Tried to start my car last night and it would turn the motor over but it wouldn't crank, I ended up push starting it once or twice and it started fine and then this morning it cranked up with no problem. Any ideas?

 

Flooded, perhaps.

 

That's what I was thinking, I'm gonna go get the stuff and change the oil and spark plugs and everything, been wanting to change them anyway since I'm not entirely possitive how old they are.

 

uh, turning the motor over is cranking...you're car will crank but not start. ~rich

 

Thanks for correcting me, got really drunk last night so I'm still a little groggy headed this morning.

 

Just changed the plugs and the fuel filter and flushed my injectors and cleaned my air filter and car is still giving me the same problem, worked fine this morning and now it's going back to doing the same thing that it was last night(not starting). I've ruled out the flooded theory, so what else could it be? Clogged cat? Wiring problem beyond my ability to fix most likely? Thanks for any help.

 

Was thinking also may be coils going bad maybe?

 

How much harm would there be in running the car open downpipe for awhile to see if the cat may be clogged? Will it hit fuel cut or mess anything up or will it just be really nasty sounding?

 

Check for spark at the coils. I had a similar problem recently and I was getting no spark due to the maf acting screwy. I shook the MAF and reseated the connector and got spark back. The car was flooded really bad after trying to crank without any spark so I had to pull the plugs and crank without them in to dry out that fuel.

 

Without DP will make your engine bay dirty - that's the only bad thing.

 

Not no DP, open DP. Unbolt the midpipe where the secondary cat is, the DP is aftermarket so there is no cat there. Just don't want my boost to climb to high if I infact have to run in like this.

 

Without the cat you will experience boost creep on an turbo with an unported wastegate. Do you have a boost guage to watch? I wouldn't reccomend driving it if not. There are only 3 things that will not let it start. Fuel, Air, and Spark. I would check to make sure you have spark first.

 

Just checked it and the front coil 1 of the wires isn't firing right, it's missing more or less, every other one is working fine though. Also, it started up after sitting awhile and while we were checking the coils for spark I noticed something glowing bright like hot metal red. The car was not reved or moved any, only to let idle. I'm thinking it looked in the area of the turbo or exhaust manifold.

 

Glowing red isn't good. Could be a sign of bad timing or as you said before, clogged cat. How do you know it wasn't firing right? I mean I wouldnt know just by looking at the spark if it looks good or not. If you think it's the cat, why dont you just try pulling it off and seeing if the brick is all broken up? You can take it off and run the car at idle without the cat, I just woudn't drive it around like that without a boost guage and FCD. My old s4 turbo would creep past 10psi on the highway.

 

Thank you for writing that. I'm so darn tired of the misuse of the word CRANK around here it's making me cranky. You can never tell if the engine turned over or what the heck happened.

 

I used a timing light to check for spark, I ordered a boost gauge today so I can tell what it's doing as far as that goes. As far as it getting hot, you said timing, could it be from the coil being bad also? Or maybe the oil lines are crimped, it's too dark outside for me to see anything right now. And to the others that have replied, how is correcting my wording helping me fix my problem? It's pretty easy to figure out what I meant and having you tell me something I already know about proper terminology isn't helping me fix the problem.

 

Any other ideas???

 

Check compression. Motor could just be tired....

 

Not sure exactly what you mean by tired but I'm assuming by tired you mean worn out and time to rebuild and what not, sorry if I'm missunderstanding you.

 

If the exhaust starts glowing isn't that one sign of a cracked or broken apex seal? ~rich

 

maybe Gatlin already got this..you could be flooded..if you deflood you may be good to go again..you are replacing the plugs and filter (you said) so when you get the fuel out by crankin the engine with no EGI Fuse in for 30 sec..just slap the plugs in .and put the wires on Correctly..and take it from there..word of advice..it would be really informative if you could state what engine and what year ..it helps whoever is reading to respond with an answer..(good luck)

 

It seems it's a 87TurboII.

It's a normal thing for the Lead wire to show what seems to be a intermittent missing spark when using a timing light. Put the timing light on the OTHER lead wire and the *intermittent spark* will go away. FYI both lead plugs fire at the same time so it matters not which lead wire you have the timing light on when looking at the timing for the lead mark.

Glowing exaust is a clogged cat or retarded timing or big time leaking fuel injector (probably not that though) or???? apex seal gone? Not likely if the thing starts up and idles.

If the car is hard to start after it has been running a while and the engine temps are up/normal, then it's, in my humble opinion, a problem due to the START fuel map being too rich during the START cycle for the condition of your engine. It's chunking in fuel at 45ms duration of the fuel injectors when your engine would be much happier with a fuel injection amount of just 5-10ms duration. Therefore the sucker floods when you try to start it once the engine temps are up. That has nothing to do with the glowing red exaust though.

So, anyway, start the engine. Let it get hot/normal engine temps. Then put the timing light on the lead wire and set the cas. Pick the lead wire that does not flicker as much and be done with it.

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/attach...hmentid=146665

 

O.K. now I have some place to start checking things to see if I can figure this thing out. Also, my stepdad thinks he's like a automotive genious and insists that it's missing so it has to do with my ignition, what should idle sound like in these things? The sound, that in fact does sound like a conventional motor missing, is only heard from the exhaust, the motor doesn't seem to miss a beat at all, and it's most noticable at idle. Just wanting to lay this argument to rest between me and him so he quits trying to tell me I need a crap load of ignition parts that there very well may be nothing wrong with.

 

Not sure if your problem is only with hot starting, but if it is you might think about having the injectors professionally cleaned and flow tested. I had mine done from Witchhunter Performance and they flow tested before and after the cleaning so you know how bad they were. If I remember correctly it cost less than 100 bucks.

 

I think the easiest thing to do first would be a compression test. It's probably fine but its a good easy starting point and will let you know roughly how healthy the motor is. Mine is only making 85-90 psi per housing as per the poor man's compression test, but it starts and runs fine. Idle is another story, I'm still working on that.