Another one of those lovely Won't Start threads. Here in the Midwest it's been terribly cold and I've been trying to keep the Camaro in good running shape but it's finally decided not to start. I took it out for a drive and warmed it up nicely pulled it into the garage and parked it. The next morning I went to start it and it would crank and crank but not fire. It's getting fuel and spark to the plugs and the plugs look good even though I bought some replacement AC Delco's. I tried checking the timing with a light but I could never see the mark and the battery died before I got a good chance. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

u gettin spark to all wires

 

Yup every one. Now that I think about it, I've been thinking it's the Camshaft timing. My distributor has the No. 1 cylinder angled towards the driver side front of the car instead of the passenger. Could the timing chain have slipped and the camshaft to cylinder timing is not zeroed in?

 

dosen't matter where rotor point driver or pass as long as its at the #1 terminal on the cap at tdc of comp. storke on #1 cyl

 

I'm thinkin my timing chain jumped and slipped or something with the timing. Spark is good to all cylinders, coil was replaced no effect, and fuel is being sprayed into the throttle bores. I'm just seeing if theres any other thing I missed to check for ignition wise. Where is the ignition module located?

 

in the distrib. highly unlikely chain jumped unless its really old try resting the distrib timing if u really thinks its timn

have you checked ur compression

 

No I haven't checked compression yet. I've been waiting to do an extensive tuneup until it got warmer, but of course it decides to crap out when its Sub Zero outside. Thanks for the help. I'll check the distributor and compression if time allows tomorrow. I thought it was highly unlikely the chain would jump too it's only a 90 and it's got 130,000 miles on it. Not sure on previous rebuild or not, the kid before me rebuilt the tranny so I'm not sure. Doesn't act like a rebuild motor anyways. Thanks again and I'll keep posted on what it was.

 

Alright.... IT'S FREAKING COLD!!!!!.... Got the NO. 1 cylinder to top dead center (Piston at top of stroke and right in between compression and power stroke). I took the cap off to check the timing and it's off by a whole cylinder. I haven't tried to go from there because I don't want to grenade the motor. The setup of the distributor goes as follows in the attachment. THe bottom is the front of the car and the rotor as it is drawn is how the wires are run on the car. The rotor is pointing to NO. 2 cylinder instead of NO. 1 What happened to cause this to come out of set so bad. Would this be caused by a slipping timing chain?

 

was your dist hold down bolt loose

 

It was tight as a rock. Nothing has been touched except all of a sudden the TDC is off. by a cylinder as shown in the crudely drawn picture.

 

try turnib distr. to the number 1 or move wires see what happens could have been installed wrong whole time

 

I would re-set the timing and go from there. Clean off the timing tab so that you can read it and paint the groove on your balancer with a little white paint. In the cold and in poor lighting this will allow you to see the timing marks. Before you set the base timing make sure the car is idling and you unplug the EST (tan/brown wire around the passenger side strut mount). Set the base to 0° to 4° advance and then plug the EST back in. I bet you just bumped the dizzy around when you were messing with the cap and wires. It is easy to do. Poor timing can keep a TBI motor from starting.

Your timing chain did not "skip" or slip. If it did you would know about it.

 

Thanks Shifty... The timing Tab is remarkably clean and I've already painted the balancer. The thing that is making me leery is the fact that the distributor was rock solid when I uninstalled it. The only possible explanation would be the cold weather causing the distributor to heat and cool and move but a whole cylinder? I'm just not wanting to put a valve through a piston but I'll disconnect the EST wire and set the NO. 1 cylinder on TDC and see if it will start.

 

Ive got a similar problem. The car started up yesterday, when it warmed the RPMs dropped to about a grand and then it started to stumble and then stall. Now it wont start. Brother hooked up scanner and it isnt reading any RPMs when turning over. Also said the injectors weren't spraying. Any suggestions?

 

Check feed line fuel pressure. Sounds like a dead pump.

 

Well It was the timing. Somehow the distributor cap moved enough to retard the timing. The cap was really tight and unmoveable by hand, unless you have some hurculean grip but then the cap would have broke. It's running right and I put the timing light on it and set it 4 degrees advance so it won't have so much trouble starting. Thanks again everyone.

 

you can hear the pump turn on.
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no codes are coming up. would this cause it to stall?

 

just disc fuel feed line and do a fuel volume test,that will let you know if pump is getting fuel through the filter to your carb/inj,

 

Well I must have spoke too soon. Went to start the car this morning and it's the same thing all over again. I think it's flooding out when I crank it because of the cold temperatures. I disconnected the Injectors and it started and ran for 6 seconds without fuel delivery,(When I got it running yesterday). Now it's doing the same thing over again.