Series 4 N/A rebuilt and installed in 1986 gxl. Has spark, has fuel, I can't find vacuum leaks, and as far as I know timing is accurate. It will just turn over and over, i can hear the compression pulses, nice and even.

I've tried unflooding it by pulling the fuses and cranking it, taken the plugs out (damp with fuel) sprayed them off with carb cleaner, verified spark by rotating the gear on the CAS cranked without the plugs in, squirted an ounce of ATF in each leading plug hole, reassembled and it sounded like it was going to try to start, got quite a bit of smoke (enough to smoke up the barn) and then back to the same old thing. I've checked fuses and the ecu, everything looks as it should. Any ideas why I can't start the thing?

BTW, I have a charger on the battery to keep it from draining down, I've been cranking at about 12.5 volts, nice and fast.

 

did u check to see if the fuel injectors are actualy spraying fuel?? This is my problem, i just finished rebuild too, and it wont start tried everything u tried and found out the fuel injectors wasnt spraying even tho the fuel rails have presure and fuel.. check to see if theres voltage coming from the wiring harness to the fuel injectors with the key on, and if there is voltage but not spraying then its the ecu,s grounding or something like that...make sure tehres plenty of gas in the tank, it needs quite a bit of gas to build up engough pressure to start sometimes.

 

check your grounds, the one under the intake is important. im also having problems starting my rebuild. im going to wait till its registered and then going to push start it.

 

try dumping a cup of fuel down the intake manifold. if it starts then your fuel is not being injected. i had a similar problem. turned out, my MAF sensor wasn't working, so it would read zero airflow which = zero fuel being injected. fuel, spark, timing, compression is the necessary things an engine needs to start. If it has all of those, it should start. If it doesn't, something is wrong with one of those.

edit: make sure you have oil pressure. No oil pressure can lead to no start or hard start.

 

I know it's injecting because when I pull the plugs out they are covered in gasoline. I know I'm getting spark. Timing? Eh, I'm not sure, but with the notch on the main pulley lined up I have the marks on the CAS lined up. I can hear the compression pulses. Oil pressure on the other hand, the guage reads 0, the single blade connector is attached to the oil pressure sender, but I don't know if they guage is just bad or if I'm not getting oil pressure. What would be some of the reasons for 0 oil pressure? I've done a lot of cranking so I figured it would have built pressure.

 

the MAF isnt used to start the engine. it is only used after its running. the ecu uses a start up map, so it will start with out the MAF but then die after it gets going.

and dumping fuel down the manifold wolnt do anything but flood the motor. a simpler check is to pull the injectors outta the engine while still connected to the rail and plugs and crank it.

 

more then likely your plugs are fouled beyond use...

do you have a remote starter switch?... if not then get one, they are cheap

using the remote switch... and the key in the on position.. crank the motor over and slowly turn the CAS back and forth until it starts to run... you may want to crack the throttle just a little

 

I don't think it's the plugs, but I may be mistaken. I know they still spit fire pretty well, I checked all of them too, just turned the gear on the CAS and they all lit up. I don't think I'm turning it fast enough. Is there a way to pull start these transmissions?(automatic transmission that is)

 

Ok, I tried using about 3oz of ATF in each rotor housing to build enough compression to start, but I still couldn't get it to catch, sounded like it was going to , but no dice. How can I get an 86 gxl automatic to spin over faster? I don't mind attempting a pull start or rolling start, but I would like some advice on it before I attempt it. Any other reason it wouldn't be starting? I'm sure everything is hooked up, and as far as I can tell everything is correct and it shouldstart but it just won't.

 

well first off dont use atf in the engine, its ATF not engine oil. you can just use some good old motor oil.

one can push (never pull) start an automatic it just needs to be going much faster then with a stick. and its probably not good for the trans either. in terms of speed you need to get the car up to like 40-50 for it to work 30 might work. but the faster you go the more dangerous it gets.

humm i wonder what the real gurus have to say?