerned.

Six weeks ago, spontaneous failure to start. Cranked but did little
else. After being towed to a CAA-approved garage, the ignition control
module was found to be faulty and was replaced. Also, oil had leaked up
high around all four plugs (which was blamed for the failure of the
ICM). We had replaced the valve gaskets 2 years prior. A new gasket set
was installed.

Car ran sort of OK for the next four weeks. The subsequent two weeks, we
started having start problems (had to crank it twice or three times) and
the low idle seemed a little sputtery. It also seemed to be a little
sluggish as well. We chocked it up to the car needing a tune-up having
last been done around 2 years ago.

After leaving the car in the lot for the weekend, spontaneous failure to
start returned on Sunday. Something along the lines of
crank-crank-crank-crank-crank - SPUTTER-SPUTTER crank-crank-crank etc. -
different than last time. A gasoline smell came after cranking a few
times. No oil was observed around the plugs. No check engine light.
PGM-FI relay seemed to be clicking as it should, fuel was pumping,
decent spark, etc. The oil was down a bit, but still above the 'fill'
dot on the dipstick.

I got the car towed to my regular mechanic who is now of the opinion
that the engine needs to be replaced. I intend to go to the garage and
have him better convince me of this before I shell out bucks for an
engine replacement, but I have a few questions that are lingering...

1.) The mechanic warned us (2 1/2 years ago) that leaving the
oil-leak-around-the-plugs problem could result in catastrophic engine
failure. I've not found any Internet source that can verify this story.
Any opinions?

2.) Any chance that the ECM could be screwy? I can't see it being that
since there's spark and fuel pumping, but can't be sure.

3.) The whole concept of gently-used Japanese motors was new to me when
the mechanic recommended a used Japanese motor as opposed to tearing my
existing one apart. Is it true that they export engines and
transmissions (as well as whole cars) because of their stringent vehicle
inspection policies?

Thanks,
Adam (unhappy clown car owner)