Ok, long story condensed into bullet points:

- I inherited my brother's FD when he got married, had kids, and moved on. He left his car with me (whose wife is waaay more understanding than his). I have an FD as well but mine is working great.

- Car is beautiful but it has literally sat in the garage, not started, not anything for almost 3 years. It has 30k on the chassis and the motor. I went out there a few months ago and tried the unthinkable - to fire it up and it definitely was a no-go.

Since then:

- Car has been deflooded many times. Not the problem.
- No fuel. Fuel pump was completely corroded. Looked bad. Replaced. Fuel filter also replaced (Hate this job). Fuel system was replaced with the CJM system. Power FC recalibrated for these injectors. Fuel is now getting to the front.
- Spark is fine, all four.
- Compression is awesome. 125-130 max on both rotors, even bouncing, no skips
- Fluids all changed. Battery is new and strong and starter is a beast.

I started to take it apart again and I noticed this:
When I turn the car over slowly by hand... A bubbling, gurgling, and spitting sound comes from the LIM (UIM is off). There are the normal sounds of air moving when the compression is released, but this additional bubbling worries me greatly. A very faint mist rises from the LIM if I turn it over enough and it sort of smells like gas, but not really sure.

I don't see that it would make this noise if there were just some residual ATF from the deflooding in there...
Is it gas?
I'm worried that the coolant seal is leaking and that the rotors are just swimming in coolant like a waterwheel in a river. I can't do the coolant champagne test because the car doesn't start. If it's been this long and the engine is sitting in water for a while... I'm gonna need a whole new motor.

I realize that the car should not have sat there with no motion for that long, but there is not a lot that I can do about it at this point.

Any constructive thoughts, advice, or input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Its probably fine. If you want more assurance, pull the lower spark plugs, turn it over by hand and see if it pushes coolant out / if the plugs are covered/smell like coolant

 

If you properly deflooded it would get water out as well, so I agree with previous poster that isn't your issue.

I'd suggest pulling and cleaning or replacing the plugs. Oil/ATF/fuel soaked plugs are difficult to fire.

 

Yeah, it would hyrdo lock if it was as bad as you fear. You may well have a blown coolant seal, but it's not drowning in water. Plenty of 7's run around with small leaks.

After sitting that long without being decommissioned, would anyone actually argue with opening the block for a refresh?

 

Is the coolant full at the filler neck?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Pull the plugs and turn it by hand, if you get water out, you're screwed. Try some fresh plugs after turning it by hand.

Matt

 

Thanks for the responses, guys.

I haven't seen coolant out of the spark plug holes at any time and I just pulled the plugs I have in there and there was only a little fluid on them that looked/smelled more like gas and ATF. With the plugs out, the gurgling/bubbly noise is gone too - perhaps it was the air rushing past the ATF/gas that caused it and, without compression, there was no air pressure gradient.

Since I changed the coolant, MrMatt, it has not dropped from the level where I left it at (full).

I hope you guys are all right and I'm worked up over nothin'. I'll put it back together in the next coming days and try again with new plugs and new determination.

 

Fuel mist and gurgling/popping out of the UIM sounds very similar to the old "standoff" you used to get on carburetor engines...

Its a complex thing so I'd encourage googling it rather than me trying to explain it. That would be like a caveman trying to explain astrophysics...

 

Have you tried replacing the spark plugs? When you say that the spark is good, how did you determine that?

 

I googled the "carb standoff" and it's quite interesting. It makes sense that it would happen but I'm not sure it applies in this case. I can't even get the car to start much less get it revving enough for the fuel pulses to mismatch with the engine turning. Some of the You Tube videos about standoff are pretty impressive.

Yes, I pulled the plugs yesterday and the plugs don't look terrible (they basically look shiny and new) but there a little bit of fluid on them that smelled like gas/oil/ATF. Irregardless, I'll be using brand new ones next time I try starting the car again.
I verified the spark previously by pulling the spark plugs and using a spark plug checker for each wire while cranking the car. Everything seemed to spark strongly and nicely. Quantifiable? No. But, there definitely was spark. In contrast to when the igniter in my FD died. Then there was nothing.

 

Yes, definitely start with new plugs just to be on the safe side.

A few things to check:

- Are the leading wires going to leading plugs, and trailing to trailing?
- Pull the primary injectors and verify a good spray pattern.
- Verify no obstructions in the entirety of the intake path.

 

Any updates?

 

Thanks for inquiring, Halfbridge.

Ordered new spark plugs, waiting for them to come in. ETA should be early next week.
I did pull the injectors and both primary injector spray patterns are beautiful. Fuel pressure looks good.
I had changed the spark plugs previously one by one and have labeled the plug wires specifically to try to avoid the leading/trailing confusion. Just to be sure, I did check it again, and they are hooked up correctly.
Definitely no obstructions in the intake path.

I'm looking at a crazy 2-3 weeks coming up (baby #2 is due soon!) so I dunno if I will be able to get to try to start the car before things go nuts. I'll definitely post back once I give it a go, but I'll probably only have a small window of time each day where everyone else is sleeping and I can once again be the crazy person in the garage in the middle of the night.

 

An update for the few (if any?) that cared or had input.

Finally got the chance to get out there and do some work on the car.

1. Changed spark plugs as was recommended by several of you. Went back to 7 leading, 9 trailing just for this start, good ole NGKs.
2. Verified no leaks in the fuel system and good fuel pressure with new fuel pump in.
3. Drained gas out of the bottom of the gas tank and refilled with 5 gallons of awesome California 91 octane + premix.
4. Flushed new gas through to the front of the car.
5. Checked and re-checked injector settings on Power FC with Datalogit.

And the result is a garage/neighborhood full of dense white smoke and a rotary motor that is purring happily.

I think that the main difference was the crap gas that was still in the tank. I took that gas and put it in on of my dirt bikes and it wouldn't even start. Siphoned it off and put new gas in it and it fired right back up.
Boo bad gas.

Thank you too all of you who helped. As always, you are much appreciated.