my goddang car wont run! ('91 KA24DE) i need a DOHCtor

[O0ooAJoo0O]

'91 s13 DOHC (KA24DE) no mods yet180k miles

Ok heres the catch..

girlfriend puts HESS gas in it in AUGUST!, blew the head gasket.

towed back to my parents house so my dad can fix it. ITS now DEC 23, still wont start. He's got the thing back together, had a mechanic check it over, all is good. new vavles, cleaned head, new gasgets, new fuel lines, new fuel pump/filter/screen, new O2 sensor, all back together. hmm, cant get it to run on anything except carb cleaner or ether. we've run the ECU codes and all i get back is....NOTHING, no blinks, no flashes, nothing. I know the ECU works, because when i run it in diag mode, and turn the ignition to ON the LED flashes for maybe a half a millisecond. the mech said bad gas, which gumms up the injectors.. so thats what were going on... any ideas, like i said, it will only run on carb cleaner or ether in the main vac line.

-AJ[email protected]

[bruinbear714]

'91 s13 DOHC (KA24DE) no mods yet180k miles

Ok heres the catch..

girlfriend puts HESS gas in it in AUGUST!, blew the head gasket.

towed back to my parents house so my dad can fix it. ITS now DEC 23, still wont start. He's got the thing back together, had a mechanic check it over, all is good. new vavles, cleaned head, new gasgets, new fuel lines, new fuel pump/filter/screen, new O2 sensor, all back together. hmm, cant get it to run on anything except carb cleaner or ether. we've run the ECU codes and all i get back is....NOTHING, no blinks, no flashes, nothing. I know the ECU works, because when i run it in diag mode, and turn the ignition to ON the LED flashes for maybe a half a millisecond. the mech said bad gas, which gumms up the injectors.. so thats what were going on... any ideas, like i said, it will only run on carb cleaner or ether in the main vac line.

-AJ[email protected]

Well, lets start from the beginning shall we.

1) Does your fuel rail have pressure in it? Yes, go to step 2. No - check your fuel pump, fuse, and make sure there's not a vacuum leak.

2) Crank the car a few times and then pull out the spark plug. Do you smell fuel in the cylinder, or on the plug? Yes, go to step 3. No - Your injectors aren't working and either are clogged, or not getting signal from ECU.

3) Check to see if the spark plug is getting the spark it needs to ignite the fuel. Yes, go to step 4. No - Ignition coil bad, rotor cap bad, or something's grounded.

4) If it does get the spark, is the timing correct?

There you have it, a basic flow chart for you to follow. This is assuming you installed everything correctly, ie, the crank and head timing is correct, and the distributor timing is correct.

If it cranks and starts up then dies immediately, check your MAFS and TPS.

Also do a reality check to to make sure every hose is in its proper place, that there's no vacuum leaks, and that every connection is correct.

[O0ooAJoo0O]

ok heres the thing, ive already done all that. The fuel rail is getting pressure, the injectors are getting the ECU signal(i hear them click) and everything is in time. Ive done the timing light on it and the dist. is functioning correctly. the plugs all spark in order and everything is plugged in. all vacuum lines, all the wires... etc. possibly the MAFS? like you say. if so, how would i fix that. or if anyone knows, how can i pull the codes from the ECU. i tried 240sx.orgs DOHC insturctions, but that doesnt work. when i spray ether in the main vac line, it will run, for minutes even, but as soon as it runs out, it putters and dies. i did get it started today without spray, but it putters and sounds like only 1 piston is firing. also, what TPS, havent heard of that...

thanks-AJ[email protected]

[bruinbear714]

TPS - throttle position sensor. that goes right next to the throttle body and its the black rectangular thing.

MAFS - mass air flow sensor. that's located near the air filter on the right side of the radiator. If you don't have that connected, or if its a bad MAFS, then your car will start and then die right away.

[I am Technoman]

Hess gas blew a head gasket!! I would SEW! :oface

[O0ooAJoo0O]

Ok, heres what i did today: tried to crank it and crank it again again and again. I got some bosch platinum +4's to try it, nothing new. i looked at the old ngk's again, it theyre all wet with gas, and black, thats why i got new ones. after trying the bosch's i checked em out again. cylinder 4 seem like its doing the most, but not much more than the rest. i stuck my fingers in the sparkplug holes, i got gas on my fingers, so the injectors are (at least) working a little. but it still wont fire. it cranks and cranks and cranks, but no fire without ether/carb cleaner.

[TrueSlide]

Could it be flooded out?? I mean I really do not think sparkplugs should be wet with gas.

[O0ooAJoo0O]

nah, its not flooding, the bosch's werent really wet at all when i took them out. and now i cant work on it, its raining. i want to....

[PapaSmurf2k3]

maybe theres some water in the gas? try dumping some of the gas into a cup (via a fuel line or something) see if it looks normal. if it doesnt, run some dry gas through it or just try and get it all out and fill up with some new stuff. did you try kicking it and/or yelling at it yet?

[bruinbear714]

The next thing to try after you confirmed you get gas into the cylinder is to make sure the spark plugs are FIRING.

Pull out the spark plug and just have the wire connected to the plug, crank the car up and see if it is getting spark. Hold the wire boot with a pair of pliers or something so you don't get shocked. Do this for all 4 cylinders and see if they all fire. It could be you have a weak battery, bad rotor, bad coil, or bad wires.

Try that first, then try jumping your car with another one.

[O0ooAJoo0O]

fully charged battery, and everything is getting spark. already tested all that. it even runs on carb cleaner/ether. it just wont fire on the gas thats in it. i cleaned all the connections in the dist. and made sure all connections are good. circuit wise, everything is good. mechanically, everything is great. it should run.

[bruinbear714]

If everything's mechanically correct as it should be, you should disconnect the hose going to the fuel rail and route it to a bucket. Turn your key on and the fuel pump should pump, let it pump out all the gas and refill it with a different source.

If that doesn't work, and you say it gets spark, gas, AND compression, then the only other problem I see is that your timing is completely off.

[Dattebayo]

[QUOTE] I know the ECU works, because when i run it in diag mode, and turn the ignition to ON the LED flashes for maybe a half a millisecond.[//QUOTE]

the ecu should respond to diag mode with a code 55 (or0505 for you obd-ii people) or something else. Are you sure that the ecu is okay?

[Dattebayo]

yeah well maybe not the problem but still try to drain the gas thats in it and get some other stuff and keep the gas that was in it for evidence. Ha sue the bastrds

[O0ooAJoo0O]

ok, got the entire tank of gas empty, out 3 gallons of new gas in it, polished the throttle body(removed and cleaned) new spark pluggs, removed a ratchet(dont ask) set the engine back on the mount, the correct way, and now were charging the battery...

think it will work this time?

[O0ooAJoo0O]

SHE LIVES!!!! i put new gas in, cranked her over, and she woke up from the 3 month sleep. im so happy. charged the battery and wired in my fog lights(christmas) and shes back in business.

you'll be seein' my tail lights soon...

[PapaSmurf2k3]

sweet, how did the gas look? lots of water and/or other crap in it? the same thing happened to my grandmother. she bought 5 gallons of gas, and at least 1 gallon was completely water.:rantI dont think you have any lawsuit against them, unless you have proof that it was from their gas station, or get multiple people that have this problem, and start a class action suit against the company.

[O0ooAJoo0O]

well, considering the gas has been sitting in the tank since august, i think it degraded to the point of crap. it didnt even smell like gas anymore. i also polished the throttle body, with a dremel. i found a very small vacuum hose connected to the back of it (the throttle body) that was cracked and very bady disentigrated. i replaced that and hooked it all back up. then i whooped my friends *** tonight in his camaro [evil grin]

-AJ

[Dattebayo]

hey well arent you glad that it wasnt something expensive!!! by the way i had a friend here in md who had a similar problem with his car, it turned out that the pump station had a leak in the underground tanks and forgot to purge the moisture from the system. If you caught it much earlier on you could have sued like he did.

[yellow_jacket]

If you want to hear something really funny: A guy my dad knows took his car to Pep boys because car wouldn't run. They diagnosed it as having no compresion and the motor being bad. Fine, they tow it to his house, get an engine, and I get the bright idea to try and start it. Won't start, fine, I spray it with carb cleaner and it will run as long as you spray it. It even starts to run on its own, but is spewing incredibly large amounts of white smoke. I laugh and say that sucks but don't think twice about it cause it's not my car or anyone I know and I didn't diagnose it. Long story short, Dad changes engine and it has the same problem cause the tank has large amounts of water in it. Be careful who you have work on your cars!

[TrunkMonkey]

don't revive dead threads to post something that doesn't add anything worthwhile.

i'm locking this.

-demetrius