re-dream

Hello all, this is my official cry for help on the internet for my car..

I have certainly searched through and tried to find the info I need to not waste anyones time or space on this forum, but I'm getting to that point of desperation and it would really make me feel better if I simply share my journey with you all and speak to other humans.

So I rebuilt my 84' GSL-SE and did a street port on my once running car. With it all back together I am making good compression, I have spark but seems weak, and the plugs get wet with fuel. It seems to crank slow, even with a battery booster.. It doesn't even combust really, although when I incorrectly tested my plugs flames shot out of the plug hole. I think I connected the distributor in a good ball park range - pics otw.

I suspect my fuel is not being delivered well because with all my attempts to start it I feel my engine should have flooded but it hasn't. I don't think I am getting enough fuel pressure, I did a test but I was so tired that night and I don't remember what psi I had, It may or may not have been low. I am going to blow air in my lines next to make sure there's no clogging.

Can my slow cranking be due to a bad rebuild? Are there any GSL-SE masters out there, especially in the California bay area?

I will post pics on my next post and take you guys along with me in my endeavor to get this going.... sadly if I don't make any headway in a week or so a feel like I have nothing else to do but throw in the towel and see if a shop can help diagnose this, or worse

If anyone can help, I would immensely appreciate it. If anyone responds I can put up an even more detailed history of the build and the things I have done already. I can post vids as well.


re-dream

Ckforker

If the plugs are wet, sounds like it's getting fuel and you have spark, sounds like a big timing issue. If you put fuel directly in the carb will it fire?

re-dream

I have the fuel injected model, I've tried spraying ether from the throttle body but I don't think it reaches.

Am I correct in that I place the arrow on the distributor rotor on the L1 plug to ball park the timing?

I suspect that I have bad engine grounds because of weak spark and slow crank bc my starter tested ok. I'm going to hook up jumper cables to ground the engine more and see if it cranks faster.

Afterwards if it still doesn't go I'll spray some fuel into the plug holes and hope it combusts.

Thanks

GSLSEforme

How old is your battery, how long did it and the car sit while the engine was out? Can you test it yourself or have it tested to be sure it's good? Start there, if the battery is weak, while the starter is cranking there may not be enough juice left to power the coils properly, or the fuel pump, injectors and ECU. This could possibly be causing the weak spark problem. Once you determine the battery to be good, look elsewhere. Did the starter crank the engine well before the engine was removed? Once you have determined battery and starter are good, you should do a voltage drop test on the cables from battery to starter. Test both positive and negative sides of the circuit, very likely find the answer to your cranking/starting problem. Post back with your results, and see if we can help you further.

re-dream

I ended up getting a new battery and starter... it cranks a little faster now, but still seems slow. I did a voltage drop test with the old battery hooked up, it showed around 9 volts while cranking, which made me want to get the starter. Honestly i don't even know what the spec is suppose to be. Ive checked my battery cables too, which showed basically a non existent resistance. now all of a sudden the trailing coil doesn't seem to be sparking, so im getting new msd coils. Hopefully the coils are the answer, they come in in a few days.

One thing that worries me is that when I cranked it with the new battery, a new event happened. It smells like something electrical burned up... maybe that was the coils? I dont know, but it seemed like it came from the new starter. Any thoughts?

Also, please correct me if Im wrong but the battery ground cable goes into the indent of the rear of the engine behind the starter right? (i can show a pic tomorrow)

I found I may have a little more time to get my car done. (the car is at my work!)

thank you!

GSLSEforme

Proper starter circuit voltage drop test goes as follows: Get a "good" voltmeter (good doesn't need to be expensive) and set to DC scale, connect +/red lead to +/positive battery terminal and black lead of voltmeter to the stud that the battery cable attaches to at the starter. Crank the engine long enough to get a stable reading on the voltmeter, 5 seconds should be enough. Likely will need a helper as it's difficult, not impossible to do this. The reading on the voltmeter ideally should be .5 volt or less, but i suspect it may be higher. .5 to 1 volt of voltage drop is significant, higher is likely. You do the-/negative side the same way:-/negative battery post to ground cable where it attaches to the starter/engine block. Try this, it doesn't cost anything more than a few minutes of your time and will help lead you to the problem solution.

GSLSEforme

An example: i have an 85 GSLSE and recently did some trans/clutch work. While waiting for the flywheel to be resurfaced, i took the starter apart and replaced the starter drive unit as the original would skip out occasionally,cleaned and lubricated everything and reassembled. As i put the car back together, i took the time to clean the mounting surface of the starter on the trans case and cleaned up both cable ends at the starter. Though i never had a starting/cranking issue previously, you could actually hear a slight increase in cranking speed and the engine seems to light off quicker. This car had never been apart since new and that was 30 years ago, so even the slightest" not clean" connection added enough resistance to the circuit that i could hear the difference when i hit the key the first time. Possible you'll find something along the same lines with yours. Luck, let us know what you find.