alright,
the car's just been sitting since about december, i took the engine out then, cleaned it up and painted it, I never even bothered to take the head off or anything so i couldn't have messed up anything in there.
I can hear the fuel pump kicking in, i took the fuel line off the throttle body, and i have fuel there. I have spark. although, i did change the timing belt while the engine was out, although i'm pretty sure it didn't skip a notch or anything, and i havn't noticed the car mis/back firing

anybody know what else could have gone wrong?? the only thing i could think of is maybe bad gas, cause theres been about 3/4 of a tank since december in there.

thanks for all the help everyone

 

so its turning over but not igniting? if so check the igniting coil could be distribitor problems, first i would put some new gas in just to solve that what if

 

do i just pour good gas into it and mix it in with the half that already in there? or do I have to drain out all the gas and put some new stuff in?
if i have to drain it, how exactly do I do that?? I don't have access to a lift or anything right now, its in my backyard on the grass

 

Just drain the tank by undoing the bolt on the bottom of the tank. DON'T drain it on the grass, unless you want brown grass for the rest of your lawn's life!

 

no, i wasn't planning on draining it onto the grass, i got a 5 gallon jerry can that I'm gonna use, im thinking about using a funnel with a hose on it, then run the hose into the jerry can or something.

also, i just checked my ecu, and im not flashing any codes. my only guess for right now is the gas, its too dark outside now though so im gonna wait till tomorrow to drain it.

 

did you put the thermostat housing ground wire back on?

 

not sure, dont remember taking any wires off the thermostat. is it a direct ground to the chassis of the car? or is there a wire coming from the harness for it??

edit: is that the wire that goes from the - on the batt, to the ground spot by the bottom of the battery, then to a small bracket on top of the tranny?? if it is, then yes, i did connect that


[Modified by Hcivic88, 5:58 PM 9/26/2002]

 

Try using ether to start it if the new gas doesn't help. Also make sure your plugs aren't fouled after repeated attempts at starting the engine.

 

pull the cap off the distributor and check the igniter and coil sometimes it will spark but the spark doesnt have enough current to light so check those two things also

 

Sometimes it's something simple. Are you using a fresh fully charged battery? I have had this happen to me before. To eliminate the fuel being an issue, spray a little carb cleaner in the intake and try to start it then. If it starts then you know you have a fuel supply problem. If it doesn't then you know it's something else. Hope this helps.

 

no, it isnt a fresh fully charged battery. its just the stock battery, and it's pretty much dead but I had the battery charger on it at 12V start, so I'm assuming it was getting enough power. although tomorrow ill try charging it for a while, then put it on 12Vstart and try starting..

I drained out all my gas and took the gas line off, poured the new gas in and ran the pump to pump the new gas through the system. It sounds a whole lot better now, but still doesn't want to start. It'll crank just fine, and you'll hear it fire a couple times, but then it'll die. its not a backfire, its just igniting a couple times and dying. I didn't get a whole lot of time to try this cause it started raining and i had no hood on the car or anything so i had to cover it up, although it could just be that the fuel has to run through the system

sorry for such a long post, thought i'd try to explain it as well as i can though.

edit: I put a brand new cap and rotor on aswell, so unless they're defective parts, i couldn't see what could be wrong, unless its the dizzy itself




[Modified by Hcivic88, 4:40 PM 9/27/2002]

 

got the car running one of the injectors wern't getting power, i jiggled the inkector wire a bit, turned the key and it started right up, not too sure if i need a new injector plug, injector, or if the wire wasn't on properly.
anyways thanks for your help everyone

 

Here dude.. Before you rip apart your car and ****. I'll give you a Technical answer. From your information, the car has been sitting since december. That's almost a whole damn year. What the hell were you doing?.. Anyways back to the problem. With the car sitting, I assume that the battery was sitting in it. And if that's the case, go a buy yourself a new battery BUBBA.. Because you see, by letting your car sit for 10 or so months with the battery plugged in, the car drains the battery. I know what your gonna say, but it does drain the battery a little bit at a time.. And since your battery isn't fully charged anymore, it began to sulfate. Meaning that the electrolyte started to break down and you've got a bunch of crystals in your battery that won't produce electricity.

From a technical standpoint, this is the only answer. Because you see, even a brand new battery can sulfate if left neglected.

 

why was the car sitting?? i had been really busy, didn't have a whole lot of time to work on the engine while it was out, so instead of taking maybe a week at most as planned, it took from december to march/april. and since then ive been doing small jobs and just last week i finally got to the point where i could start it.
The battery should have been fully charged, cause i charged it up and checked it, it was at like 14V.
As i said above, it was my injector wire, it hasn't had any trouble lately starting, so I dont think theres anything wrong anymore.