Tristan Bull

Well I've finally got my engine rebuilt and in my car, but unfortunately I can't get the thing to start. When we rebuilt it we eliminated the air pump and other emissions stuff. I've double checked all the vacuum lines, and they appear to be correct. I've double checked all the wiring and it looks good as well. We've probably quadruple checked the timing, and I think it's right. I was trying to use the battery that had been sitting in the car for the past 6+ years. After charging for two days though it still seemed pretty weak. So we bought a new battery today. The car really sounds like it wants to fire up, but it just doesn't do it. I think that it's probably flooding, because the plugs are always covered in fuel when we pull them out. I tried the unflooding trick with the egi fuses, and it still didn't start after that. The only thing I haven't tried is tow starting it. That looks like it's my only chance left though.

I noticed a couple of screwy things. All of the idiot lights and gauge cluster lights are on when the key is on. I didn't think it was like that before. Can anyone confirm if that is normal? Also, when we tried timing the trailing plug, the light gun seemed to show the exact same timing as the other wire which I don't think is normal. When the plugs spark outside of the engine though, you can see they're sparking at different times. I donno if it's a problem with the gun or what. Any ideas? Any other ideas as to what could be wrong? Thanks for any help.

J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

I would try to tow start it, the rebuilds seem to be a hassle to start.

and all my warning lights come on when the key is set to start, but the motor isnt started. I was under the impression that this is normal operation.

Tristan Bull

oh okay. I thought I remembered the coolant light coming on because we didn't have full coolant, but it's probably just my imagination.

AE_Racer

iTrader: (1)

Yes, tow it off...it works 99% of the time, the other 1% something being wrong with your ignition/fuel

Mephis

tow start, sounds fun lol roll it down a big hill and dump the clutch.

Tristan Bull

We tried pushing it down a hill and tow starting it with my Jeep, and had no luck. We did have the intercooler off, because we were putting starting fluid in there before that. I donno if that would have anything about it or not. It just seems really rich to me. The spark plugs are always soaked with fuel, and you can smell the gas when the exhaust spits out smoke when we tried starting it. I donno what the problem is.

J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

Oh boy..

Did you put a pipe in the place of the IC? Or did you forget that the car wont run without the AFM working?

Tristan Bull

Oh jeez. I was afraid of that. I told my dad that I didn't think it woudl run that way, but he seemed to think that if all the sensors were still connected it would work, so I just said okay whatever and went with it. I'll tell him that though. I have to work tomorrow, but he said that him and his buddy would try pulling it around again tomorrow...

J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

The ENTIRE intake has to be intact, or there will be no airflow over the AFM.

Tristan Bull

Alright thanks. It was connected when we were in the garage by the way. We just took it off when we tried the starter fluid thing, and didn't put it back on. But we'll do tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have more luck with the pull starting with it then...

Tristan Bull

Well we got her running finally. We pull started it in reverse of all gears. We noticed it seemed to like reverse when we pushed it down the driveway to start off with so that's what we used. The idle was real rough to begin with but it seems to have smoothed out, though it still bounces a little bit. At first it wasn't wanting to idle at all. Then it would idle at like 500rpm, but we noticed that we forgot to hook the BAC back up so after that it's up to about 750rpm, and it will hold the idle better. We drove it around the neighborhood for about an hour, and it seems alright. There's a pretty big jump in power around 1500rpm though, which I'm not sure is normal. Below that it doesn't really feel like it wants to go, but above that it accelerates a lot quicker. Now our problem is getting it to start on it's own. It will push start relatively easily, but it won't start by itself. Any ideas as to why? I killed it at a stop sign a couple times(my first manual car), and we had to roll it back to get it to fire up again. If we just drive it more will it start on it's own, or is there something else we need to check?

Thanks for all your help thus far, by the way. I really appreciate it.