Hi fellas. Neither of you have been posting here for a couple months, but I hope what i write here will eventually be read, and will help out a little.
Replacing your distributor is the only way to go on this one. I too, have a 98 Civic, albeit a DX, not an Si. But the reason for replacing the distributor is that you do indeed, have a crankshaft position sensor. This along with the camshaft position sensor and the top dead center sensor, are all integrated into the distributor housing of the distributor itself.
If you were to remove the cap, rotor & plastic shield, you'll see a black component mounted onto the shaft the cap mounts to. This is the pickup that works in conjunction with the 3 sensors and largely affects timing and overall performance.
Beware however, I just replaced my distributor and am having subsequent problems from a flashing check engine light (#2 and/or #4 cylinder random misfires). ( See my post here:
https://www.2carpros.com/forum/1998-honda-civic-a-check-engine-light-vt121384.html )
Hope this helped. Good luck.
Monday, April 7th, 2008 AT 4:32 PM