REAmemiya_fan

Finally after a long and overly drawn out engine refresh, it is cranking (with 6 even & beautiful puffs), however it is not starting.. All my gauges work except for the fuel level. I do not think my fuel pump is running because after trying to crank several times and changing the switch from off to on time after time, noting was even in the lines when we pulled them. So we took out the switch and soldered the wire together then electrical taped it. Still nothing. All fuses are in and not blown, so I don't know what the problem could be. I have a feeling, though, that my answer may lie in the reason why the gauge isn't even registering that there is fuel in the tank. (1.127 gal gas & 3 oz pre-mix)

Please help, I'm just stuck here scratching my head at this point...

Thanks

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Check the plug at the gas tank bulkhead.
It has four wires, +12v and ground for the pump and two wires for the fuel level gauge and the low fuel warning light.
It not unheard of for this plug to overheat and melt.

REAmemiya_fan

Is that under the passenger side plate on the floorboard under the carpet in the hatch?

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Yes, there's an inspection cover in the hatch floor.
Behind the driver though, I think.

REAmemiya_fan

Ah yes that would make sense seeing as how the wires in the blue protector go to the fuel pump and where the PO wired the switch into... Its literally just a black wire going from that set of wires to the switch (which I now bypasses) to the positive battery terminal. Hopefully in doing all that he didn't F something up... I can provide a picture if needed.

REAmemiya_fan

Fixed the culprit and found another. I had a bad connenction at the pump. So fixed that, and I was gettijg fuel again.. however it was all over the LIM. Took the whole UIM off and started looking for obvious signs of leaking. No broken or ruptured hoses, no leaks at all from the primaires, so I took a look at my secondary injectors and the one in the front had a broken cap. All my injectors have all new grommets and o-rings, so maybe it cracked when they were out. Could that cause it to leak like that? The pulsation damper also was not leaking.

satch

iTrader: (1)

With the fuel check connector jumpered and the key to on the pump will run and over time you should be able to visually inspect exactly where the leak is.

xeccentric

iTrader: (2)

I could be way off, but isn't that a lot of two-cycle oil for 1.2 gallons of gas?

I don't think it's combusting because of that.
I use 1oz/gallon. 3oz/1.2 is too much.

Also the stock gas gauge is somewhat off. If you have only 1.2 in the tank, it'd probably still register as empty.

REAmemiya_fan

There was some gas already in there, and on the bottle it shows the ratios of gas and oil. And thats what it was for 100:1.

Now for an update on the situation, I fixed the replaced the leaking injector as well as found where my major leak was coming from, which was from the bottom of thw pulsation damper. I guess the hose just wasnt on enough or something. But thats fixed, however i now figured out i have no spark. Which is annoying. So before I go switching out my ignition coil packs, what should i look for to check for the no spark issue? I'm going to start at he fuses, but i dont really know where to go from there. And this is pretty much the last thing preventing me from from starting. No spark, no start.

Thanks for all your help guys.

REAmemiya_fan

Took a test light to my fuses, and either 3/4 of them are toast, or something is not wired/not hooked up right. Here's a list of what is/isn't working.

Working:
DEFOG
HEATER
ILLUM
ANTENNA
ROOM
HAZARD
STOP

Not Working:
POWER WIND
TURN
METER
ENGINE
POWER ST
COOLING FAN
WIPER
REAR WIPER
SUN ROOF
ABS
CIGAR
AUDIO

satch

iTrader: (1)

The Front harness connects to the ignition switch via three plugs. One plug has two wires in which one wire is Solid Black and the other wire is Black/White. The Black wire should have constant voltage (no key). Does it? The Black/White wire in this plug should have voltage w/key to on. Does it?

REAmemiya_fan

I will look into it tomorrow morning. Should that be fine, what is the next step? If it fails the test?

satch

iTrader: (1)

Depends. If the Black wire has voltage but the B/W wire does not w/key to on then the ignition switch is not sending voltage to the fuse box to power the IG1 fuses. If the Black wire doesn't have voltage then the ignition switch is not being powered.

REAmemiya_fan

I don't know if I was testing for voltage at the wrong connectors, but I was reading nothing. Could you give a specific location for them? I was looking at the white clips with the black wires next to the trailing coil pack that went into the harness.

satch

iTrader: (1)

The ignition switch is located at the steering wheel column where the key is placed into. So, the Front harness which connects to it is .................... at the steering wheel column as well.

REAmemiya_fan

Ahhhh... I can't express how many times a day I feel as though I am among the ape-minded ancestors that once walked this earth.



That makes sense. I will test that tomorrow.

REAmemiya_fan

Okay so I have spark and it will start with some starting fluid, but it died right away. Were thinking its something with the fuel pump or something so something is going weird.

satch

iTrader: (1)

W/the fuel check connector jumpered and key to on can you tell if the fuel pump is running? You can disconnect the return line of the fuel hose and place it in a jug and w/the jumper in place and key to on to verify that fuel is flowing through the system properly. You also might have a flooded engine. If that were the case then disconnect the power source to the fuel pump and do the starting fluid trick two or three times and then reconnect the plug to the pump and try starting the engine in a normal fashion.

REAmemiya_fan

So the whole reason why it wasn't starting was because the injectors were not firing. Turned out that the solenoid was not even on the car, and the holes to bolt it to the chassis were blocked off. After plugging it in, it started in about 1 second, but it struggled so hard to stay alive under 3k rpm and was making a really weird whine and blowing a lot of white smoke. My first that was grim and a coolant seal said goodbye inside the engine, however it did not smell like burned coolant. So my next thought was the premix, but it was not a blue tint, just straight white. Another theory I have is since the cats sat outside for about a month in a half (exposed to rain going inside of them at one point), maybe there was some water left in them still and was being burned off as steam while the cats were warming up. But that seems like a stretch.

My buddy who has swapped engine after engine in his 240 (I know, a very coarse difference between a 13B, but I would guess still the same concept), said that it could still just be starved of fuel and needs more run time. He told me that it has happened to him every time he has swapped the engine in and out of his car and should be fine.

I only started the car twice (once when it first started and another time to take a short video) as to prevent any damage that could be occurring. Background of the engine itself: ran absolutely perfectly and without a hitch (apart from stuck close 6PI sleeves), but has not been ran since about July. My thoughts are hopefully not internal, but I wouldn't think so because when trying to start it before realizing the solenoid was off, it cranked easily, smoothly, and puffed out six even pulses of air each time.

I need some help as to diagnosing what is going on because this is my first engine swap (if you could call it that) and I have been mostly alone in doing it. My shop teacher likes the method of you doing it until you admit defeat, and then asking him for help. Luckily, I win, but this is the result. Here is a video to illustrate what I'm talking about.

stevensimon

iTrader: (11)

sounds like a shot bearing. take all your belts off and start it to see if the squeal goes away. if so then its one of your accessories. if not then youre going to have to pull the motor back down to find what its hanging up on.

one time i thought for sure my engine was fucked because of this sound. turned out to be the belt on the alternator was way too tight. easy fix.

as for the smoke, let it run for a while and see if it clears up. if you rebuilt the engine then the internals are soaked with grease and lube that need to burn off.

someone is also going to mention vacuum leaks, so look for those too

REAmemiya_fan

Now that you mention it, my friend did say he tightened the P/S pully bolt down because it was really easy to back off... Makes me wonder just how much he tightened it down. Will check that. As for the smoke, any other ideas? It is not a rebuilt engine, but it is new to pre-mix since the stock MOP has been deleted.

edit: there was an excessive amount of P/S fluid coming out of the res.

REAmemiya_fan

Update: Backed off the bolt holding the P/S pulley on, and the noise mostly went away, good, maby just a little more and it will be gone. Now, it still struggles to stay alive, and every time I give it some gas to keep it going, it backfires really loud and will not stay at one rpm while i hold the throttle at one spot. It takes me to keep pushing the throttle to even keep it going, and like I said, it generates loud gun-shot like noises every time I push the pedal. I hope I'm not running lean and this is what is causing it... Of note: there was quite a large amount of quick starting fluid in the engine from previous attempts of starting (but wouldn't it all dry up if left alone for a day?), the cold start assist was removed, the idle mixture is at full rich, the screw on the top of the TB under the black cap has been tampered with before, there is an exccessive amount of fluid coming out of the p/s resivour, only the cats are on the exhaust, when I start the car instantly jumps to 4k.

What should I be looking for or doing to fix this issue?

REAmemiya_fan

Anything? I'll be working on the car with my shop teacher in about a half hour while the other students test, and we want the work to be as efficient as possible.

btw: when I ran it during 3rd hour, I could smell something giving off a sort of burning smell. Nothing was on fire or even smoking, but i could smell that stench. It was mainly in the rear of the engine bay but that's about as in-detail as I can get.

AGreen

iTrader: (11)

It's easy. You're loading the exhaust with fuel. That will definitely bog the engine down at idle, then you stomp the gas, allowing a momentary lean condition, igniting all the extra fuel in your exhaust. The screw on top of the tb is for the idle speed. You shouldn't have messed with the idle mixture, and I'm not too sure how to re-set it other than using a voltmeter on the O2 sensor and look for voltage to come down from 1v. Hopefully you spin the idle mix screw too much and screw it up. That also explains the retarded amount of smoke.

Look through the FSM on how to set the idle mixture. I'm not even sure if it tells you how to do so. Once you get that (engine fully warm) jumper the initial set coupler and set the idle speed. Then you need to set the tps and timing, just to make sure other stuff didn't get messed with. Also, the dashpot gets neglected a lot as well. If you still have one, it makes the throttle plate not slam shut (preventing the engine from dying out on abrupt throttle let-offs). I think the FSM says it's supposed to begin contact around 3500 rpm or something.

REAmemiya_fan

I didn't mess with anything on the car, I simply gave the idle mixture screw a small tug in both directions to see where it was at, and I do know that the screw for the idle speed has been tampered with. I will print out the FSM pages for that and make sure that it gets corrected. Also noticed that there was a minimal amount of coolant in the engine itself, and has in fact been coming out of the firewall on the input side of the heater core, so I'm crossing my fingers and praying that nothing was hurt in the engine, it was not run for more than 30 seconds.

Also, I never switched my ECU out since I figured 87 NA to an 88 NA would be the same... The one that was in the car was N237, and the one that was in the last car that the engine came from is N236. So I changed them out, hopefully makes a difference.