Well here is my problem...
I rebuilt a 91 ls with arp rod bolts and head studs, new rings and bearings, new gaskets, new water and oil pump. Once I got this started up my car smoked like crazy and I diagnosed it to be bad valve seals and guides so to the shop it went and I got new valve guides and seals, three angle valve job whole nine yards. Well i finally got it all back together and in the car and im trying to get it started up. I have fuel cause apparently I have an exhaust leak and fuel is leaking from my cat. I have spark cause i grounded out the wires to check. The motor cranks and struggles to start up. If it decides to start up it dies about 3 seconds later. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I know the starter, distributor, battery, plugs and wires are all good because they have all been started up before in the car. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ohh and for all you picture ****** out there here is a few pics.
the day i got it

the p30 pistons and the head studs

the first time it went in the car before the head work was done.

the head back from the shop

as it stands today


enjoy the pictures and thanks in advance for any help.

 

Fuel dripping out your cat? wtf?

You need fuel, spark, air, compression, and proper timing for the engine to run. If fuel is dripping out of your cat, do you think you washed out your cylinders? Check your compression.

 

ok well its dripping out from where the header meets the cat... the gaskets arent getting a good seal its a new exhuast and i still have some kinks to work out. I cant check the timing right now because the motor doesnt start so not much I can really do there. Everything is lined up on the crank and the cam gears and I've messed with the distributor in between cranking sessions to see if that will affect it at all, but so far to no avail. As far as washing out the cylinders I'm not familiar with what that is do you think you could elaborate a little more for me? Thanks for the help.

 

Have you checked to make sure that your spark plug wires are connected to the right cylinders? This may sound stupid. But this is probably the number one reason for problems like this. Remember that the lower rear connection on the distributer goes to cylinder one, the upper rear goes to 3, the upper front goes to four, and the lower front goes to 2.

 

maybe a fuel injector stuck open? BTW nice no-TEC build

 

Yes the wires are in the right order i definitely checked that over a couple of times both with HT Posts and with the Acura Manual.

Thanks for the compliments once I get some more money I'm making a nice investment in some crower 403's or maybe 4's havent totally decided yet.

 

check camshaft timing. same prob for me in my dohc zc.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by c for sea &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">check camshaft timing. same prob for me in my dohc zc.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Everything is lined up.

 

have you checked for any codes? check injector resistance? your getting spark....hrmmm

 

not getting any codes, and how do i check injector resistance?

 

Could be 180 degrees out on timing? My guess. Seems like you're running TOO rich, might want to lower the fuel pressure before you wash out the oil with fuel and **** your new bearings up.

 

I had a problem with a cavalier, it would not start and was spitting fuel out of the muffler. Turned out to be 2 bad injectors.

Are you sure you have the injectors wired up correctly ? I did not have time to really read the thread but you have an injector problem or wiring problem

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LSVTEC 91 Civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Could be 180 degrees out on timing? My guess. Seems like you're running TOO rich, might want to lower the fuel pressure before you wash out the oil with fuel and **** your new bearings up.</TD></TR></TABLE>
thats what i dont understand how i could be running so rich if the compression of the motor should lean it out cause right now im running it on the stock ecu but obviously it is running rich im kind of stumped. And I dont think it is 180 degress off, the timing belt is on perfect and the crank and the cams all line up in spec. As far as fuel pressure I dont have anything to control that right now everything for the fuel is stock.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 90blackcrx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> you have an injector problem or wiring problem</TD></TR></TABLE>
well the wiring shouldnt be a problem because it is all still obd-0 because it is a 91 motor on pr4 ecu. I already had to replace the injectors because the first set i had was leaky and these ones started up and worked fine for about six miles until my car began to smoke like crazy... but i will definitely check the injectors next time i can work on the car... between finals for school and work im slammed but keep a look out for the post and i will keep you guys updated.

 

Why was it smoking ?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 90blackcrx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Why was it smoking ?</TD></TR></TABLE>

We believe it was bad valve seals. It ran really strong for those first 6 miles. and it idled for quite a while in the driveway while we were trying to work out little kinks. He had the head re-done with new seals, guides, etc and we haven't seen a puff of smoke yet. (but then again we havent had it running for more than a couple seconds now...)

Before the headwork was done, if you took the exhaust manifold off, there was oil pooled up in every port.

Steven: next time we work on it, I'll bring my old obd0 injectors that I swapped out for the obd1's and we can check those to see if they work. If its a fuel injector stuck open, its gotta be at least two of them. I've had my old d15 run on 3 cylinders before and it would still run. It just sounded like a Harley.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by onePOINTsix &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">maybe a fuel injector stuck open? BTW nice no-TEC build </TD></TR></TABLE> if its spewing fuel like that from the cat then id have to go with onepointsix.cause this happened on my car . do a visual check up on your spark plugs . they should be burning and not wet looking. Im in the same boat as you Steemo, my car smoked alot after letting it sit for 5 min and it smelled like fuel because injector problem. watch your fuel guage , i wasted 1/4 my gas tank in 20 minutes.

Eric

 

thanks for all the help guys next day i have off...probably saturday ...I'm gonna go down and change the injectors and see what happens.

 

if your motor gets flooded really bad take out the plugs and let the gas evaporate, then put in a new set of plugs because yours are probably fouled by now. Glad i could be of some assistance