tried jumping, awful smell

[Puller]

it's been really cold, my car won't start when it's cold, i haven't been driving so the battery barely cranked the car, not enough to turn over. i got one of those emergency jumper boxes and tried to start it, just as little cranking power and i smell an electrical/wire buring smell in the car. it's windy out so i can't tell where. i put the charger on the battery, got it up enough to crank the motor quicker, it starts to sputter like it want's to start but after trying and trying the battery runs dead again. i do have bad compression about 90 and 120 on 2 cylinders but usually i can get it going anyways, im fixing the rings next week but my daily driver broke so...mostly i dont care that it doesnt start cause im confident it will in warmer weather as usual, but i really want to know what that smell was, i grounded the negative cable on the jump box to a bolt on the strut tower and obviously put the + on the + any ideas?

 

[Puller]

also, i thik the smell is a tad weaker after switching from the box to the charger, im waiting for it to air out to see if it comes back...regardless what do you think it was?

 

[rebuilt65]

ECU

 

[Puller]

ok, but what about the ecu...what would've happened then that didn't happen before...it doen't smell fishy as if the caps leaked...its supposed to get a lot warmer today into the 30s so im gonna try again. is there anyway i can tell if it's the ecu for sure...assuming i don't get it started?

 

[mitsutuner]

There is more stuff to cook inside your ECU, not just caps, but micro-chips that control your ignition. pop out you ECU & take a close look at & rub your finger on the centers of the micro-chips & feel for soft gooey rubber. Jump-starting incidents are known to have damaged ECU's & another contributing factor is it's proximity to the heater box--when mine fried, I realised that I had been driving around all day, defroster on full heat with fan turned off.

 

[Puller]

alright, ill do that, my car has a lot of miles, maybe my coil pack is goin/gone and stuff it sputters and i actually had it goin for a bit today but it died like usual only i couldn't get it again my car has awful compression but i've driven it in 30degree weather, we'll see after i rebuild it this monday what happens.