After sitting unattended for almost 3 years (no driving), I'm trying to resurrect my TII. I drained the fuel tank and put new fuel in, squirted some oil in the chambers, and rotated the rotors by hand over a period of a few days. When I tried to start it the other day, I am hearing a dull thud about 2 or 3 times per second, but it doesn't sound like the engine is trying to fire at all, i.e. no spark?

1) What could this thudding sound be?

2) How can I easily tell if fuel is being delivered?

3) How can I easily tell if I'm getting spark?

I know I was an idiot for not driving it every couple of weeks after I got my 8. I just let it sit in the parking lot at work (the battery died on me, and I never bothered to replace it). I had it towed home when I changed jobs , and now I need to decide if it is worth resurrecting. Any help would be much appreciated. My son is dying to get this car going again - he'd like to be able to drive it.

 

It's compression from the engine.
It's normal.


Pull the spark plugs.
Are they wet?
If so, then there's fuel.


Pull the spark plug wires off the spark plugs and put it close to a known ground spot.
I use the shock tower studs, since they are easy to access - just pop off the black rubber boot covers.
It helps to have a friend.
One person crank the engine over and the other watch for the arcing spark.


Hmmm...interesting.
He saw InitialD recently?
How about FATF3?


-Ted

 

Ted, lol

 

Thanks for the suggestions, Ted. I guess I was worried about it because back when the car was my daily driver, I once flooded it real bad and had to do the ATF trick to get it going. I don't remember it ever sounding like this when I was trying to get it started again. To me, this sounds a lot louder than normal compression sounds.

This forum got me an extra 50K miles on the car, easy. I don't know what I would have done without you guys. I see Hailers is still a regular - he was always a great help to me, as were many others. I'm sure I'll be looking for more advice in the near future.

BTW, when I filled the coolant, I was getting some serious leakage from the front of the engine, near the alternator. Water pump? Does this mean the water pump needs to be replaced, or could the seals just be dried out? One of the last times I drove the car, I could smell coolant when I turned on the A/C.

 

Yeah, sure sounds like the water pump needs to be replaced.
I just did mine last week.


-Ted