Today I was driving my car around. No problems evrything running well. I stoped at a store and when I pulled out my car dies and refused to start back up. No fire at all at any cylinder. I pulled a spark plug and I get a solid spark. The fuel pump make a solid normal sound. Considering I get spark it must be a fuel problem. Tomorrow I will take my fuel line off at the engine and check if I get gas. If I do not what can it be except the fuel pump. If I get gas all the way to the engine what should I check? I dont think there is a single injector not working properly since no cylinder fires.

 

I tested the fuel pressure today and it reads 42. What voltage should the injectors get?

 

Battery voltage KOEO

 

I was sparyig starting fuel and gas in the TB and still no signs of life. This just doesent make sence. I got fuel I got oxygen and I got compression. What is wrong ?

 

Distributor bolt loose and the dizzy spun whacking out your timing??

If you got air, fuel, and spark....thats really all that's needed to start a car, even if it's all f----ed up you can usually start it. Unless you snapped the timing chain or jumped a tooth.

 

That would make most sence. Considering the abrupt death like it would not get any spark but it does, that would be the only possible explanation. The only problem is that I did not get any backfire which is comon for a bad chain. I did a crude test on the chain by turning the engine forward then backwards with a wrench and looking at how fast the valves respond. It was not bad but I guess that it isnt good enough. Tomorrow I will do a proper check.

 

Crank the motor til you get compression stroke on #1 cylinder....then turn it to around 0 on the balancer indicator. Know where #1 is on your cap, and pull the cap off. You can mark, on the distributor housing or somewhere directly in line with it, where #1 on the cap lines up with for reference. Like I said, pull the cap off, and set the timing on the balancer to what your motor was set at....if you dont know, set it for stock, prob 10 degrees BTDC. Now look at the rotor, is it pointing at #1 where the cap is, or is it somewhere else?

 

One more thing that I just remembered. After the pump stops running the fuel press dropped to zero in <2 seconds. That sounds like a FPU problem. Maybe the car wont start on starter fluid because there is just not enough. Hell even on my bike if you dont spray directly in the carb it wont start on starter fluid. I will still check the timing chain to be on the safe side.

There is something else that my car has been doing for quite a while. Whenever I crank it starts right up then dies. Second crank it starts up and runs well. They are very short normal cranks. Also this winter there were 3 days that my car would start very very hard. After it started no prob. I was about to check everything that weekend but miraculously it started easily after 3 days. It really seems that I have been dragging some fuel problem for quite a while.

 

That's definitly not the problem. WHen a car comes into my shop with a bad FP, we shoot carb cleaner down the TB and run it until it's in the garage or on the lift outside. We drive around 7.4L Big BLock Suburbans like that and they run just fine.

Something that you have to keep in mind is that a coil only outputs what is needed to jump the hardest gap to get across. When you're outside of a cylinder with no compression, you might get a good looking spark because it only takes 5KV to jump the gap, but once you're under compression, it takes upwards of 14-20KV to jump the plug and it's impossible if you have a coil that's only capable of putting out 10KV. It'll look really good at 5KV because you have plenty of room to go before coil output drops, but you just can't make enough under compression where it's harder to fire.

Parts stores sell a tool specifically for this purpose. It looks like a spark plug except that it's missing the center electrode. It's calibrated to take 25KV to jump the gap. You can usually get them in 2 calibrations, one for points systems, which take less voltage to jump, and one for electronic ignitions which are usually capable of 40KV+. In MOST circumstances, if you can jump a 25KV gap, then the spark can happen in the cylinder under compression.

 

Thx that sounds like it really could be it. What does KOEO mean?

 

Key On, Engine Off

 

She is alive . It was the coil. I will soon post a chart with tests to do to pinpoint the problem when your engine does not start

 

shouldnt worry about injector voltage, you'd want to do a resistance test. I believe 12.8-13 ohms to be within service limit

 

In my 88 the GM manual says your fuel pressure shouldn't really drop all the way to zero once the fuel system is primed. If the key is turned on the pressure should hold steady and may drop a little bit. Good thing you found it was a coil, I had the same sort of thing happen to me once too.