Resolved No Start (searched and tested)

[90laserRSfwd]

Got a bad one here I believe. I've searched and searched, done test after test, replaced sensors with known good working ones. Continuity tested the wiring harness from sensor plugs back to the ECU. Checked the physical mechanical timing. Drained and replaced to the fuel. Read and followed threw the thread below, and tested everything as stated:

http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/how-to-diagnose-a-no-start.217951/

So here's the back story. Bought a 92 tsi non running with Link in it. Cool. Guy says he got fuel at a local station, and about a mile down the road, the car sputtered and died. Never restarted. Suspected it to be a CAS. No biggie, installed a know good CAS, no luck. Drained and replaced with fresh fuel (and new, properly gapped plugs - NGK br7es .022"). Nothing. Only thing that keeps happening while turning the engine over, is that IF you hold the throttle open all the way, it will backfire / sputter threw in the intake and try to run on it's own for a second.

Idea's we've not yet tried, clogged exhaust or colappsed flex section (no cat)

ECU bad? (CEL comes on and goes off, V3 connects to laptop no issues that we've noticed

CTC (coolant temp sensor, reads correctly, replaced anyway with a new one, no change)

tach functions when turning over engine

AFPR with fuel lab gauge, reads 43 - 44 psi when pump is on (255 rewired)

compression test was kinda pointless because the engine was cold (120's?)

Verified timing (#1 piston to TDC, cam gear dowel's up and equal, timing marks on gears lined up)

ECU is a 90 non eprom (converted with ECMLink), gonna send that off to be rechecked) Wires #6 and #14 swapped in harness

Had evo 8 injectors, put brand new FIC 1150's in today (8/15/18) no change

Have fuel and spark..

Help! (thanks in advance).

 

[90laserRSfwd]

My only real options at this point (I feel) are that the ECU is somehow bad, the wiring harness has a short somewhere that we are unable to find?, or the engine is so low on compression it will not start? I honestly don't believe the last part.

 

[97 eclenger]

Is it tuned for the 1150s? If not you're putting way too much fuel in. These ecu's are known for capacitors leaking causing problems. 120 psi seems pretty low. Should be around 180 psi warm. A few have had around 140 cold. Does it even try to sputter?

 

[ThunderChild]

Have you pulled the valve cover to check for thrown followers?

 

[90laserRSfwd]

Is it tuned for the 1150s? If not you're putting way too much fuel in. These ecu's are known for capacitors leaking causing problems. 120 psi seems pretty low. Should be around 180 psi warm. A few have had around 140 cold. Does it even try to sputter?

It is (used the scalling template provided in link to set the global, think it was -63, I'll look again to verify if need be. I seriously doubt the caps are leaking, as they were just replaced when it was converted and link was installed. (it's a non eprom ecu as stated above). But I'll pull the ecu and look. It does sputter randomly, not enough to start. 120 was the cold number. It hasn't ran in a few weeks. No idea what it would do warm.

Have you pulled the valve cover to check for thrown followers?

This I have not. Not yet anyway, heading back over after work to take a look. I bought the car as is, and haven't gotten into the engine at all yet. I'll pull the valve cover and report back.

Thank you guys for the reply's thus far.

 

[Crackerman]

Maf?

They will typically start with an unplugged maf, but suck at everything when a maf is bad.
Or if a boost hose is disconnected.

 

[90laserRSfwd]

@tametalon92 All the rockers where accounted for and looked great!

#crackerman Good thinking, but this car is on SD..

So here goes. We got it to start and run, sorta. Turns out the IAT sensor wires had come out of the plug and where not making contact, causing the IAT sensor to tell the ECU it was -40 degree's (F) outside (flooding the cylinders with fuel). That's the good news, and how it started and ran kinda.. on to the bad news

The real issue here was a mechanical one.

(something people have been saying for years. BRIAN CROWER parts are garbage. Now, don't take that wrong. I am not personally saying their (BC) stuff is junk, but this is the first set of cams I've personally owned of theirs (BC 272's) and its definitely something that has left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not faulting BC here because it was the cam core itself that broke, NOT the machine work that BC did.)

Pictures are worth a thousand words, so I'll let you guys pic this apart. Cams where purchased new. No issues until one day the car just sputtered and died after putting fuel in it. I have not emailed BC about this (and more than likely will not), it's just a sobering reminder that aftermarket parts fail just as stock ones and it sucks when it happens to you! I'm truthfully not mad. The car did just get ARP's and a head gasket, which sucks because I just pulled the head again, thinking the gasket failed or a piston cracked. None the less, I'll take a $40 head gasket cost and put the stock cams back in.

I'm happy the issue was found and can't wait to get the car back up and running after the head comes back from the machine shop (never know where all those metal shavings went from a cam snapping in half.

Thank you guys for all the help. I am thankful for the pointers. I'll post back after the motor is reassembled!

 

[fastersteve]

Is this a common issue with these cams? I bought a core engine and found them under the VC. I was thinking I got lucky...

 

[90laserRSfwd]

Not sure how common of an issue this is. This definitely isn't the first BC part I've seen fail, but like I said above, it's the cam core itself that snapped, not the machine work BC did to the cam. Just a bitter sweet reminder even aftermarket parts can fail. This is where the "you gotta pay to play" saying rears it's ugly head. I personally wouldn't run them (the BC cams)(obviously my exhaust cam is no good), but I do have a friend, with a very respectable 16g setup, that runs BC 272's with no issues. Also, Kelvin here on tuners did a camshaft shootout a little while back and the BC 276's seem to be great cams. It's all up to you!

 

[motomattx]

Never saw that from BC cams before, most likely they were torqued down improperly.

 

[ThunderChild]

That is pretty crazy. Seemed like itd have to be a mechanical somewhere. Glad there wasn't any other damage.

Never saw that from BC cams before, most likely they were torqued down improperly.

Cant necessarily disagree, kinda depends on how long they ran before going tits up, but I do find it a little unlikely.
Without a better pic, it looks like it's got a poor grain structure close to where the journal fillet meets the journal itself, and that's where it gave out. But it's hard to see, so you could be right as well.