paradigm

I'm a first time poster, long time lurker. A little over a month ago I picked up a 94 touring with 51k miles for 11 thousand dollars. Car was in great shape. Good 10-8-10 boost, smooth idle...I figured I stole this car from the guy...........

4 days after I purchased the car I changed the oil. Went from 5w-30 to 20w-50 (local dealership had done the oil changes). My friend, who owns a 93 r1, and I noticed a LOT of fuel mixed with the oil. More than what would be considered normal. We finish up and go to start the car again. It turns over, but it's running like crap. Lumpy idle, sputtering. Sounded like a lawnmower. Then out of nowhere the problem fixed itself. It did this over the entire day. Hot engine, cold engine.....didn't matter. It would still do this for a few seconds on start up. Later that night we took it to another friend's house who owns an FD as well. While there we diagnosed the problem as either leaky injectors or really really fouled spark plugs. We shut my car off and notice the radiator fans are still on. 15 minutes later the're still on. The radiator is ice cold by now, but the engine is hot. We turn the car on and notice coolant coming out of the overflow......then we look at the temp gauge. The car started overheating while idling in my friend's driveway. We shut it down and release the pressure in the system to vent the heatsoaked coolant. After it cools we add coolant and start it back up, but it doesn't seem like it's drawing coolant into the motor (we checked with the cap off. No champaign bubbles). Rather than risk driving home I had it towed.

The next day I pulled the spark plugs. They were covered in carbon and soaked in fuel. I don't think plugs get any more fouled than this. I changed them out for new ones, but the car was too flooded to turn over now.

Over the course of 3 weeks I replaced the thermostat and water pump to try to take care of the cooling problems. Since the car wouldn't work with the new plugs, I figured it was probably the injectors that were leaking (I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and instead I should've just tried to unflood the motor. hindsight's 20/20 ). Anyways I got the injectors and the primary and secondary rails out and took them to pettit to get them tested/cleaned. Candy tells me the're good as new. If there's one bright spot to this story it's that pettit racing is about 15 minutes away .

So after the car has been sitting for 3 weeks I finally get all my parts together (thanks to brian at mazdaformance.com for overnighting all my gaskets and insulators). So starting from the fuel injectors I put everything back together along with a vacuum hose job along the way. I put in another set of new plugs and plug wires. Everything's done, so I go to start the car. Nothing. It's cranking really slow. Battery was dead after sitting for so long. Next day I went out and picked up a new one. Now the car cranks great, but still won't turn over. The most I get is a little cough or a backfire out the exhaust. Just enough to tease me......

An engine needs fuel, spark, compression, and the timing to make it work before it will start up.....

I'm getting fuel (the plugs are getting drenched in it and the exhaust reeks of unburned fuel).
I'm getting spark (my poor dad almost electrocuted himself while checking the plugs).
I'm getting compression (~90psi across the board on a cold motor).
I SHOULD be getting the timing (I've reset the ecu already so it should restore timing to factory spec).

I've done the whole complex unflooding procedure a few times already and nothing works. There's no sign of coolant on the plugs nor does the exhaust smell like coolant. So the question to be asked is.........what should I do? Personally, I'm about to just save up some serious cash so I can get it towed to pettit and be prepaired for the worst (new motor), but I'd like to try and fix it myself if I can. Any suggestions?



Almost forgot. My mods include the pettit TKT base upgrade (cold air intake, pulleys, 3" catback) and a pettit 3" downpipe.

The car is also an auto, so push starting it probably wouldn't work

OneBadRx7

Well this is a LONG shot BUT check to make sure your MAP sensors vacuum hose is indeed connected to it. Its along the firewall, drivers side in case you didnt know. Check that line, if its not connected it wont start, at least it didnt for me, it would just reflood itself.

paradigm

switched it out with a friend's. His car ran fine with my map sensor. Double checked the lines & connectors too. While cranking the car now, I can feather the throttle after cranking and cause the car to cough, sputter, and stumble a little bit. The the fans will come on low speed and the HOLD light will flash on and off until I turn off the key.