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I have recently done a rebuild on my 93 RHD, using Atkins rotary rebuild kit. The engine seems close to turning over but never does until I put a little oil in the lower spark plug holes, it will turn over but instantly wants to die . I tested the compression before I tried to start the car and got 90 psi on both rotors cold. I have also put in new spark plugs. my injector were fine before I parked the car for rebuild. Could the issue be timing related? I thought the ECU controls timing. I have been pulling the plugs and cranking as I go so it isn't flooded. The spark wires are on the correct plug, the fuel lines are in correct order, injector plugs are correct.
There are a million possibilities in a situation like this. Map sensor, swapped fuel lines, poor or not attached grounds, mismatched plugs on the injectors or water/fuel temp sensor, swapped plugs on the cas, plug wires in the wrong spots, plugs on the coils in the wrong spot......
It can go deep. You need to troubleshoot one thing at a time and rule it out. Dont pigeon your possibilities to a mechanical issue with the motor itself.
The engine only needs four things to run: Compression, Air, Fuel, and a correctly-timed Spark. You've already checked compression. To check for air, make sure there aren't any rags blocking the intake manifold or intercooler or charge piping. A quick and dirty check for fuel might be to pull a spark plug after cranking and smell if it smells like gasoline, more thorough test would be to add a fuel pressure gauge or fuel pressure sensor to the feed line. To check for spark, the very basic is usually called the 'screwdriver check for spark' where you move the spark plug wire to a screwdriver and hold that near chassis ground to see if any spark is happening at all. Careful not to zap yourself. The more in-depth spark check needs a timing light like is common in communities that use distributors such as old-school hot rods. Ideally you want a timing light without the dialback function, just a strobe that flashes when the spark event occurs. The service manual shows there is a small notch on the CAS trigger wheel, the spark for the front trailing coil should flash within 1 or 2 teeth of that small notch. If the front trailing fires 6 teeth away from that notch you have the trailing coil wires switched around. The factory leading setup is hard to get wrong, fortunately. The timing light is mostly confirming there is a spark, you don't have the ability to change much besides maybe swapping the two CAS connectors in the wiring harness.
And make sure the battery is fully charged in case you need to spin the engine on the starter for a long time. I would swap in fresh spark plugs in case yours are fouled from assembly lube. And I would check that you've got oil pressure before giving the engine fuel or spark, since insufficient oiling is the quickest way to hurt an engine. You also may need to hold the throttle around 10-20% to keep the engine running if it sounds like it's trying but not quite starting or staying running.
Start with running codes if you still have stock ecu. Takes about 5 minutes to learn how to do.
RHD do not have a check engine light. If you do not have the specialized JDM codereader (nobody does), you can run codes with an LED light and a jumper wire.
Learn to do this and start with a code reading session each time you have a problem.
There is up to 75 faults the codes can tell you about.
Check all (ALL) your grounds.
The codes will not tell you about vacuum/air pressure leaks.
Find a shop which will run a "smoke test" for you.
Random note: For RHD 16 bit systems (Version 4, 5 &6) the location of the coils were switched around. If you use the USDM FSM as a guide to hook up the leads you may be hooking them up wrong.
On one of my builds the harness leading to one of the ignition coils was shorting out somewhere. The car would run then randomly shut off, maybe restart and then shut off again. It took me 2 weeks to discover after chasing fuel lines, dropping and cleaning the tank, replacing plugs/wire, and double checking all the other grounds and connections.
I just so happened to crank it long enough one time that it shorted out enough to produce a stream of smoke that I could follow.
Do you really expect the ecu to give you fault codes?sorry but that is a false hope.
the procedure is simple.
Check for ignition. Lisle makes a very nice spark tester. https://www.lislecorp.com/specialty-...e-spark-tester
check for fuel pressure
since this is a fresh rebuild make sure you didnt leave anything unconnected. You ll be surprised how often that happens…
i am assuming you are running a stock ecu?
try starter fluid in the intake and see if that’s firing.
these cars are so incredibly simple when it comes to actual diagnosis.
But a huge portion of the troubleshooting section of the FSM is predicated on reading codes and following steps to seek remedies to the issue they identify.
Recently I have tested the fuel pressure(reading 40 psi), as well as checking codes. I have trouble code 9 and only 9, which is coolant temp sensor. I have found out I have a broken thermo switch connector, could this get in the way of starting the engine? Doesn't really make sense to me.
The fan thermo switch is what triggers the fans with a factory ecu. If the connector is broken then you need to fix it. This sensor is on the back of the filler neck and has 1 wire.
The coolant temp sensor can keep the car from starting yes. When they fail the ecu will think the coolant temp is -40c and it just DUMPS fuel. This sensor is also on the back and has 2 wires..
The wire from the thermo switch has likely rubbed off. The wire is part of the emissions harness. The circuit runs through the emissions harness, the dash harness and back out to the fan relay through the front harness. Ironically the thermo switch is actually only about 5" away from the relay.
Congratualtions on running codes! How easy was it?
All things considered you might consider yourself lucky if this indeed fixes your issues.
( I believe later versions of FD did away with the thermoswitch and the ecu relied on the temperature sensor.)
Thank you for the help!, I am happy it is a easy fix. I plan on selling my current car, for the quest of finding a real j9 CYM. so I won't do anything else to my current car. The ability to read codes is nice for the future though.
After finally getting to install the theromswitch sensor, the car still wont start . There are no fault codes, and the car wont turn over at all. I have pulled the plugs and saw fuel mist when cranking, so I have fuel. I am using valvoline vr1 20w-50 which is synthetic, I have heard synthetic is bad for start up, is this true? I know it is harder on the OMP. I have no clue where to go now!
1. You said the engine has fuel, did you check for spark?
2. Have you swapped fresh spark plugs in case the old ones were fouled out during previous attempts?
3. Are you holding the throttle partly open so there is enough air for the engine to fire up and stay idling easily?
4. Is the battery fully charged and spinning the starter nice and fast, or have you drained the battery by cranking it dozens of times without putting it on a charger?
It is cranking. Therefore it is turning over. The issue is it is not firing? At all? Or is it trying to fire but not catching and therefore dying?
20W-50 is pretty heavy.
My car will flood very easy if it does not catch after a few cranks.
There are several procedures to follow to try to overcome the flooding.
But invariably I have to remove the spark plugs and let the combustion chamber air out.
The owners manual will tell you the procedure for a flooded engine is to crank while holding the throttle to the floor.
Holding the throttle to the floor is supposed to cut off the fuel..
It has only worked a couple times for me.
To avoid flooding I always start without touching the throttle at all. My car is that sensitive to flooding.
There are procedures to clear the engine of excess fuel by disabling the fuel pump.
You'd have to see if someone has explained how to do that on here somewhere.
All that said it seems more likely that you are not getting spark.
If it is not even cranking then there are likely issues with the starter. Does the starter just "click". If so it may not be getting enough power (or grounds are loose). Or it is just wore out. Working used starters can be found for $100.
Early LHD have a starter interrupter switch on the clutch. This ensures the clutch must be depressed for the car to start. If this is defective it may cut power from the ignition to the starter.
I am not sure if JDM had such switch. Later JDM did not.
Check to see if there are issues with either of your two crank position sensors.
These can easily get bumped when taking the motor in and out.
Also there may be issues with your TPS (throttle position sensor).
Follow procedures to check it.
Mind the screw heads strip easy. Use a small ratchet with a phillips head bit. (don't drop the screws).
05-12-23, 05:58 PM
RHD fd3s not starting after rebuild
