In the process of bringing my 88 back to life after sitting ten years. Engine had only maybe 15K kms on it when parked. Added ounce of mmo every three days and hand cranked for two weeks to free seals. Put it all back together, car doesn't start. Fuel was primed. Found bunk spark wire, coils resistance is within spec.
Compression tested with piston tester. Rear housing has even 90psi compression (at 3000ft altitude). Front housing clearly shows one apex seal not sealing (90-60-60).
My questions are, what with the engine being newish still (aside from sitting), is it possible/probable that one seal just hasn't freed up yet? Is it worth trying a little ATF?
Also, car was parked due to a seized water pump (and then life got away from me), so would an overheat cycle have fried/warped the seal?

Bear in mind when answering that I have a street ported motor from another car that I'm rebuilding to drop in, so "rebuild it" is not really a worthy answer lol. More just curious if there's any logic to my thinking

 

I would start it up and see if seal frees up

 

Can't get it to start yet

 

After cranking two or three tries are your plugs soaked?

Hows the battery?

 

That's not an apex seal stuck if its only affecting one chamber, its a side seal.

 

Is the engine flooding when you are attempting to start it?

 

It is indeed

 

And I'm getting two low bounces on the gauge. From what I read in the manual, that indicates apex seal

 

Sorry, for some reason I read that as 90-60-90. You, and the manual, are correct.

 

Dry the plugs out with carb cleaner, electrical cleaner, etc put a bit of oil in engine through lower spark plug holes, crank it with no power to the fuel pump then put power back on the pump and it should start if the battery is charged.

Or if you are lazy, skip all that and use jumper cables to a running car and a bunch of starting fluid while cranking and letting it stumble with gas pedal held WOT and keep on the starter even as its stumbling until the tach heads to the moon.

 

I would properly deoflood the engine by removing the spark plugs and the EGI fuses. Then crank the engine over to push the gas out of the spark plug holes. Inspect, clean, and dry the spark plugs and reinstall them and the EGI fuses and attempt to start the engine. When you are pushing the gas out if the engine, ensure the spark plug wires are nowhere near the plug holes as the fuel vapor cloud can be easily ignited. I usually place a pig may close to the plug holes when I crank the engine over to absorb as much fuel as possible. I also use a map gas torch and I heat the spark plugs to ensure they are clean and dry after cleaning them with throttle body cleaner.

 

I am familiar with the unflood procedure

 

see sparking w/timing light?

 

Spark on L+T #1, spark only on L2. Checked coil, it's good. New wires arrive tomoro.
Let's not get too distracted, the question remains is my logic sound in thinking the apex seal may just be stuck from sitting 9-10 years as the motor only has 21,000KMs on it since last complete rebuild. Also, motor was fine aside from the blown water pump when parked

 

The trailing coil has a flip flop switch in it to swap the igniter from one coil to the next, its next to impossible to see if that functionality is working without the car running. Also if you've got leading spark on both it should fire.

 

not distracted here. didn't mention if you checked for actual sparking. with 90 psi, that rotor should fire right up. since not a simple task to disable the injectors to the weak rotor, I'd remove the corresponding plugs, pour ATF in, and try to fire it up w/the good rotor. It's extremely possible apex to be stuck: I've seen it taking a motor apart that had been on a shelf for a while but not 10 years.

 

Sorry thanks for clarification. I did find one bad wire, and I'm getting new ones today. Will try that tonight