Engine wont start after revuild

[JRSTANGE]

Long story short. Short as I can.

I picked up a 1990 eclipse gsx.

Previous owner had it in last winter for a radiator flush. The shop pulled the car out and shut it down and took the keys in for him to pay. The previous owner ran out before paying and started the car back up and went into pay. When he came back out the car was not running but, it would turn over and over but, not fire up.

One of the previous owners friends told him he might have skipped timing and bent some valves keeping it from firing up. So the previous owner started taking the timing apart to pull the head and found he was in over his head and sold the car and I baught it.

From there I finished taking the head off to find the head and valves were fine. Since then I've performed all the maintenance with new head gasket and head studs, seals, and so on and so forth with new timing belt, tensioner, pulleys and so on. In essense the car is like new with everything being taken care of besides internals and sensors.

Well a couple of days ago I finished getting it all back to gether with the new fuel pump etc... and tried to fire it up. For me the engine cranks and is getting spark and fuel but just wont turn over. I've yet to do a compression check but, I'm thinking it's got to be enough to start. But, do plan on checking it. Also during my rebuild while changing out the cam seals one of the dowl pins snapped on the intake cam. From there I got a new cam and installed it making sure the cas was in the same poisition with the new cam.

So since I'm getting fuel as I understand the cas is more than likely ok as well as the timing being done to the letter. I also know the spark plugs wires are in the right order with new plugs.

But, I plan on checking to make sure the cas is positioned right but, I was thiking about the coolant temp sensor and perhaps it's bad keeping the car from firing up and running. This idea came just based on the previous owners story of what happened. Perhaps the coolant sensor was on it's way out and died during the radiator flush or right after on the shut down and start up being the sensor is the origional with 182k miles on it.

So I'm heading out soon to get a new coolant temp sensor also and will check the cas and compression when i get back from the store.

But, I wanted to get everyones idea here to see what they think or if they have any other ideas of what it could be or to look for since I'm new to dsm's and dont have the knowledge base quite yet.

Thanks in advance.

well it runs. Turns out to be the coolant temp sensor. problem fixed. Little things now to get an alignment and get it legal.

 

[ineedagsx]

try spraying starter fluid and see if it runs on that, mine did that right after a rebuild and for some reason my car needs 3 separate ground wires to run . I have no idea why but as soon as i did that it runs tits now. good luck

 

[donniekak]

try spraying starter fluid and see if it runs on that

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Get a logger and check for codes. Does the boost gauge go to 0 when you turn the key to the on position?

 

[Tanro]

Because everyone has access to that?

Easiest way would to be use a paper clip or some kind of jumper to jump the OBD port and get it to flash the code. If you have any codes.

Its probably some kind of stupid thing like a sensor not hooked up or gone bad.

 

[JRSTANGE]

thanks everyone.

Got it running. it did turn out to be the coolant temp sensor. Started right up the first time once i put the new one in.

Just finishing up little things befor i go for the alingment, inspection, dmv and get the tires mounted on the new wheels.