urgent help needed

[tomwallace]

hey guys,
sorry to bother you all but i have a q for yas. I was drivin home, changing down to 2nd gear in my 5spd 3.8 vn and the engine stopped. i tried starting it again, it turns over, but does not start. i thought maby a problem with the fuel line? fuel filter or maby a loose wire, i doesnt sound internal to me but hey im not a mechanic. anything i should check b4 i pay big bucks for a mechanic? thanks guys

[madsav]

check the computer(passanger side kick pannel)
have a look under the car were gearbox meets motor, and see if you can find any loose wirers there, and if not try the fuses under the driver`s side dash

[sp001in]

basic mechanical principles indicate that to diagnose your problem you should eliminate a few things first. firstly. remove a spark plug lead from the plug hold onto it with a pair of insulated pliers, and near a earth point on the motor, basically anything metal. have someone crank the motor and see if you can see a spark flying in between the wire and the earth. if so repeat process for a few more leads to be sure. If you have spark move on if not, check your wires for a loose connection around the coil pack and the ecu.

so you have spark but it's still not starting. and old carby method is to drop about 1 cup of fuel down the carby a crank it and that should be enough to get it going but with fuel injection its a bit harder. try and find a can of aerostart (aka "start ya bastard") and spray directly into the throttle body whilst cranking the motor, if it fires then you have a fuel problem.
check injectors, wires, fuel lines, fuel regulator etc.

thirdly I assume your air filter is clean normally this will just make the car hard to start but it will still run.

If it still won't start then I would assume you have a valve problem. take your rocker covers of have someone crank or turn the motor, and watch each rocker. if the a all moving then I would say your rings are gone or broken. If one or two don't move they are probably stuck or the colet has partially or completely fallen out. if say 1 2 3 and 4 cylinder rockers are moving but 5 and 6 aren't the you either have a broken push rod, lifter, or a broken cam.

DId the motor rev pretty high when you downed changed?


I broke my cam just cruising around. the oil just got blocked off by a piece of colet from a broken valve we recently repaired and snapped. end of story.

the motor rotated but wouldn't fire.

[tomwallace]

yeh it did rev pretty high, i was changing down to second but it jerked like i was changing down to first, then konked out and as u say there the engine rotates but doesnt fire.

[tomwallace]

dam, what am i looking at in repaires if something like that is screwed??

[chevy_big_block_bro]

dont you love it, you sell your best mate your old pride and joy and they go and bust it.
For your sake tom i hope its not the cam.
Do the checks if you have time or leave it up to the NRMA on sunday
sp001in,If the cam was to bust wouldn't it go out with a bang.
The only problem i ever had was an earth wire under the dash near the fuse box but i did it up extermly tight so it shouldn't be a problem