Ok first off, this is my buddies car, and in about a half an hour or so I'm going to head up to his place and check it out. 93 EX with about 175K miles.

Tranny took a dump last week. so we replaced it with a 95 DX tranny. The swap went great. However, right after that, he tried to start it, and i guess it just kinda clicked. Tried again and it fired up. Hmm... didn't have this problem before the tranny swap. Anyway, he went home, and i haven't talked to him in a few days. He said it would start like 1/5 of the time he tried. He picked up a used starter from someone and put it in and it worked i guess for a bit.

I'll find out more details later, but apparently now it won't start at all. Just cranks and cranks. I don't know why, but he bought a new distributor, plugs, wires, cap, fuel filter, the works! He said he did the spark plug test, so there is spark. Apparently there is fuel too because his B&M gauge on the filter reads pressure, and the spark plugs are kinda wet with fuel. He put on the distributor, not timing it or anything. I told him distributor bolts needed to be in the middle, and we need to check it with a timing gun.

But doesn't timing have to be really off to not start? He also claims he changed plug wires 1 at a time. If the car has spark, and has fuel, and has air, and still doesn't start, only other thing i can think of is piston rings are completely dead??? (Which i don't think so because engine doesn't burn oil).

Any ideas? I'll let you guys know what i find when i come back tonight.

Thanks

 

Update: I went to my buddies house to check it out.

I guess he was being really careful when he replaced the plug wires. He drew a diagram of the distributor and numbered them.

Is getting fuel, and spark is there. I tested compression to be around 150 on all 4 cylinders (except number 4, but i think it was about 150. My compression gauge needle broke!!)

While cranking at this point, the car didn't want to seem to start. Spark plugs are very wet with fuel, and yesterday they were trying stuff and cranking it a lot.

We charged up the battery. I consulted a manual and redid the firing order. It was messed up all this time. Now we try and start it and it cycles and sounds like it wants to start. You can hear it cycle through the exhaust. I think that was the problem. But it still won't start because I think it's flooded!

Amatuer Q, but what do we do when the engine is flooded? Just let it sit for a while? I've done lots of stuff, but never really knew what to do with a flooded engine.

 

with a flooded engine, unplug the dist so the ecm wont fire the injectors, pull the plugs and wires and crank the engine over several times to clean the cylinders as best you can, if its really flooded you may have to let it sit for an hour or so with the plugs out. install new plugs and fireit up.

 

You can also hold the gas pedal to the floor and try to start it.

 

We found the culprit!! We took off the distributor again, and one of the feet was broken! Look inside and the cam is somewhat broken!!! AArrgg.....