2.5 months, and still won't start

[mouce]

After sinking a lot of time into my pride and joy and more coin than I care to think about. I finally got to take it for a spin the other night, grand total of about 5km round trip.

Now it won't start. It kicks and coughs and splutters, sometimes running for 5 seconds before it dies.

The whole car rocks from side to side, the engine shakes like hell and backfires like mad. If by some miracle it does run for more than 5 seconds, I can't get it out beyond 1800rpm, and it kicks and jolts on the way up.

I've changed:

• Harmonic balancer,
• CAS,
• O2 Sensor,
• Thermostat,

The fuel pump still works (there's still fuel pressure anyway). The ECU returns Code 12, and the fuel (BP pulp) is a nice bright yellow colour (which according to BP it is meant to be).

I'm fairly stumped, any ideas on what it could be?

Cheers,
Mouce

[mattakaspeeedy]

when you switch the ignition on can you hear the fuel pump prime ? if not then you need to replace the pump.

[88GreenVN]

Good chance the DFI or coils are caktis

[HARVZ-6]

get a work manual n a multi meter and check the resistance of your coils to make sure theyre ok..

check over all plugs, connections and sensors including vaccum lines

[centy]

timing chain after checking other things.

[mouce]

The fuel pump still primes the lines, I've checked it a dozen times already. I just get paranoid that I missed something last time I checked it, so I check it again.

I've been over the coil packs with the multimeter, all of them return the same reading across the posts (7.5kohm).

I've been through the entire electrical system in the last two months, rewired a whole stack of the car, but as I said, took it for a drive the other night and it was happy enough. Everything worked just as it should.

I'm 90% certain that it's either spark or fuel related. Mechanically I can't fault anything.

As for the timing chain...nah...the engine actually turns over. If the chain was gone wouldn't that just crack my engine if it was dead? Valves not opening/closing and having a piston slam into it and all?

Guess my next port of call is to check the Ignition module and the injectors. Is there anyway to check the injectors in place or do I have to remove them to test them?

Cheers,
Mouce

[DavoVP]

easy way to check the chain i gues is to take a rocker cover off and crank the car, if the rocker's move etc as they should its ok, But thats def wierd. backfireing and **** if all the electrical checks out ok sounds like your timeing is ****ed, perhaps your chain slipped a tooth or 2. Thats all i can think of realy.

[centy]

the chain can slip a tooth or two and that would put the valve timing out big time and cause all sorts of problems.
valves hitting pistons is very rare.
I personally have never seen it happen.
years ago i had a dato and the chain had a big slip while the engine was running and no valve hit.
the real life valve timing og a engine normal has valves open past tdc on the intak and exhaust stroke so would not expect it to hit vavles.
you have to check primary and secondary resistance of the coil packs.
the pins under the coil packs, put a test light accross the pins and cracnk over, the light should flash on and off.
test all the pins.
anoter silly question, are the injectors realy firing?
maybe a test light on them to.

[mouce]

My god I hope it isn't the timing chain, I haven't got the time or skills to do that.

I was going to test the injectors the next chance I get, because it really seems to be a fuel issue. (or maybe that's just blind hope). I'm hoping that it's just some stale fuel that's gummed them up and they aren't flowing right. I'm also going to go over the electrical system, because my ammeter goes NUTS in the five seconds it's running. Bounces from more than 50A to less than -50A. I've NEVER seen that before, even when I had a blown regulator.

This is quickly sounding like it's going to be a job for a mechanic. I'm good with the tools but I also know when I'm getting out of my depth.

Thank god for RACV total care (=unlimited towing).

Once I've tested the injectors and the coil packs, I'll post back with the results.

Cheers,
Mouce

[88GreenVN]

You have got the leads on the correct way? Can make the car very lumpy.

[jas98]

You have got the leads on the correct way? Can make the car very lumpy.

lol yeh i have done that to me mates VS...sounded bad haha

also have left 2 leads off on me old VN and started straight away and ran.....but sounded weired haha so i checked and was 2 leads off ...opps

[mouce]

SHE RUNS!!!

Turns out that when I replaced the CAS and the Balancer, I didn't line them up properly. Didn't even think about it at the time. Turned the engine over by hand to make sure that it wouldn't take off any fins on the back of the balancer...but didn't notice that it was shaving away at the CAS.

Shaved away so much (it was only out of alignment by half a mm) that it had shagged the sensor.

Result: The CAS was dead (even though there was no ecu error code saying so), engine didn't know when to spark...timing was up the ****ter...

Solution: Chuck the old CAS back on (I replaced it even though it wasn't dead), line everything up with feeler gauges and everything else I could through at it. Turned the key and away it goes.

Thanks for all the advice. It was while I was checking the coils that I thought to check the CAS.

Chalk one more fix up to the guys and girls on this board.

[DavoVP]

well done dude

[voxbox]

haha im reading through this going "i've seen this before, it's the CAS.." glad to hear you got it sorted. Friend of mine had a VL with an intermittent short of the CAS signal wire.. that took many, many weeks to work out..

[LowVp]

nvm to late

[PaRaDoX]

ummmmm yeah make sure your keyway on the crank is still there, my keyway went missing and my balancer slipped that makes BIG problems

[89 vn]

Nice work, its good to be able to drive a car that wont stall repeatedly but you do get good at evasive moves

[mouce]

@voxbox: I knew there'd be someone out there who would know exactly what it was. There always is. :-) The good thing about 20 year old cars is that there's never a "new" problem, they've all happened to someone else before.

[rob drag racer]

@voxbox: I knew there'd be someone out there who would know exactly what it was. There always is. :-) The good thing about 20 year old cars is that there's never a "new" problem, they've all happened to someone else before.

dont feel to bad i did the same thing only it took me over 2 months to work it out and 3 cas later i found the issue with much appreciation from the guys here helping me out

it happens unless your a totally precision driven person