Ok, I will try to keep this short, but it's complicated and I need to provide some background so I don't get responses to try things I already did or don't make sense.

The car is my 87 GTA. It has a built 383 in it with a Miniram intake. I converted it about 7 years ago to a 730 Speed Density ECM and have been burning my own PROMs for longer than that. I pulled the T56 trans out and sold it in the fall of 2008 and the car has sat since then without being started or having a battery even hooked up to it. I recently got a built TH700R4 trans for it (going to a drag oriented setup) and installed that about a month ago. A friend helped weld the floor shut, and I replaced the cable speedo drive with a VSS setup, but otherwise it was an easy bolt in, as it should be.

While the car was down, I ended up lending and then selling the SVO 42lb injectors out of it. I replaced them with a set of the newer smaller body green "Ford" (Bosch) 42lb injectors.

I hooked up a charger to the old battery in the car and set it to 10 amps and pulled the feed line off the fuel rail and pumped out the old gas and replaced it with fresh 92 octane.

I then got a new battery for it since the old one was not taking a charge (no surprise there).

I started the car at that point. Fired up almost instantly and ran good with the exception of not idling all that well initially and smelling a tad rich since it is open header (the Y-pipe I had with the T56 setup won't work with the TH700R4).

I then topped off the fluids, lowered the car down off the jack stands, and aired up the tires to take it around the block. Get in to start it, a slight pop but then nothing. Doesn't even try to start.

Check for spark - nothing. Remove MSD 6A box from system - still no spark. Just for heck of it, also check for injector pulse (I have a noid light) - nothing. So with no spark or injector pulse, I check for DTCs - nothing (12 only). So I am thinking a pickup coil problem. Take off cap and rotor, find quite a bit of corrosion under the cap (it is an MSD distributor with their Hall Effect pickup setup, but uses a stock HEI remote coil ignition module). I barely touch the pickup coil wires where they hook to the IM and the terminals on the wires crumble to pieces.

So I am thinking this has to be it. I take the pickup coil off, strip the wires back to get good copper, solder on new terminals, put it all back together.

Before doing anything else, I check for injector pulse - good. Try to start the car - nothing. Check spark - nothing. Remove MSD 6A from system - it sort of pops a few times and eventually starts, but sounds like complete crap, blows massive black smoke out the exhaust, and dies. I keep cranking on it and eventually the starter starts making aweful sounds and won't turn the car over. I pull a plug and it is soaked with fuel. I pull all the plugs, figure why not replace them, and let it dry out. I restart the thing and it does the same thing and just sounds aweful and blows more black smoke out. I check for DTCs again and this time it has DTC 15. Borrowed another ECM from a friend - no change.

Let it sit overnight, borrowed a stock distributor and another different ECM from a friend - won't start at all, still cranks freely for a bit then bogs down and won't hardly turn over. Let it dry out and check for spark - good. Then the battery was pretty much dead for the night.

So.... I am thinking the issue here is fuel related. As in waaaaayyyyy too much is being delivered. But the initial cause for the no start was the pickup coil wire terminals corroding and falling apart - which apparently took out the MSD 6A? And caused something else. That something I am not sure about.

So the battery is charging and I am going to, just for the heck of it, take the Memcal out and make sure the PROM config file is still good.

Any ideas????

Thanks!

 

Oh.... I also pulled off the vacuum line on the regulator to see if it was blown out and pouring fuel into the intake - no dice (no fuel coming out, looks good). Also tried putting a fuel pressure gauge on it and turning the key on to prime the fuel rails, then watching for leak down - no dice (no leak down), so doesn't seem to be a stuck open injector.

 

OK, well like I posted above... I went ahead and pulled the Memcal and re-programmed it with the same file that was in it from before I parked it. Went out, and it actually started right up.

But... now the Check Engine light is on steady and when I turn the key to run, the fans come on. I cannot get any flash codes out of it. With the A B pins shorted, the Check Engine light stays on steady. It still starts and runs alright, but I took it around the block and also have no speedo. I have 4 ECMs now, one that was in the car and working fine and then three unknown ones from boneyards. I tried all four but they all behave the same way. I tried taking the Memcal out and keying the ignition and checking for codes as well, but nothing changes - still Check Engine light on steady and no codes.

What is odd about this is that when I had it running initially for that one hour period, I had no Check Engine light while it was running and when I ran through the gears with the car in the air, the speedo worked as well.

So.... seems like it is in "limp home" mode and the ECM is not working at all. All fuses are still fine at this point.