Hey guys, lookin for causes for a no-start. I've done quite a bit of part swapping, but haven't found anything as of yet. If you wanna see what i've done so far, here's my other thread about it in the gen. tech section; http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/te...t=astroglyph21 (Losing my mind!!! Car won't start!) Anyways, other than some more ideas about what could be wrong, i'm looking for up-close pics of peoples working TPI setups(especially wiring, fuel, and vacuum), wiring diagrams, and vacuum diagrams(i have one, but its not the greatest). Anything i should be checking specifically, tomorrow im gonna go out and take a bunch of pics and post em up here and maybe you guys can figure somethin out. I've been stumped for weeks, as i said in the other thread, the car ran before, albeit taking quite a while to start when cold, it would start right up when it was warm, and had a bad stumbly misfire on its way up to 3500 rpm, but after that it would fade away. Compression is solid in all cylinders, cam lift looks good, fuel pressure stable at around 41 psi when cranking, no sludge when i pulled the valve covers, i have a decent yellow spark when i crack and hold a spark plug up to the strut tower. After i crank it and pull a plug, the plug is wet. Anything you guys can think of that i should be trying? Thanks so much for all your help.

When the emissions were removed was the prom reprogrammed?
Also,is the cold start injector still operational?

no, i never got the prom reprog. for it, i heard that it didnt need to be, and the car ran fine even after i took it off a while ago, not sure about the CSI, how to i go about testing it?

bump...anyone know how to troubleshoot the CSI circuit, or even if that would have caused a no start, i looked but didnt find much.

yeah,posting a few pics of your setup would be helpful.

I dont mean to hijack your thread, but i also have a 3rd gen with a no-start problem. Its an 89 TPI Formula. The car would start randomly whenever you tried starting it. In other words maybe after your 5th try it would start or maybe after your 20 something try. Recently it has not started at all. Last time it started up and ran was in January 4th, 2008. It has not started up since then.



I will read your other thread to see what i can do to get it started, and if anything works i will post up. If there anyone that knows where to obtain a wiring diagram for the ignition system on these cars, it would be greatly appreciated if u can point us in the direction. Thanks.

Well if u said that the spark is yellow, that's not good it should be a good blue spark. But that won't cause the problem, and also depends on what year is the car. Is the fuel pressure steady when the car is on? Or when its off?? Check all injectors. I once had a problem with one of my injectors (just went out, out of nowhere and I didnt know) and the damn car would not start at all, would crank but no start and the fuel pump was working great but i changed it cause i thought it was that...

heres some pics of my engine bay, they're decent pics, ill get better ones if anyone needs them. this is how i got my car, a bunch of stuff i dont think was hooked up, this is my third IROC-Z, but only my first TPI car, so not sure where everything should hook up or whats missing. I just took the upper plenum and TB off so i could explore under there.

http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/452...1099774_rs.jpg http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/471...3024376_rs.jpg http://aycu29.webshots.com/image/445...5395422_rs.jpg http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/465...8711689_rs.jpg http://aycu35.webshots.com/image/457...5483816_rs.jpg
http://aycu23.webshots.com/image/444...6809647_rs.jpg

also, would a faulty MAF cause a no-start?

Acctually yes, it would cause a no start, or if it does it will idle like crap.

I couldnt keep my car idle without the MAF, it would just die out.

Have u checked your idle air valve???

wheres the idle air valve at?

its right under your throttle body its round...

I've ALWAYS been able to start my car without the MAF hooked up, so not sure how you can say it would prevent you from starting your car.

I have a feeling your problem is timing. rotate your engine to TDC on the compression stroke and make sure your rotor is pointing at the #1 plug wire. make sure your firing order is correct, make sure none of your injectors are plugged into their neighbor's wire. also, until you get it started, screw out your minimum idle air screw so that it keeps your throttle plates open and you can't blame a lack of air for your car not starting.

I'm just going on what I experienced with my buddy with an 88gta. His MAF was faulty and his car would start but run like crap, and when we took it off it would not start. See I'm not that familiar with MAF's since I have a MAP on mine..


Well yes u should try checking your timing it can also help alot. Good luck

Drowned spark plugs won't fire under compression. If they are wet/black with carbon, the spark will leak and not fire. try a differant set known to be good.
Take plugs out and clean all the black off. Burn the ends to clear anything that is left. About number eight, do it rest. It should run/fire on seven no load.

Even try them in an other engine. easy to clean hard to remove.

well, i finally got outside and worked on my car a bit, hooked up noid lights, and i didnt get any flashing, but my upper plenum is off right now, is this normal, any other reasons they wouldn't be getting signal?

Initial spark comes only from the distributor. At 400 rpm or so, the ecm takes over. I would look at the connections at the dis. ECM needs a pulse from the dis to fire the injectors. all 8 injectors fire (spray) at once, every 4 pulses (double fire mode).

Battery volts on one side (2 Fuses) and a pulsing gnd (ecm) on the other, while cranking, at injector connection. Can check with a cheap meter.

Remove MAF and spray a little starting fluid into Plenum past Throttle Blades. Try to start. It should hit and maybe run a few seconds. No hit look at spark. Hit and die check Fuel injectors ect.

i have a good mulitimeter, but what am i checking exactly? and would the resistance at my injectors tell me anything? if so, how do i do that as well?

Check at one of the injector electrical connections.

One side should read 12 volts (Battery) to ground (battery neg, engine block) with key on.

The other side should be open resistance to the same ground.

When cranking the starter, 12 volts should stay on, the other side should pulse to ground (on resistance), (Noid light flashing).

No 12volts, no ground = no noid light
No pulse = no flash.

Read on resistance directly across injector electrical connection (no power) should be all the same and greater than 12 ohms. 10 ohms or less = bad

ok, i have injector signal, and theyre all reading 17 ohms, but my timing is way off, when i crank it for a couple seconds, it backfires violently out of the intake, i thought i had the timing right, but apparently not, i lack experience in setting up the timing. can anyone walk me through everything, i had pulled the drivers side valve cover off, lined up the the timing mark to zero i believe, and dropped in the distributor, but apparently i did something wrong, could anyone foolproofishly walk me through it and tell me what i need?

i also read something about pulling a wire from somewhere when your setting timing, maybe that had something to do with it?

anyone?

The wire you need to unhook is in, or popping out of, a large wire loom. the connection is on the passenger side right near the firewall. Should be just around your A/C Blower.

ok one trick i learned was on the dis if the number one and number 8 on the cap are paralell infront as in 1 and 8 are in the front and they are even across the front you are eather 1 or 2 degrees off if it still doesnt work you are 180 off.... let me know if it helps