Motor in Now won't start

R

Rick

Senior Member
Joined
May 24, 2001
I have the engine in my 87 project car and tried to fire it up. The wiring harness has been somewhat butchered so it may be the problem. The service engine light is on but the ALDL connector has been cut out for whatever reason.
I am getting spark and fuel pressure is 40 pounds at the rail. The engine turns over but doesn't fire. I took a plug out and it is dry so I assume I am not getting fuel. I verified the cam and crank sensor are working with a volt meter. I tried swapping the ecm with the one out of my 86 to no avail.
What are all the sensors that have to be hooked up and working for it to start? I checked to make sure the orange ECM wire is hooked up. Since I bought this car in pieces, I am not sure everything that needs to be hooked up is. Thanks for the help. I'd love to get this thing running!!
 
Did you calibrate the cam sensor that might be your problem. hopefully someone can come in with more insight
 
I moved the balancer 1 7/16" past TDC on the #1 cylinder, installed cam sensor with notch to passenger side and window towards driver side, hooked meter up to center wire and rotated clockwise until it went from 7v to 0 v.
 
ground wires , injector harness plug ,oil pressure switch plug , crank sensor ????
 
I believe the grounds are all hooked up. Crank sensor is verified working. Tell me more about the "oil pressure switch plug". I have the oil pressure gauge hooked up to the sending unit that screws into the front passenger side above the oil pump assembly but I need details about the switch and what wire hooks to it. The injector harness is hooked up and appears in good condition.
 
What slot are you using on the crank sensor ? should be the farthest one from plug . The oil switch is found at the tee for the turbo oil supply line . It is silver body , black on top in color and has 3 prongs on top of it . The plug should be found in the same area and is a round rubber shape with a plastic removeable retainer ring . as far as I know this must be connected in order for the car to run . If the EMC does not verify oil pressure it will not allow the car to start . Also check bat ground to block , firing order , make sure # injector plugs are on the right injectors . Did you make sure that you installed cam sensor on "TDC of Compression Stroke" and not exhaust stroke ?????
 
The spot that the turbo oil feed line goes to is the spot that the sending unit is screwed in to for the oil pressure gauge. I don't see where a plug would plug to down there and I looked at my other car and it is the same way. I found a three prong plug that isn't plugged in but the one one my car that starts isn't plugged in either. I verified the crank sensor is working with a VOM. Will you give me more info on the oil sensor, I think that may be the problem, have a pic of it??
 
I'll email you a pic that looks prety close to what it should look like . is it a round rubber "suction-cup" looking kind of plug ? It should be found coming off of the wiring harness near the TPS and cam sensor wires and snakes down beside the timing cover to the turbo oil fitting .
 
Okay, got the pic. That sensor is supposed to be screwed in to the same block that the turbo oil feed line is screwed in to right above the oil pump assembly??
 
Maybe on this engine the sensor was removed to screw in the aftermarket oil pressure sending unit??? I'm pretty sure I found the plug because it is really gunky like it came from down there. The thing that is confusing me is my other car has the same connector that is not hooked to anything. The connector has the three blades, one at 9:00, 12:00 and 3:00. Is there a mod or jumper to put in if the oil pressure switch is removed??
 
yes . that's how mine was orig done before I added another tee for a electric guage sender . I'm prety sure these cars will not start unless this plug is plugged in the sender . you maybe able to somehow wire it to by-pass the sender if need be . Can anybody chime in to verify the above? that these cars will not start without the oil sender plug attached to the sender .
 
yep , that's most likely the plug ! does everything else mentioned check out eg: cam sensor (right stroke) , crank sensor (right slot) , etc ?????

Is there spark at the plugs ? anything done to the engine before the no start condition occurred ???
 
OIL PSI SW.

The oil psi sw will not cause a no start problem. It is there to do 2 things:
1. Turn out the lite on the dash.
2. Provide a bypass for the fuel pump relay in case it fails and the car will not start. Only problem w/ it out of the circuit is no fail safe if the relay dies..
If the plugs are dry, then the fuel inj circuit is not being triggered, even tho you have initial psi. I'd check the Fp while you are cranking and see if it stays up, or falls off..
HTH,
 
the reason I refered to the oil sensor plug was I had a no start condition on a new rebuild . Upon inspection notice the plug was off the oil switch .I put the plug on and turned the key and the engine started right up . I guess it must of been some fluke thing at the time .
 
Fuel pressure is staying at 40 pounds even while cranking. Interesting thing though when I just went out to check the FP it actually fired momentarily and a bit of smoke came out of the downpipe elbow. There is hope yet!! I'm going to get a new battery for it and recheck the cam sensor. After it just poofed it just went back to cranking but the battery is week even with a charger on it. Thanks for the help and trust me, you'll here from me if I ever get it running!!!!!!
 
The following was written by Jim Testa and is a very logical means of troubleshooting a no start. Looks like you are ready to begin step 3. Hope Jim's info helps you. It has helped me many a time.
"OK, to diagnose ANY car, you need to find what you have and dont have. The way *I* usually go about it (which might not be right to some people, but its methodical and consistant so I stick to it.

1) Note the check engine light (if EFI). If its not on, STOP and find out why. Listen to how it cranks. I can pick out compression problems doing this. If you are in tune to your car, you can too. Listen to the starter as each cyl comes up on compression stoke. You'll hear the starter slow down a little at that point. You bight hear deerdeerdeerdeer, where a dead cyl m ight sound like deerdeeeeedeerdeer (great sound effects huh?)

2)Depending how accessible the intake is, I'll shoot 3 or 4 seconds of carb cleaner into the plenum. Either thru the throttle body, or the brake booster vacuum port. If its a lack of fuel problem, the car may start, it may simply kick. If it does either, its time to look to fuel system (usually, although enrighening can bring out a low sec output problem too, so dont take my suggestion of fuel as law)

3) If the car kicked, I'll put a FP gauge on it. If fuel pressure isnt in spec, now you need to see why. Fuel pump, filter, resticted line, bad reg, low batt voltage, bad relay, blown fuse etc. If FP is in spec, its time to hook up a noid light and verify our injectors are getting pulsed. If youre not getting a pulse you will want to hook up a scanner and look for RPM during crank. If you are getting RPM signal, check for spark. If you're getting spark and no fuel, although there is a commanded PW (see below) you probably have a bad ECM. How fast it cranks isnt as important as the fact you get a RPM signal. Next you'll look at Coolant temp to see if it coincides with ambient )if the car is cold), and verify TPS isnt shorted to Vref which will put the car in clear flood and cut off fuel. If these all look OK, you'll want to take a look at commanded PW.

3) If the car didnt kick, I'll yank a plug wire and see if I got spark. If I got no spark, then I'll check also for inj pulse using a noid light. If I have neither its usually due to a dead crank sensor. If I have no spark, but I have injector pulse, its usually a module.
Typically:
No start - no spark, has inj pulse -> Module
No start - has spark no inj pulse -> ECM / cam sensor prob
No start - no spark OR inj pulse - crank sensor or module

Oh, and if the module is dead, I suggest putting a coil pack on it as well as most of the module failure are caused by an overheating or arcing coil."
 
Same thing happened to me

Same thing kinda ! My engine would not start and I found my injector fuse (under my dash) gone and kept blowing them.I pinched one of my injector lines and had it fixed and everthing was fine .Hope this can help.
Big Mike
 
Are all your fuses good CCCI -INJ,that cam senser thingy didnt sound right to me .make sure you are on#1 comp go 1.45 past TDC turn clockwise and come back counter clockwise when voltage drops tighten down.Hot wire the pumps temperary if you have to make em run all the time if theirs a question whether their running.Is the coil pack grounded .......Good luck
 
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