ishnish
10+ Year Contributor
- 940
- 152
- Jun 26, 2011
-
Modesto,
California
Hey guys, so I finally completed my head rebuild on my car. It's sat for four years and I finally got it back and had the funds to do these things. I should be posting up a build profile soon as well. Anyway, everything went great with it and I double, triple, even quadruple checked things to make sure I wouldn't have any regrets. I'm ocd about perfectionism and on top of that this was my first time ever pulling apart things on a car so I took every safety measure possible to make for the smoothest process.
Yesterday, I finally got everything buttoned up, put fluids in, and then cranked her up the first time in 4 years. Cranked a bit to prime the pump first with some electrical connections disconnected. Then plugged it all back and cranked it to start. Nothing but just cranks. Any idea what it could be?
So my checklist is as follows:
- I checked to make sure the pump was working. Through ecmlink I was able to activate the fuel pump and it was functioning just fine.
- The fuel filter was replaced with a new oem one.
- I did undo the return line at the end of the fuel rail and it for sure had pressure as fuel started to squirt out before I could even fully loosen the second bolt holding the fpr.
- spark plugs and wires were brand new. Checked to see if the car was firing by checking the spark plug end of the wires. It was.
- I made sure NUMEROUS times that my car was times perfectly correct. I took every precaution to check the marks and they were correct, I even counted the teeth of the old timing belt and set the new one exactly the same and held it down with zip ties, wrapped the rest around the.other lower sprockets, and when I tensioned the belt, everything sat correct. Nothing was off a tooth.
- It definitely SOUNDS like it's getting compression. I have no sure way of checking because I don't have the tools to check. But anyway, the car had perfect compression on all four cylinders when I first stopped driving it. It was never an issue.
- I plugged in ecmlink and I have no CELs. Everything is fine.
- I verified that the CAS is sitting correctly for sure.
- Messed with the spark plug wiring orders by using the order I had last which is the EPROM ecu order and then the stock 2g order. Both did the exact same thing, just caused the car to crank the same way. No difference.
What wasn't checked yet :
- I guess you can add compression on the list because I never checked as of now because I have no way of doing so. A mechanic I knew checked it a couple of years back when I stopped driving it and said it was perfect though. That's all I can go by. I'm just positive that isn't it though. It even sounds like it when the car cranks .It sounds like it really wants to start but just wont.
- I am not able to pull the spark plugs and see if they are wet with fuel on the bottom because I was borrowing spark plug removal sockets and I don't have access to them anymore.
Some extra notes:
Because I mentioned that the car sat for some years, I did drain the gas tank and ran the fuel pump until all the fuel came out. It got to the point where it would only very occasionally have pulses of very little fuel coming out so I stopped it at that point because I figured that's enough and it was practically empty. Is it possible that the car is still using that old fuel? I put in two gallons of new fuel and I would think it's enough to dilute the old fuel (whatever little is left of it if any at all). The thing is, I did not drop the fuel tank and clean it out and all that. I really didn't think it'd be necessary and don't have the tools needed to do so. I have to work on my car outside because I don't have a garage and only jackstands that I borrowed and a floorjack.
I also plugged in ecmlink while cranking and logged it. Everything was practically flat on the graph other than just the injectors which were pulsing. The injector duty cycle was 3.5%. Should it have been higher??
I'm honestly stumped guys. I'll try remembering any extra details that I left out but any ideas as to what's wrong?
Thank you so much
Yesterday, I finally got everything buttoned up, put fluids in, and then cranked her up the first time in 4 years. Cranked a bit to prime the pump first with some electrical connections disconnected. Then plugged it all back and cranked it to start. Nothing but just cranks. Any idea what it could be?
So my checklist is as follows:
- I checked to make sure the pump was working. Through ecmlink I was able to activate the fuel pump and it was functioning just fine.
- The fuel filter was replaced with a new oem one.
- I did undo the return line at the end of the fuel rail and it for sure had pressure as fuel started to squirt out before I could even fully loosen the second bolt holding the fpr.
- spark plugs and wires were brand new. Checked to see if the car was firing by checking the spark plug end of the wires. It was.
- I made sure NUMEROUS times that my car was times perfectly correct. I took every precaution to check the marks and they were correct, I even counted the teeth of the old timing belt and set the new one exactly the same and held it down with zip ties, wrapped the rest around the.other lower sprockets, and when I tensioned the belt, everything sat correct. Nothing was off a tooth.
- It definitely SOUNDS like it's getting compression. I have no sure way of checking because I don't have the tools to check. But anyway, the car had perfect compression on all four cylinders when I first stopped driving it. It was never an issue.
- I plugged in ecmlink and I have no CELs. Everything is fine.
- I verified that the CAS is sitting correctly for sure.
- Messed with the spark plug wiring orders by using the order I had last which is the EPROM ecu order and then the stock 2g order. Both did the exact same thing, just caused the car to crank the same way. No difference.
What wasn't checked yet :
- I guess you can add compression on the list because I never checked as of now because I have no way of doing so. A mechanic I knew checked it a couple of years back when I stopped driving it and said it was perfect though. That's all I can go by. I'm just positive that isn't it though. It even sounds like it when the car cranks .It sounds like it really wants to start but just wont.
- I am not able to pull the spark plugs and see if they are wet with fuel on the bottom because I was borrowing spark plug removal sockets and I don't have access to them anymore.
Some extra notes:
Because I mentioned that the car sat for some years, I did drain the gas tank and ran the fuel pump until all the fuel came out. It got to the point where it would only very occasionally have pulses of very little fuel coming out so I stopped it at that point because I figured that's enough and it was practically empty. Is it possible that the car is still using that old fuel? I put in two gallons of new fuel and I would think it's enough to dilute the old fuel (whatever little is left of it if any at all). The thing is, I did not drop the fuel tank and clean it out and all that. I really didn't think it'd be necessary and don't have the tools needed to do so. I have to work on my car outside because I don't have a garage and only jackstands that I borrowed and a floorjack.
I also plugged in ecmlink while cranking and logged it. Everything was practically flat on the graph other than just the injectors which were pulsing. The injector duty cycle was 3.5%. Should it have been higher??
I'm honestly stumped guys. I'll try remembering any extra details that I left out but any ideas as to what's wrong?
Thank you so much
Last edited:
. 
