Did timing belt on a '97 Corolla DX...everything is timed perfectly. I have spark. I have fuel pressure. Everything should be on the mark. I've checked EVERYTHING.

I have a no-start situation. The gas in this car is OLD and rank as hell. Not much in there, so I diluted it with some fresh. Hell, the car ran before it was parked. I drained off most of the gas and put it in my Accord a month ago...and the Accord ran ok. Not great, but ok.

I don't have access to a 'scope to check the crank and cam position sensor waveforms, and I don't have a scanner to read any codes that might have come up since I've tried to crank it. I don't have a fucking noid light to check the damned injector pulse...

If I can find my fucking LED test light, I can check a whole assload of things without needing a 'scope, but I can't really do anything about checking waveforms and this shit is pissing me off. I very rarely am stumped. But now I am. Anybody got any input on this one?

I'm wondering if there is just that much nasty ass gas in the lines that won't burn. I pulled the rail return line and pulled a few ounces out and it burns. A bit stinky, but it's flammable.

9/12/2009 11:38:18 PM

I had this happen on an old Porsche once, took new plugs (cleaning the old ones didn't do the trick) +some starter fluid to get it going again. Old fuel can be nasty, though I'm not suggesting this is necessarily the cause of your problem.

9/13/2009 2:06:30 AM

flooded?

9/13/2009 2:10:13 AM

Nah...not flooded...though Ahmet has got a good idea. Had a friend once who pulled his injector rail and fanned a stream of starting fluid across the injector ports in an attempt to empty the shit gas out of his rail.

This stuff was definitely foul enough to create a starting issue. I didn't get one single hit. Out of starting fluid so I'll be hitting the store tomorrow for some.

9/13/2009 2:26:55 AM

the master is STUPID

everybody who has worked on the AF(E) engines (actually any of the Toyota FE) engines knows about timing the cams to each other and spring loading the intake cam (to prevent gear backlash noise). I dunno why it never dawned upon me that there are TWO sets of marks on the cam sprocket...and the engine would have run probably very decently in reverse rotation the way it was timed. There is two of everything, including pin slots to hold the cam gear in time. It could be like Nissan's E series inline fours, which have two sets of everything: one set for US-spec E15 and E16 engines and one set for Japanese spec E13 engines. Durka durka...

It dawned upon me when I got Steph to come crank the car while I checked everything very closely and noticed that we were getting air coming OUT of the intake manifold and air drawing into the exhaust pipe. Maybe I should have tried a shot of starting fluid in the exhaust pipe...

Anyway, retimed it and am now putting it back together. This has been an asstard automotive presentation brought to you by zxappeal, who feels it is now time to relinquish his title as Garage God.

9/13/2009 4:48:29 PM

You're fired.

Who wants to help build a Chevy 292?

9/13/2009 5:53:51 PM

I should be.

Car runs like a top. took me no time at all and now it's running perfectly.

9/13/2009 7:39:32 PM

sell that junk now

9/13/2009 7:54:25 PM

Ah, so you are a mere mortal.

We had an ignition system problem on a GM a while back. After spending literally a dozen hours checking each sensor and device, tracking down a scope to borrow, etc, it turned out that I had spliced some wires in backwards(junkyard part, colors were different).

9/13/2009 8:08:21 PM

Don't you love stupid errors?

9/14/2009 9:49:09 AM

wow i would have been wayyy off. i was going to ask if there was a cold start injector that was not working.

9/15/2009 8:36:39 PM

master baster?

10/15/2009 4:19:49 PM