OK, I need some advice about some car trouble. This post might be kind of long but I want to tell you all the details about the situation so that you can better help me.

I just bought a newly rebuilt engine from Atkins Rotary. I made the swap myself and everything went fine. Now upon completion, I go to try and start it and it just keeps turning over and not starting. So then I evaluate the possibilities: Its either not getting any fire or spark, or its getting too much fuel, or its not getting any fuel.

So to see if it was getting spark, I had someone shoot a little starting fluid into the intake. When we did that, it acted like it was going to kick over, but never did. So that should tell me that it IS getting spark and not any fuel to keep it running.

So then I made sure it is getting fuel to the injectors. It is. I then checked my primary injectors to see if they were sending fuel. I did this by moving my intake aside and pulling the primaries out of the block while I crank the engine a little bit. At first, no fuel came out of them so I figured that was my problem. Then I retraced the wiring harness around to see if maybe I forgot a plug or something that might be making the injectors not work. Sure enough, I found an electrical connector and a groung strap not connected. I connected both of them to where they are supposed to go and cranked the engine again to see if the injectors are working yet. They did! So then I put everything back together and tried to start it. Guess what. SAME THING!!!! It still doesnt start!

I have no idea of what to do now. If anyone has ANY idea of what i could do, please let me know. Thanx very much for reading this whole thing!!

 

Check for spark, and spark plug condition. Then timing.

also check to see if the exhaust is clogged at the cats. I don't know if it was the case for you, but I have seen a couple now that when the engine went; it slagged out the insides of the pre-cats and melted a blob into the main cat effectivly clogging the whole system as good as a couple of potatos in the tail pipes.

 

I have new plugs in. How do I check spark and timing?

Also, The car ran fine before the swap, it just smoked really bad out the tail pipes cause my oil control rings were bad and it leaked tons of oil into the combustion chamber. But it would fire up and run no problem

 

You did the swap yourself and you don't know how to check for spark or timing???

Pull a plug wire, and hold it about 1 inch away from something grounded (like a shock tower bolt or sparkplug end) and see if there is a spark when cranking.

Use insulated plyers to hold the wire so you don't accidentally shock your *** across the garage. And pull the EFI fuse so you don't flood the motor while cranking.

There should be a nice clear visible spark.

If there is decent spark and you pull a plug it should not be wet.

 

I just checked and I do have good spark but the plugs WERE kind of wet with fuel. What does that mean? Is it just flooded? If it IS just flooded, maybe that is why it wont start right now. How long will it have to sit before it will start?

 

it wont unflood on its own, pull the egi fuse and turn it over a few times, then put egi fuse back in and try to start her

at least thats what i do when its flooded

 

It could sit for years and not start. It won't unflood itself. Look up the deflooding technique and try that.

 

Well, I am totally lost then because I tried that unflooding trick several times. When I try it, it acts like it is going to start for about 1 second then just keeps cranking like normal. What the heck can I do now?!? GRRRRRRRR...THIS SUX!!!

 

So.. Did you set the timing?



PaulC

 

I dont know how. I DID move the crank angle sensor to different positions and try it. How do I set timing?

 

Ok, set the engine to leading TDC. To do that, align the leading TDC mark on the pulley with the little needle sticking out of the front cover. Don't know which mark taht is? I don't either, off the top of my head I'll let someone else post for you.

However, line it up, and remove the CAS. remove the two screws holding the top on so you can see inside. Then, flip it upside down, and look at the gear at the end. On the side of the gear, theres' two holes (for the pin that holds the gear on), and there's a little dot. Line the dot up with the protruding extension on the shaft of the CAS. Flip it back over, and note how the two pointed shafts sit. Reinsert the CAS, making sure that those two shafts stay in the same relationship to the CAS body.

Then try starting the engine.

PaulC

 

If all else fails, pull start the bitch

 

If the timing is off, will that make it not run at all? I figured it would start but just run kinda bad.

 

YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS. If it's totally off, it will not run. Or it'll catch, but won't do much beyond that. Or it'll sputter.

PaulC

 

And pop and backfire.

 

Cool!! Thanx guys! Hopefully that is the problem. I am going to go run down to the shop and give that a try. I'll let you know what happens!

 

Looks liek you flooded your car totally. I did that once and I have a fuel cut off switch(same thing as pulling out the egi fuse). I couldnt get the thing to start. so what i did was turn the switch on, crank it for a bit then let the starter motor cool down then crank it again and so on like 4-5 times
then i turned the fuel on and i got it started and huge amounts of white smoke came out the back. seems like the same problem i had though.
my 2 cents

 

Well, I set the timing and got it to run for about 5 seconds but then it just died but I know thats because I had the air intake hose off of the throttle body so I could shoot some starting fluid in. But when I tried it with the air intake on, it wouldnt start.

I tried the deflooding trick but only once each time. I didnt think about doing it several times before putting the fuse back in. Thanx for the good idea!

Doesnt the primary injectors shoot fuel everytime you try to crank the engine? If so then if I crank it, wait, crank it, wait, crank it, wait, etc., there is probably alot of fuel in the engine right? Will doing the deflooding trick several times solve the flooding problem even with that much fuel?

 

i have a fuel cut off switch but i think it does the same thing as the deflooding trick. The only reason i say crank and stopcrank stop is to give your starter motor a break. i tried what you did with my car do o it once then see if it starts then do it again but it didnt work. I did that crank thing like 5 or so times for a good 30 seconds each time and i guess it cleared out enough of the gasoline in the engine to get it started.

make sure when your doing the unflood trick and have the fuse out that u have the gas pushed all the way to the floor. it opens up the engine so air can get inside and help clear it out


when i finally got it to start it was sputtering at a low rpm so i just gave it a little gas and it sputtered up and i just kept it at like 2500-300 until it stopped sputtering.

sorry for the long post. but if your engine is flooded my way will work to fix it.

 

If there is alot of fuel in the engine, I wonder if taking out the leading plugs and cranking would let the fuel escape through the plug holes? What do you guys think?