No start, have fuel and spark

[VtheGNMan]

As title says, have a no start, trying to figure this out.
Took a running engine out of one car and put it into a frame off resto. Total down time to date has been 6 months. Have a complete car ready to drive, now this has me stumped. As you'll see I have went thru No Start charts

New car does have the factory theft deterant which is new to me and I haven't worked around one yet.
Let me detail all the steps and items I've checked so we can eliminate them.

Car cranks. Attempts to start and chugs a couple seconds and dies.
Gas is new, just changed spark plugs too. I have spark. Made sure all plugs wire are correct to cylinder. Same coil pack as old car and no troubles.
Noid light test on injectors shows I have injector pulse. Fuel pressure when cranking is at 40.
I did have Steve Monroe rebuild the Throttle Body for me when car was was apart and engine out.
TPS set at .42.
Can't set IAC but have it backed out and just beginning to press on the TB butterfly. I have went thru the reset procedure by grounding ALDL pins. IAC itself was new and housing was hot tanked before powder coating.
I had to reset the steering column switch so reverse lights would come on and go off when in Reverse and go out in park.
Aftermarket tach has pulse when cranking and CEL is on in dash.
ScanmasterG and Power Logger have full inputs. ECM was same as in old car too.
Have oil pressure when cranking.

Could it be anything with that factory theft cut out? I am inclined to think not as it cranks and tries to fire. If the key switches were bad though, could it cause this?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[TurboBuRick]

Did you try to give the cam sensor a little turn?

 

[VtheGNMan]

Did you try to give the cam sensor a little turn?

I did not but thought about it. Being it was running before nothing should have changed. I didn't want to add another variable that could be off. Was it right the first time but off now kind of thing.

 

[No disintegrations]

You could squirt some gas into the intake. If it fires up it would suggest clogged injectors. Injectors were working six months ago?

Iirc factory anti theft will trigger if you did not use the key to unlock the door. Use the door key to lock then unlock. Then try to start.

 

[RmvBfrFlght]

Since it cranks it isn't the anti-theft. Try holding the go-pedal open a little while cranking. If it floods can hold the go-pedal to the floor as a clear flood mode.

It is always possible that the crank sensor gave up the ghost ( went flaky).

RemoveBeforeFlight

 

[VtheGNMan]

Injectors worked with no issues. When I checked for spark with a spark plug out it also coughed fuel so I know it's getting sprayed into the cylinder.
I had a flakey crank sensor and replaced not long ago before I pulled engine. I wondered if I bumped it out of clearance in the motor transition so I regapped and made sure that t was right too. Not to say it doesn't have an issue or the injectors aren't clogged, just telling what I've tried and my observations.
Thanks for chimimg in guys!
Door locks have been tried too. From my understanding of the theft deterant, wouldn't it either not even crank or the horn etc would be going off?

 

[VtheGNMan]

I tried to start holding the gas pedal down a little. About 1/4 way and then about 1/2. It stumbled and chugged more and for longer but still no start. I haven't tried taking off the intercooling piping yet to spray gas into the throttle body.

 

[Sinister CO]

I had a similar situation and it was some stuck injectors.

 

[TurboBob]

since you have the powerlogger, how about a logfile? injectors and chip matched? Check Engine light do the on-off-on sequence when you key on?

Presuming then engine is mechanically ok, then you either have way too much fuel, or not enough. unplug the injector harness and see if it will start on the residual fuel. Or perhaps unplug the MAF in case the MAF is reading way too high, thus overfueling the engine.

Bob

 

[VtheGNMan]

To log the start up attempt I just start recording and then crank away I am presuming?
Chip and injectors are matched, 80s and Eric burned the chip.
LT1 maf and translator. I have it at the base 0 setting to start with. But I did install a new 4" Tinman air intake which is different on this car than the last one.
I'll unplug maf first and try to start since that's easier to unplug. After that I'll try injector harness plug.
CEL comes on with key and cycles.

 

[fastblackracing]

I have had cars not start or almost start and chug as you are describing 2 times.
One car all 6 of the injectors had stuck shut after the owner had stored the car over winter,
and I was able to find this by going thru all of the steps you have plus one more....after the
fuel pump primed I disconnected the pump then cranked the car and watched the fuel pressure..
it never dropped...all 6 injectors were stuck closed.

Verify pressure drops when cranking with your
pump disconnected.

The second one was the firing of a new engine that included a Fast XFI install that almost started...
this one left all sorts of doubts due to all the work done but In the end there were 3 injectors stuck
closed and these were brand new injectors.

The fix to this was a injector harness that I put alligator clips on that I could then attach directly
to battery voltage and that then caused the injector to snap open and then we were able
to get on with business. The fast pulses of the ecm were not strong enough to open the
stuck injectors

As stated above pull the up pipe and disconnect the MAF and shoot some gas or starting fluid
in the intake, if it fires then you can narrow it down to the MAF, cam sensor or possibly the
2 ground wire bundles on the back of the passenger cylinder head....a lot of important stuff grounds
at this G120 point and its always possible a wire got compromised here.

If you put gas or starting fluid in the intake and it will not fire you likely have some form of crank sensor issue.
I would check the ground wires first. HTH... FBR

 

[dank GN]

I would reset the cam sensor I have had issue similar and it was the cam sensor . I'm willing to bet your gear is worn or something is wrong with the sensor .if you don't know how to set it properly look it up on here and reset it .

 

[VtheGNMan]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I'll have some time to work on it again this afternoon and will report back.
Logic tells me that if I crank over and then immediately pull each cylinder plug I should see fuel on them. This should indicate a stuck injector, right?
I might just give the cam sensor a little twist too. I have a Caspers setting tool but before I go thru all the TDC etc, I'll try just a little twist.
I took great care with the grounds as I know how critical they are. I regrounded the cylinder head to firewall with a grounding strap too.

 

[No disintegrations]

I tried to start holding the gas pedal down a little. About 1/4 way and then about 1/2. It stumbled and chugged more and for longer but still no start. I haven't tried taking off the intercooling piping yet to spray gas into the throttle body.

You can try holding it to the floor. As said in an earlier post. That will turn off the injectors. If it starts that tells it was flooded.

Fast black racing has the easy way to check injectors. He said to turn on the key to give fuel pressure. Then disable the fuel pump. Now crank over engine. The fuel pressure should creep down as it cranks. If not they are stuck shut.

 

[dank GN]

Do you have a oil pressure gauge ? I hope so . If not I would get one aswell as do more then Alil twist on the cam sensor. Take it out inspect it and set it correctly. I wish every time I had a issue I could do the bare minimum but unfortunately life isn't that good to me and it always invokes something simi major . Good luck and hope u figure it out

 

[VtheGNMan]

You can try holding it to the floor. As said in an earlier post. That will turn off the injectors. If it starts that tells it was flooded.

Fast black racing has the easy way to check injectors. He said to turn on the key to give fuel pressure. Then disable the fuel pump. Now crank over engine. The fuel pressure should creep down as it cranks. If not they are stuck shut.

Thanks for clarifying. Will do!

 

[VtheGNMan]

Do you have a oil pressure gauge ? I hope so . If not I would get one aswell as do more then Alil twist on the cam sensor. Take it out inspect it and set it correctly. I wish every time I had a issue I could do the bare minimum but unfortunately life isn't that good to me and it always invokes something simi major . Good luck and hope u figure it out

Thanks man.
I do most definitely have an oil pressure gauge. Good pressure when cranking.

 

[dank GN]

Thanks man.
I do most definitely have an oil pressure gauge. Good pressure when cranking.

Good you kinda scared me when you said what if the reluctor wheel of the cam sensor turns by hand . Well good luck hope you can get it going without having to tear into her

 

[dank GN]

Thanks man.
I do most definitely have an oil pressure gauge. Good pressure when cranking.

Good you kinda scared me when you said what if the reluctor wheel of the cam sensor turns by hand . Well good luck hope you can get it going without having to tear into her

 

[VtheGNMan]

Okay, tried some suggestions. Attached is the log of the failed attempt to start. It tried and sputtered for quite a few chugs. I hope I did it right, that's my first attempt at saving a log. For log reading reference, the #4 analog is fuel pressure.

Suggestions I tried and results. I started here as these were the quickest and easiest to try. And I wanted to get the PL log uploaded here so you can have a look.
I pressurized the system and then pulled the fuse. With each crank the fuel pressure dropped a little more.

I disconnected the MAF and there was no change, still sputtered but no better or worse than any other time.

I held the accelerator the floor to initiate a Flood start. Did not fire. Do I need to do anything after doing this, like to reset it to normal starting???

I ask that because after I did that, it has no longer sputtered, only cranks.