Take a good look at your crank pulley. If it's like all the Civics and
Integras I've seen, you should see two sets of notches in it:
1) There is a single notch all by itself. That's Top Dead Center.
2) Then there are three marks grouped together, somewhere to the left of
the single one. Those are your timing marks. You jump the gray connector
behind the passenger kick panel ( a paper clip is fine), then set the
timing so it's in the middle of the group of three.

Sounds like you're trying to set it to Top Dead Center.

when you're checking timing, you have to disable the cpu advance.  the
shop manual tells you how.

after that, set the advance, also per the shop manual.  if it's still
detonating after that, check the cam timing - the belt may have jumped a
tooth.  also check the plugs are ok.  sometimes melted plug electrodes
have strange effects on ignition.