This continues my threads about my no-start situation:

Today, I tried to "force" my engine to start by placing a 1000W heater under the oil pan and using starting fluid. The heater was running for about 2 hours, and it got the block noticably warmer, but not by any means hot. I also used the plugs from my dad's Civic, right after he turned off the engine, so they were very hot too. After a few tries with no success, the engine started to kick over. I found that if a short blast of starting fluid is shot into the intake tube with an open throttle, the engine will kick on all cyliners. However: this is with the injectors disconnected. Once the injector clips are plugged in, it stops kicking over completely.

Why does the engine only start to come to life with starting fluid? Could I still have residual coolant in the rings from my blown head gasket? Could the ECU be administering way too much fuel for some reason?

However, this does prove that the engine has the potential to run. Since it kicks over, it must have spark. It also proves the cam timing is fine, which I've confirmed in the past. I know the compression is near perfect, and a leaking head gasket cannot be the issue. There's almost no coolant in the engine right now, so that variable can be eliminated. When I had a spark plug firing outside the cylinder, I checked the ignition timing, and it was good enough.

Also, at the very end of my attemps, I stopped getting spark. I tried to reset the ECU, but that didn't help.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

what motor in what car??

 

Distributer Ground wire, is it connected?

 

did you touch the map and tps plugs?

 

could be the stupidiest thing to forget but same thing happen to me when i did my swap and i forgot to plug up the plug on the driver side...the plug with the yellow black wires for the fuel injectors...i would check that first gl

 

it's a b7/z6 mini-me (b7 bottom, z6 head), and it's in an EG.

I know it's grounded, since I even tried making 4 additional grounding points, first to the head, then to the actual spark plugs.

I didn't touch the tps or map sensors; they're just as they were from the factory. Fuel injection system wasn't touched, either.

Thanks for the responses. I'm seriously stumped on this...

 

first, make sure the ground cable is hooked to the transmission, the one that comes from the body. hook another car to it with jumper cables, and hold the pedal to the floor and try cranking it awhile. i've gotten several started that way that sounded like they had lost compression.

 

what did you do leave the b7 IM in the car when you put the z6 head on?
so you didnt unplug the plugs??

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CBEengineering &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what did you do leave the b7 IM in the car when you put the z6 head on?
so you didnt unplug the plugs??</TD></TR></TABLE>

yes

 

ok
free bump for you

 

I just got the car running. It turned out that I had a weak ignition coil. This explains why the car wouldn't start, but also why I could only get a spark outside of the cylinders. The more I cranked the engine without it starting, the more the coil was worn out, and eventually, I couldn't get a spark at all. I simply replaced the coil, and the car started right up, no problems.

The only thing I have to keep an eye on is smoke coming out of the tailpipe. When I first started it, a good amount came out. However, it died down after a little while, and became more grey than white in color. Also, a small pool of liquid (I think coolant) formed right under the tailpipe. I know coolant was sitting in the exhaust system, because it poured out when I removed the header to change the head gasket. I'm hoping it's just burning all the crap off, and it'll be fine afterwards.

Thank you everybody for your help.